The Memoirs of Colonel John S. Mosby, by John Singleton Mosby

Published: Boston; Little, Brown, and Company, 1917 

Note: Served in CSA Army, Virginia Cavalry, 43rd Battalion
Note: We moved the table of contents to the beginning of the book

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                              THE MEMOIRS OF
                          COLONEL JOHN S. MOSBY
                                EDITED BY
                          CHARLES WELLS RUSSELL 

                            WITH ILLUSTRATIONS

                                  BOSTON
                        LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY
                                   1917


                              Copyright, 1917,
                       BY LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY. 

                            All rights reserved
                        Published, September, 1917


                               Norwood Press
   Set up and electrotyped by J. S. Cushing Co., Norwood. Mass., U.S.A.




Page xix

CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION . . . . .vii 
CHAPTER I. EARLY LIFE. . . . . .1 
CHAPTER II. THE WAR BEGINS. . . . . .11 
CHAPTER III. A PRIVATE IN THE CAVALRY. . . . . .22 
CHAPTER IV. JOHNSTON'S RETREAT FROM HARPER'S FERRY. . . . . .33 
CHAPTER V. RECOLLECTIONS OF BATTLE OF MANASSAS. . . . . .47 
CHAPTER VI. THE STRATEGY OF THE BATTLE OF MANASSAS. . . . . .55 
CHAPTER VII. ABOUT FAIRFAX COURT HOUSE. . . . . .86 
CHAPTER VIII. CAMPAIGNING WITH STUART. . . . . .99 
CHAPTER IX. THE CAMPAIGN AGAINST POPE. . . . . .122 
CHAPTER X. FIRST EXPLOITS AS A PARTISAN. . . . . .146 
CHAPTER XI. THE RAID ON FAIRFAX. . . . . .168 
CHAPTER XII. STUART AND THE GETTYSBURG CAMPAIGN. . . . . .201 
CHAPTER XIII. THE YEAR AFTER GETTYSBURG. . . . . .258 
CHAPTER XIV. THE CAMPAIGN AGAINST SHERIDAN. . . . . .283 
CHAPTER XV. THE GREENBACK RAID. . . . . .312 
CHAPTER XVI. LAST DAYS IN THE VALLEY. . . . . .327 
CHAPTER XVII. FINAL SCENES. . . . . .353 
CHAPTER XVIII. IN RETROSPECT. . . . . .365 
CHAPTER XIX. MY RECOLLECTIONS OF GENERAL LEE. . . . . .374 
CHAPTER XX. MY RECOLLECTIONS OF GENERAL GRANT. . . . . .383 
INDEX. . . . . .401




Page v

ACKNOWLEDGMENT
   ACKNOWLEDGMENT is made to the publishers of Munsey's Magazine, Leslie's 
Weekly, and the New York Herald for permission to use material which has 
previously appeared in their pages.

Page vii

INTRODUCTION
   THE chronicles of history record that in most wars some figure, through 
intrepidity, originality, and brilliancy of action, has raised himself 
above his fellows and achieved a picturesqueness which is commonly 
associated only with characters of fiction. In the American Civil War, or 
the War Between the States, three dashing cavalry leaders - Stuart, 
Forrest, and Mosby - so captured the public imagination that their 
exploits took on a glamour, which we associate - as did the writers of the 
time - with the deeds of the Waverley characters and the heroes of 
Chivalry. Of the three leaders Colonel John S. Mosby (1833-1916) was, 
perhaps, the most romantic figure. In the South his dashing exploits made 
him one of the great heroes of the "Lost Cause." In the North he was 
painted as the blackest of redoubtable scoundrels, a fact only to be 
explained as due to the exasperation caused by a successful enemy against 
whom all measures were worthless and 

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ineffective. So great became the fame of Mosby's partisan exploits that 
soldiers of fortune came even from Europe to share his adventures.

   Colonel Mosby was a "Virginian of the Virginians", educated at the 
State's University, and seemed destined to pass his life as an obscure 
Virginia attorney, when war brought him his opportunity for fame. The 
following pages contain the story of his life as private in the cavalry, 
as a scout, and as a leader of partisans.

   But Mosby was the type of man who is not content with the routine 
performance of duties, and this was illustrated early in his career as a 
soldier. He was ever on the watch to aid the cause in which he was 
engaged. Stuart's famous ride around McClellan and Lee's attack on Pope, 
before he could be reinforced, were deeds for which Mosby fairly earned 
some share of credit. These enterprises, together with his prevention of 
Sheridan's use of the Manassas Gap Railroad, had a distinct bearing upon 
the successful maintenance of the Southern Confederacy for four long 
years. But his great work was his distinctive warfare near Washington 
against the troops guarding the Potomac. Behind the Northern forces aiming 
at Richmond, for two years of almost incredible activity - Mosby himself 
said, "I rarely rested more than a 

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day at a time" - he maintained his warfare, neutralizing at times some 
fifty thousand troops by compelling them to guard the rear of the enemy 
and his capital. The four counties of Virginia nearest Washington became 
known as "Mosby's Confederacy." Here his blows were almost incessant, 
followed always by the dispersing of his band or bands among the 
farmhouses of the sympathetic inhabitants. Seldom or never was an attack 
made with more than two hundred and fifty men. Usually from thirty to 
sixty would be collected at a rendezvous, such as Rectortown, Aldie, or 
Upperville, and after discharging, as it were, a lightning flash, be 
swallowed up in impenetrable darkness, leaving behind only a threat of 
some future raid, to fall no one could foresee where. The execution of 
this bold plan was successful - long successful; its damage to the enemy 
enormous, and it exhibited a military genius of the highest order. By 
reason of his originality and intellectual boldness, as well as his 
intrepidity and success of execution, Mosby is clearly entitled to occupy 
a preëminence among the partisan leaders of history.

   And this is to be said for him, that he created and kept up to the end 
of the great war "Mosby's Confederacy", while preserving the full 
confidence and regard of the knightly Lee.

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   Confederate General Marcus Wright, who assisted in editing the records 
of the war, wrote to Colonel Mosby as follows: 

Dear Colonel Mosby: It may and I know will be interesting to you that I 
have carefully read all of General R. E. Lee's dispatches, correspondence, 
etc., during the war of 1861-1865; and while he was not in the habit of 
paying compliments, yet these papers of his will show that you received 
from him more compliments and commendations than any other officer in the 
Confederate army.

   But an even more effective testimonial of Mosby's success comes from 
the records of his enemy. For a time the Northern belief was that "Mosby" 
was a myth, the "Wandering Jew" of the struggle. Later, he was termed the 
"Modern Rob Roy." Such epithets as "land pirate", "horse thief", 
"murderer", and "guerrilla" bear witness of the feeling of exasperation 
against the man. "Guerrilla", however, was the favorite epithet, and Mosby 
did not resent its use, for he believed that his success had made the term 
an honorable one.

   The effectiveness of Mosby's work is illustrated by the following 
comment of the Comte de Paris in his "History of the Civil War in America":

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   In Washington itself, General Heintzelman was in command, who, besides 
the depots . . . had under his control several thousand infantry ready to 
take the field, and Stahel's division of cavalry numbering 6,000 horses, 
whose only task was to pursue Mosby and the few hundred partisans led by 
this daring chief.

   General Joseph E. Hooker, in his testimony on the conduct of the war, 
said:

   I may here state that while at Fairfax Court House my cavalry was 
reinforced by that of Major-General Stahel. The latter numbered 6,100 
sabres. . . . The force opposed to them was Mosby's guerrillas, numbering 
about 200, and, if the reports of the newspapers were to be believed, this 
whole party was killed two or three times during the winter. From the time 
I took command of the army of the Potomac, there was no evidence that any 
force of the enemy, other than the above-named, was within 100 miles of 
Washington City; and yet the planks on the chain bridge were taken up at 
night the greater part of the winter and spring. It was this cavalry 
force, it will be remembered, I had occasion to ask for, that my cavalry 
might be strengthened when it was numerically too weak to cope with the 
superior numbers of the enemy.

   How redoubtable Mosby was considered by the Northern authorities may be 
seen from the following:

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War Department, 
Washington, April 16, 1865. 

Major-General Hancock, 
Winchester, Va. 

   In holding an interview with Mosby, it may be needless to caution an 
old soldier like you to guard against surprise or danger to yourself; but 
the recent murders show such astounding wickedness that too much 
precaution cannot be taken. If Mosby is sincere, he might do much toward 
detecting and apprehending the murderers of the President.

Edwin M. Stanton, 
Secretary of War. 

   Secretary Stanton had previously telegraphed to Hancock, "There is 
evidence that Mosby knew of Booth's plan" - concerning the assassination 
of Lincoln - "and was here in the city with him."

   No one knew better than Hancock that Mosby, at the time of the 
assassination, was in Virginia. The notion that he had anything to do with 
this crime was a part of the reputation he had acquired in the North and 
which he was doubtless quite willing to acquire in order to give worse 
dreams to those of the enemy who were in the neighborhood of his 
operations. This reputation was fostered by soldiers, who, during the war 
and long afterwards, entertained their firesides with tales of hairbreadth 
escapes from the dreadful 

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guerrillas. But some of Mosby's best friends in his later life were men 
who had been his prisoners.

   So far did the hostility and feeling against Mosby carry that as late 
as May 4, 1865, almost a month after Lee's surrender, General Grant 
telegraphed to General Halleck, "I would advise offering a reward of $5,
000 for Mosby." This was done, but nobody captured him.

   The turning point in his career after the war was his endorsement of 
and voting for Grant in 1872. The Civil War was then but seven years past, 
and the Southern people were not prepared to follow his lead. They turned 
against him bitterly - against one of their chief heroes, whom they had 
delighted to honor - who had struggled so manfully and for so long against 
the storm raging against them. Young and of little experience in politics 
he may have thought it inconceivable that they would treat his voting for 
the magnanimous soldier as the unforgivable sin. His motive was rather 
gratitude than political, - rather a response to Grant's behavior toward 
the Southern army, General Lee, and himself, than any design to change the 
attitude of the South toward the Federal Government. Certainly the 
Colonel, in spite of abuse and recrimination heaped upon him, never 
repented of this act.

Page xiv

   During his last illness Colonel Mosby did say, no doubt to hear himself 
contradicted, "I pitched my politics in too high a key when I voted for 
Grant. I ought to have accepted office under him. My family would now be 
comfortably supplied with money." But this was far from being his serious 
opinion, as his own statements show.

   Intellectually the Colonel showed as great a constitutional impatience 
of restraint and as great individuality as he exhibited in his operations 
during the war. Perhaps his lifelong fondness for Byron's poetry resulted 
from a feeling that there was a resemblance between the experiences of 
Byron, as represented in his poems, and his own - the "war of the many 
with one." But the resemblance was a superficial one. Mosby's impatience 
of restraint was a so strongly marked characteristic that he always seemed 
unwilling to follow a plan of his own, after having disclosed it to 
another. Probably the reason the "Yankees" trying to trap him could never 
find out where he was going to be next was because he never knew himself.

   The following from an interview with him, which appeared in the 
Philadelphia Post in 1867 or 1868, illustrates his tendency to think 
independently:

Page xv

   "Whom do you consider the ablest General on the Federal side?"

   "McClellan, by all odds. I think he is the only man on the Federal side 
who could have organized the army as it was. Grant had, of course, more 
successes in the field in the latter part of the war, but Grant only came 
in to reap the benefits of McClellan's previous efforts. At the same time, 
I do not wish to disparage General Grant, for he has many abilities, but 
if Grant had commanded during the first years of the war, we would have 
gained our independence. Grant's policy of attacking would have been a 
blessing to us, for we lost more by inaction than we would have lost in 
battle. After the first Manassas the army took a sort of 'dry rot', and we 
lost more men by camp diseases than we would have by fighting."

   "What is your individual opinion of Jeff Davis?"

   "I think history will record him as one of the greatest men of the 
time. Every lost cause, you know, must have a scapegoat, and Mr. Davis has 
been chosen as such; he must take all the blame without any of the credit. 
I do not know any man in the Confederate States that could have conducted 
the war with the same success that he did."

   "Are there any bitter feelings cherished?"

   "No, not now, except those engendered since the war by the manner in 
which we have been treated. . . . The whole administration of affairs in 
Virginia is in the hands of a lot of bounty jumpers and jailbirds, and 
their only qualification is that they can take the 

Page xvi

iron-clad oath!" "But," he added, "they generally take anything else they 
can lay their hands on."

   General Grant and Colonel Mosby came to be far more than political 
friends. In fact it was through General Grant that Mosby secured his 
position with the Southern Pacific Railroad which he held from 1885 to 
1901. The two men were well suited to each other. Grant was a silent man - 
a good listener. Mosby, abrupt and even rude toward those who wished to 
speak to him irrelevantly, dearly loved to talk to an intelligent person. 
The silent and slow commander of "all the armies", guided by luminous 
common sense, and the nervous, impetuous raider - a raider by temperament, 
a raider in every way - in practice of law, taking part in politics, 
writing "Memoirs", had much in common that was fundamental. They were but 
children in taking care of their business affairs; they were shy, and full 
of feeling, sentiment, and romance.

   The Colonel was an assistant attorney in the Department of Justice at 
Washington from 1904 to 1910 and continued to reside in the Capital until 
his death, May 30, 1916. He was not often inclined to talk about his own 
exploits in the Civil War, though going at some length into explanations 

Page xvii

of the movements of the great armies and engaging in various controversies 
about them, as well as about other matters of public interest, past and 
present. Colonel Mosby realized that the account of the military 
operations at the Battle of Manassas included in the present volume is 
markedly at variance with the usual version. His efforts to unravel the 
story of Stuart's cavalry in the Gettysburg campaign extended over many 
years and resulted in a book(1) and numerous articles. The account which 
he prepared for these "Memoirs" he considered the best answer to Stuart's 
critics, and spoke of it as "the final word."

   The Colonel was little interested in anything which did not concern man 
in his social relations except, perhaps, logic and polemics. What could 
not be affirmed positively with a geometric Q. E. D. appealed to him only 
as it concerned war, politics, sentiment, or the like. New inventions left 
him cold, if not a little resentful, at their disturbing or rendering out 
of date the historical setting of the Civil War. But in political and 
social matters he was an advanced thinker, although this was rather a 
liberal attitude of mind - in which he took pride - than any interest in 
the 

(1. Now used as a textbook in the War College.)

Page xviii

views themselves. His horizon in general was limited by American history 
and politics. He was full of the anecdotal history of Virginia and 
conspicuous Virginians of past generations, as well as information about 
family relationships - information such as is printed in books in New 
England, but in Virginia has been commonly left to oral tradition.

   But the events described in these "Memoirs" were his greatest interest 
and the days when he was a commander of partisans were the golden days of 
his over fourscore years. As he said at the reunion of his battalion in 
1895:

   "Life cannot afford a more bitter cup than the one I drained at Salem, 
nor any higher reward of ambition than that I received as Commander of the 
Forty-third Virginia Battalion of Cavalry."

CHARLES W. RUSSELL.


[table of contents - moved to beginning of book]

Page xxi

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Colonel Mosby at the Age of Fifty-five Years . . . . . Frontispiece 
Colonel Mosby's Father and Brother . . . . . 8 
Virginia Jackson (McLaurine) Mosby, Colonel Mosby's Mother . . . . . 16 
Aaron Burton (Colored), Aged 84 Years . . . . . 30 
Captain Mosby in January, 1863 . . . . . 150 
Mosby Returning from a Raid . . . . . 154 
Major Mosby in 1863. From the Painting by Guillaume . . . . . 200 
William H. Chapman, Lieutenant-Colonel and Next in Rank to Colonel Mosby 
when the War Closed . . . . . 270 
Lieutenant Fountain Beatty, Lieutenant Frank H. Rahm, and Scout John 
Russell . . . . . 290 
Dr. J. Wiltshire and Major A. E. Richards . . . . . 312 
Charles E. Grogan, Colonel Mosby, and Dr. W. L. Dunn . . . . . 318 
Major A. E. Richards . . . . . 334 
Colonel John S. Mosby. Photographed in Richmond in March, 1865 . . . . 356 
William H. Mosby, Colonel Mosby's Adjutant and Only Brother . . . . . 360 
Mosby in 1866 . . . . . 362 
Colonel Mosby at Fourscore Years of Age (1915) . . . . . 398