|
|
|
ML_mosby_bkp.htm
Col. John Singleton Mosby
Seemingly Cornered After Fredericksburg Loss, 'Gray Ghost' Materialized In Enemy Camp -- As The Victor
By Bethanne Kelly Patrick
Military.com Columnist
There was a reason they called Confederate cavalryman John Singleton Mosby "The Gray Ghost." The flamboyant Mosby was known for his daring guerilla raids and dramatic results. His finest hour came in the dark morning hours of March 9, 1863.
Still reeling from a bloody defeat at Fredericksburg, Va., shortly before Christmas, Union Brig. Gen. E.H. Stoughton and his garrison settled down to bed at Fairfax County courthouse. Stoughton's orders were to hunt down then-Capt. Mosby's irregular Virginia cavalrymen. But he would soon find himself the prey.
In the wee hours, Mosby and 29 of his cavalrymen sneaked behind enemy lines and into Stoughton's makeshift bedroom in the courthouse. Mosby strode to Stoughton's bedside, pulled down the blanket, and slapped the startled general's bottom. Thus began Stoughton's new career as a Confederate prisoner of war.
That night, Mosby rode back across friendly lines holding two Union captains, 30 enlisted men, 58 horses, numerous weapons -- and Stoughton.
Born in 1833, Mosby shot a fellow University of Virginia student after a provoked incident. He read law while awaiting trial in jail. Exonerated and released, he set up a law practice in Bristol County, Va., before enlisting as a cavalry private when the Civil War began in 1861. He fought at the First Battle of Bull Run in July 1861, was commissioned in 1862, and began to raise his "partisan rangers" in January 1863. A major distraction to Gen. Ulysses S. Grant during the Wilderness Campaign of 1864, Mosby disbanded his rangers rather than surrender after the war ended in April 1865.
Following the war, Mosby's support of the Union's reconstruction policies made him notorious across the South. Mosby even stumped for Grant, his old adversary, during the victorious general's campaign for president. Mosby served as American consul in Hong Kong from 1878 to 1885, then practiced law in California before returning to Virginia, where he died in 1916. |
|
|
|
|
