Memoirs of Colonel Mosby - Chapters XVI-XX



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CHAPTER XVI 
LAST DAYS IN THE VALLEY
   AFTER returning from the so-called "Greenback Raid", two of my 
companies, under Richards and Mountjoy, made a demonstration on Washington 
to keep reinforcements from Sheridan.


[Taylor, A. A. G., to De Russy]
Washington, October 17th, 1864. 

   I have telegraphed General Slough to send at once 500 infantry to 
Annandale. A small infantry force at either place, Annandale or Buffalo, 
will be sufficient to drive off Mosby, who cannot have 100 men.


[Taylor to Slough]
October 17th, 1864, - 5 P.M. 

   Notify Lazelle at Fall's Church that he may not be surprised. Your 
infantry certainly is strong enough to hold any force of Mosby's in check.


[Slough to Taylor]
October 17th, 1864. 8 P.M. 

   Mosby has driven in Lazelle's pickets. Send Wells' cavalry, if any is 
in Alexandria, to Lazelle and let the Fifth Wisconsin move rapidly to 
Annandale.

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[Winship to Taylor]
Alexandria, October 17th, 1864, 

   It is reported that Mosby with about 300 men is in the vicinity of 
Burke's station this afternoon.


[Augur to Taylor]
Rectortown, October 18th, 1864. 

   I have sent the Eighth Illinois down through Centreville to find 
Mosby's force.

   The panic in Washington was very great, as is shown by many similar 
dispatches in the war records. When the Eighth Illinois got to Fairfax, 
they found that we had gone back towards the Blue Ridge. They did what I 
was manoeuvring to make them do - spend their time and waste their 
strength in pursuit of a Jack-o'-lantern.

   About this time I heard that a force was moving to repair the Manassas 
Railroad to make a new base for Sheridan, and I determined to move against 
it and, if possible, defeat it. My success in accomplishing this was of 
greater military value than anything I did in the war, for it saved 
Richmond for several months. I sent Tom Ogg, one of my scouts, to 
reconnoitre and report to me at Haymarket, a little village on the road, 
which the enemy had not occupied. When we got near Haymarket about eleven 
o'clock that night, we 

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a large number of camp fires. The Yankees were ahead of us!

   After Tom got the information he was sent for, he came to meet me 
according to our appointment. He saw the camp fires and naturally thought 
they were mine. When he got near them, a picket halted him and called out, 
"Who comes there?" Ogg had no suspicion that the demand came from an 
enemy, so he replied, "Ogg, Tom Ogg. Don't you know Ogg?"

   The picket had never heard of Ogg. He did not know whether he was 
friend or foe, so, according to military rule, he ordered Tom to dismount 
and advance. Tom protested and again told the picket that he was Tom Ogg, 
that he had been sent by "the Colonel" on a scout, and asked the picket to 
what company he belonged.

   The picket replied, "Company E", and swore he had never heard of Ogg. 
Tom then said, indignantly, "I thought you were one of that d - d green 
Company E." [E was a new company I had just organized.]

   At last Ogg was compelled to dismount and advance on foot leading his 
horse. It was pitch dark, and Tom did not discover, until he got right up 
against the sentinel, that the latter had a musket and a bayonet was 
pointed at his breast. 

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But Tom never lost his presence of mind. So he said, "I am lame, and you 
must let me ride to see the Colonel."

   The poor picket did not suspect Tom's stratagem and consented. He 
really thought that he was only doing his duty and was talking to a 
brother in arms. Tom mounted and, as soon as he was in the saddle, drove 
his spurs into his horse, and darted off in the darkness, shouting to his 
men, "Break, boys!"

   A volley was fired on his track, but it never overtook Ogg. It was a 
coincidence that this occurred just after we approached the camp from the 
opposite direction. When I heard the firing, I laughed and told the men 
that I would bet it was Tom Ogg and that he had ridden into the Yankees by 
mistake. But all is well that ends well. Tom lived many years after the 
war, and we often laughed about his surprise that the Yankees had never 
heard of "Ogg, Tom Ogg!"


Near Upperville, 
Oct. 22, '64. 

My dearest Pauline: 
   I have just returned from a successful trip to the valley, - captured a 
brigadier general (Duffie), capturing ambulance horses, etc. Sent them 
out, then returning by another route, captured seven wagons, 

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fifty-five prisoners, and forty-one horses. As soon as the Yankees leave 
the Manassas road I will send for you all.


[Fragment of a letter to Mrs. Mosby, probably November, 1864]

   We killed and captured about 600 from the time of their occupying to 
their abandonment of the railroad (Manassas road). Since my return to my 
command, I have been in the saddle the whole time.


[From a Confederate newspaper, 1864]
   The following is a clear admission of the injuries Mosby has been 
inflicting on the enemy of late. When they begin war on unoffending 
persons in this way it is evidence of the desperation to which they are 
driven.
   "Working parties are now engaged in felling timber on each side of the 
Manassas Gap Railroad, to prevent its use by guerrillas as a place of 
concealment. Orders have been issued that if another attack should be made 
on a Government train, similar to the last one, in which so many lives 
were lost, every house of a rebel within five miles of the road, on either 
side, shall be immediately destroyed, meanwhile every train bears a party 
of rebel sympathizers, selected from the abundant number in Alexandria, to 
receive such bullets as their friends the guerrillas may choose to fire at 
them. Three physicians and one clergyman were among the first party thus 
sent."

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   [Another Confederate paper quoted "the Yankee newspaper" published at 
Alexandria as follows:]

   General Slough, acting under special orders from the War Department, 
yesterday arrested a number of well-known rebel sympathizers in this city, 
for the purpose of sending them out on trains of the Orange and Alexandria 
and Manassas Gap Railroad, in order to secure their property against 
guerrilla attacks. . . . When once the guerrillas hear that the trains are 
run for the special accommodation of their friends, they will not disturb 
the road. . . . P.S. Since the above was in type, we learn that all those 
arrested in this city yesterday were sent out on the railroad train to-
day.(1)

   By December, 1864, the war had practically ceased between the 
contending armies in the Shenandoah Valley. The greater portion of Early's 
forces had been transferred to the lines about Petersburg, while Sheridan 
had taken up his winter quarters at Winchester. My own command, which had 
been operating against his communications, never went into winter 
quarters, but kept up a desultory warfare on outposts, supply trains, and 
detachments. And, although 

(1. Word was sent to Mosby that a number of women and children would be 
sent on certain trains. His answer was that he did not understand that it 
hurts women and children to be killed any more than it hurts men.)

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the Southern army had disappeared from his front, these few hundred 
rangers kept Sheridan's soldiers as busily employed to guard against 
surprises as when that army confronted them. Unable to exterminate the 
hostile bands by arms, Sheridan had applied the torch and attempted to 
drive us from the district in which we operated by destroying everything 
that could support man or horse. But so far from quelling, his efforts 
only stimulated the fury of my men. In snow, sleet, and howling storms, 
through the long watches of the winter nights, his men had to wait for a 
sleepless enemy to capture or kill them.


[Telegram - Sheridan to Halleck]
Kernstown, Va.; Nov. 26, 1864. 

   I will soon commence work on Mosby. Heretofore I have made no attempt 
to break him up, as I would have employed ten men to his one, and for the 
reason that I have made a scapegoat of him for the destruction of private 
rights. Now there is going to be an intense hatred of him in that portion 
of the valley which is nearly a desert. I will soon commence on Loudoun 
County, and let them know there is a God in Israel. Mosby has annoyed me 
considerably; but the people are beginning to see that he does not injure 
me a great deal, but causes a loss to them of all that they have spent 
their lives in accumulating. Those people who 

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live in the vicinity of Harper's Ferry are the most villainous in this 
valley, and have not yet been hurt much. If the railroad is interfered 
with, I will make some of them poor. Those who live at home in peace and 
plenty want the duello part of this war to go on; but when they have to 
bear the burden by loss of property and comforts, they will cry for peace.

   As I wanted to have a conference with General Robert E. Lee about my 
plans for future operations, I turned my command over to the next in rank, 
William Chapman, and, taking one of my men, Boyd Smith, went on a visit to 
the army headquarters near Petersburg. When I got off the train there, I 
recognized in the crowd the face of Doctor Monteiro, an old college mate 
whom I had not seen for thirteen years. I had changed so much that he did 
not recognize me until I told him my name. He was then a surgeon with 
Wise's brigade, and I told him he was the very man I wanted, for the 
surgeon I had, Doctor Will Dunn, was too fond of fighting. I wanted a 
surgeon that took more pride in curing than killing. I had Monteiro 
transferred to my command before I returned.

   After spending a few hours with General Lee and getting his 
recommendation for the promotion of two of my officers, Chapman and 
Richards, 

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I returned to Richmond, and in a few days was back with my men. On the day 
after my return, December 21, I had gone to the house of Joe Blackwell, a 
farmer in upper Fauquier, to attend the wedding of my ordnance sergeant, 
Jake Lavender. A report came that a body of the enemy's cavalry was 
advancing on the road to Salem, a few miles away. Not caring to interrupt 
the wedding festivities, with one man - Tom Love - I rode off to 
reconnoitre. We were riding across the field of the Glen Welby farm, as it 
was safer than going by the main road, where there was danger of running 
against the enemy's column, when we saw two cavalrymen approaching. Soon a 
number of others appeared and began firing at us. I knew then that these 
were the flankers of the main body of the enemy out of sight over the 
hill. So Love and I galloped away a few hundred yards and then halted on 
an eminence. They did not pursue, and we soon saw the whole column in blue 
moving on the road to Rectortown. After reaching there, they kindled fires 
and seemed to be preparing to bivouac for the night.

   It was about dusk; a cold, drizzling rain was falling and freezing, the 
road was covered with sleet, and icicles hung in clusters from the trees. 

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After reconnoitring the encampment and satisfying myself that they had 
prepared to spend the night there, I dispatched a man to inform Chapman 
and Richards that I wanted them to attack the Northern camp about daybreak 
the next morning, and to get their men ready. Love and I then started off 
in another direction for the purpose of notifying some of the other 
officers and collecting the men. (When we stayed inside the enemy's lines 
we were obliged to disperse for safety.) As we were passing the house of a 
citizen, Ludwell Lake, who was famous for always setting a good table, the 
lights shining through the windows tempted me, as I was cold and hungry, 
to stop where I knew we would be welcome. So, when we got to the front 
gate, I proposed to dismount and to go in to get warm and something to 
eat. Love said he would stay out at the gate and keep watch while I was 
eating my supper.

   "No, Tom," I said; "it wouldn't do me any good if you were out here in 
the cold. There is no danger; get down."

   We tied our horses and went in. The family was at supper, and we were 
soon seated at the table enjoying some good coffee, hot rolls, and 
spareribs. Among those there was a Mrs. Skinner, 

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whose husband was then a prisoner at Point Lookout. She had managed to get 
a pass through the lines to visit him and had seen a number of my men who 
were also prisoners there. We were enjoying our supper and her account of 
the trip and the various devices to which the prisoners resorted for 
amusement, when suddenly we heard the tramp of horses around the house. 
One door of the dining room opened toward the back yard, and on opening 
it, I discovered several cavalrymen. Hastily shutting the door, I turned 
to the other one, but just then a number of Northern officers and soldiers 
walked into the room.

   I was better dressed that evening than I ever was during the war. Just 
before starting to Richmond I got through the blockade across the Potomac 
a complete suit from head to foot. I had a drab hat with an ostrich plume, 
with gold cord and star; a heavy, black beaver-cloth overcoat and cape 
lined with English scarlet cloth, and, as it was a stormy evening, over 
this I wore a gray cloak, also lined with scarlet. My hat, overcoat, and 
cape were lying in the corner. I wore a gray sack coat with two stars on 
the collar to indicate my rank as lieutenant-colonel, gray trousers with a 
yellow cord down the seam, and 

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long cavalry boots. As the Northerners entered the room, I placed my hands 
on my coat collar to conceal my stars, and a few words passed between us. 
The situation seemed desperate, but I had made up my mind to take all the 
chances for getting away. I knew that if they discovered my rank, to say 
nothing of my name, they would guard me more carefully than if I were 
simply a private or a lieutenant.

   But a few seconds elapsed before firing began in the back yard. One of 
the bullets passed through the window, making a round hole in the glass 
and striking me in the stomach. Old man Lake, who weighed about three 
hundred pounds and was as broad as he was long, and his daughter, Mrs. 
Skinner, were standing between me and the window. It was a miracle how the 
shot could have missed them and hit me - but it did. I have always thought 
that Yankee had a circular gun. My self-possession in concealing the stars 
on my collar saved me from being carried off a prisoner, dead or alive. 
The officers had not detected the stratagem, when I exclaimed, "I am 
shot!" The fact was that the bullet created only a stinging sensation, and 
I was not in the least shocked. My exclamation was not because I felt 
hurt, but to get up a panic in order 

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that I might escape. It had the desired effect. Old man Lake and his 
daughter waltzed around the room, the cavalrymen on the outside kept up 
their fire, and this created a stampede of the officers in the room with 
me. In the confusion to get out of the way there was a sort of hurdle 
race, in which the supper table was knocked over, and the tallow lights 
put out. In a few seconds I was left in the room with no one but Love, 
Lake, and his daughter.

   I saw that this was my opportunity. There were nine hundred and ninety-
nine chances out of a thousand against me. I took the single chance and 
won. There were at least three hundred cavalry surrounding the house, and, 
if I had not been wounded, I should have tried to get off in the dark. But 
by this time the terrible wound was having its effect; I was bleeding 
profusely and getting faint. There was a door which opened from the dining 
room into an adjoining bedroom, and I determined to play the part of a 
dying man. I walked into the room, pulled off my coat, on which were the 
insignia of my rank, tucked it away under the bureau so that no one could 
see it, and then lay down with my head towards the bureau. After several 
minutes the panic subsided, and the Northerners 

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returned to the scene from which the shots of their own men had frightened 
them. They found my old friend Lake dancing a hornpipe. He missed a button 
from his waistcoat and swore that the bullet which had killed me had 
carried it off. Having heard me fall on the floor, he thought I was dead - 
the truth was he was almost as near dead as I was. The daughter was 
screaming, the room in which I lay was dark, and it was some minutes 
before the soldiers collected their senses sufficiently to strike a light.

   During all this time I lay on the floor with the blood gushing from my 
wound. In those few minutes it seemed to me that I lived my whole life 
over again; my mind traveled away from the scenes of death and carnage, in 
which I had been an actor for four years, to the peaceful home and the 
wife and children I had left behind.

   I overheard the soldiers ask Mrs. Skinner who I was - I was well 
acquainted with her, and her brother was in my command - and I listened 
with fear and trembling for her answer. She declared that I was a 
stranger - that she had never seen me before - that I was not one of 
Mosby's men, and she did not know my name. I am sure that in the eternal 
records there is 

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nothing registered against that good woman who denied my name and saved my 
life.

   At last, after a candle had been lighted, my enemies came into the 
room, and the first thing they asked me was my name. I gave a fictitious 
one. They wanted to know to what command I belonged. I did not tell them 
the right one. My reason for doing so was that I wanted to conceal my 
identity. As I knew the feeling at the North against me and the great 
anxiety to either kill or capture me, I was sure I would be dragged away 
as a trophy, if they knew who their prisoner was. I had on a flannel shirt 
which was now soaked with my blood. The soldiers opened my clothes and 
looked at my wound, while I apparently gasped for breath. A doctor 
examined the wound and said that it was mortal - that I was shot through 
the heart. He located the heart rather low down, and even in that supreme 
moment I felt tempted to laugh at his ignorance of human anatomy. I only 
gasped a few words and affected to be dying. They left the room hurriedly, 
after stripping me of my boots and trousers, evidently supposing that a 
dead man would have no use for them. The only sensible man among them was 
an Irishman, who said, as he took a last look at me, "He is worth several 
dead men yet."

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   There was a good deal of whiskey in the crowd but they had sense enough 
left to take away my clothes. Fortunately they never saw my coat.

   I listened to hear them getting away - they passed out and left my fat 
friend and his daughter under the impression that I was ready for the 
grave. I lay perfectly still for some five or ten minutes - it seemed to 
me that many hours - but at last, as I felt assured that the enemy had 
gone, I rose from the pool of blood in which I was lying and walked into 
the room where Lake and his daughter were sitting by the fire. They were 
as much astonished to see me as if I had risen from the tomb; they had 
thought me dead and were now sure the general resurrection had come. There 
was a big log fire blazing, and the room was warm. We examined the wound, 
but we could not tell whether the bullet had passed straight into the 
body, or, after penetrating, had passed around it. Shortly I became sick 
and faint. My own belief was that the wound was mortal; that the bullet 
was in me; that the intestines had been cut. Mrs. Skinner gave me some 
coffee, but I was too sick to drink it. My fear was that I had some 
documents in my pockets which would disclose my name. Although 

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Providence had not protected me from the bullet, it had saved me from 
getting caught. That day I had been at Glen Welby, the home of the 
Carters, and for some unaccountable reason, just as I was leaving to go to 
the wedding, I took from my pocket several official documents and gave 
them to one of the young ladies to keep for me. If I had not done this, I 
would never have lived to write an account of this adventure, for if I had 
been taken off as a prisoner that night, I could not have survived it.

   The force of cavalry that I had seen go into camp at Rectortown was the 
Thirteenth and Sixteenth New York, under command of Major Frazar. They had 
only built fires to warm themselves, and, after staying there a short 
time, they started on to Middleburg to join Colonel Clendenin, with the 
Eighth Illinois Cavalry, from which they had separated a few hours before. 
That night they encamped at Middleburg. Several of my men, including Love, 
were prisoners, and they were shown my hat and overcoat and asked if they 
knew the person who had worn them. All denied any knowledge of him. The 
next day the Unionists returned to camp, little dreaming who it was that 
had been a prisoner in their hands. My own belief is that I was 

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indebted to whiskey for my escape, and I have always thought since then 
that there is a deal of good in whiskey.

   As soon as Lake recovered from the shock at seeing me alive, he went 
out and got a couple of negro boys to yoke up a pair of young, half-broken 
oxen to haul me away to a place of safety, for we feared that the enemy 
would find out who I was and return. After a while the ox-cart was 
announced, and I was rolled up in quilts and blankets and put into it. It 
was an awful night - a howling storm of snow, rain, and sleet. I was lying 
on my back in the cart - we had to go two miles to the house of a 
neighbor, over a frozen road cut into deep ruts. When we reached there, I 
was almost perfectly stiff with cold, and my hair was a clotted mass of 
ice. The family had not gone to bed, and one of my men, George Slater, was 
at the house. A courier was sent to the wedding party to carry the news to 
my brother and my other men, and before daybreak a great many of the men 
and two surgeons were with me. Slater had been present when Stuart had 
been shot a few months before. After I had been laid by the fire, I called 
him to me and said,

   "George, look at my wound, I think I am shot just like General Stuart 
was."

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   Slater pulled up my shirt - I was bleeding profusely - and told me that 
he thought the bullet had run around my body. This turned out to be the 
case, for it had lodged in my right side. Early in the morning chloroform 
was administered, and the ball extracted.

   Another of the good effects of the whiskey on my captors was that they 
went off leaving my horse standing at the front gate, with the pistols in 
the holsters. If I had had them with me in the house, I am very confident 
I could have cleared the way through the back yard and escaped in the 
dark. Neither Love nor I had a chance to fire a shot, and there is no 
truth in the reports that shots were fired from the house. I had nothing 
to shoot with. As I said, a Northern officer was standing near, talking to 
me when I was shot. Although I was a prisoner at the time, I have never 
complained of it, for it proved to be a lucky shot for me. It was the 
means of my escape from imprisonment. A few days afterwards tidings came 
to the camp down in Fairfax that I was the man who was wounded at Lake's. 
A force of cavalry was sent to search for me, but although I was still in 
the neighborhood, they did not find me. At the same time General Torbert, 
returning from an unsuccessful expedition 

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to Gordonsville, passed within a few miles of where I was lying, but also 
failed to discover me.

   About a week after all this occurred I was taken to my father's house 
near Lynchburg. Richmond papers had already announced my death. Doctor 
Monteiro had not reached my command before I was brought away, so he came 
to my father's house to see me. Monteiro was a great wit and had been with 
me only a few minutes when he got me to laughing. This produced a 
hemorrhage from my wound, and it took all his surgical skill to repair the 
damage his talk had done.

   Major Frazar reported my capture and escape as follows: 

Fairfax Court House, 
December 31, 1864. 

Colonel William Gamble, Commanding Cavalry 
Brigade, 

Colonel: 
   In obedience to your command, I have the honor to report concerning the 
wounding of Colonel Mosby. He was shot by a man of my advance guard, under 
Captain Brown, in Mr. Lake's house, near the Rector's Cross-roads, on the 
evening of the 21st instant.; about 9 P.M.; at which time I was in command 
of the 13th and 16th New York regiments. Several shots were fired, and I 
was informed that a rebel lieutenant was wounded. I immediately dismounted 
and entered 

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the house, and found a man lying on the floor, apparently in great agony. 
I asked him his name - he answered, "Lieutenant Johnson, Sixteenth 
Virginia Cavalry." He was in his shirtsleeves - a light blue cotton 
shirt - no hat - no boots - no insignia of rank; nothing to denote in the 
slightest degree that he was not what he pretended to be. I told him I 
must see his wounds to see whether to bring him or not. I opened, myself, 
his pants and found that a pistol bullet had entered the abdomen about two 
inches below and to the left of the navel; a wound that I felt assured was 
mortal. I therefore ordered all from the room, remarking, "He will die in 
twenty-four hours." Being behind time on account of skirmishing all the 
afternoon with the enemy, I hurried on to meet Lieutenant-Colonel 
Clendenin at Middleburg, according to orders received. Nearly every 
officer in my command, if not all, saw this wounded man, and no one had 
the slightest idea that it was Mosby. Captain Brown and Major Birdsall 
were both in the room with me when this occurred. After arrival at 
Middleburg I reported the fact of having wounded a rebel lieutenant to 
Lieutenant-Colonel Clendenin. As soon as the camp fires were lit so that 
things could be seen, an orderly brought me Mosby's hat dressed with gold 
cord and star. I took the hat and went immediately among the prisoners, 
eight in number, of Mosby's men that I had captured, and told them the man 
who wore that cap was shot dead, and asked him if it was Mosby or not; it 
was no use to conceal it it was, as he was shot dead. They all said "No," 

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that it was not Mosby, that he never had such a hat etc., etc. Some of 
them said it was Major Johnson, Sixth Virginia Cavalry, home on leave. In 
the morning I reported the facts and showed the cap to Colonel Clendenin 
and Mr. Davis, the guide; all this, while I considered, as did all my 
other officers, that the wound was mortal. From Middleburg I came to camp. 
On this scout, from which I have just returned to-day I have the honor to 
state that the man shot in Lake's house was Colonel Mosby. He was moved 
half an hour after he was shot to Quilly Glasscock's, about a mile and a 
half distant, where he remained three days and had the ball extracted, it 
having passed around or through the bowels, coming out behind the right 
side. I conversed with several persons who saw him. He was very low the 
first two days, the third much better. I tracked him to Piedmont, thence 
to Salem, and out of Salem towards the Warrenton Pike. I met pickets in 
various parts of the country, and understood that until within the last 
night or two they had extended as far down as Aldie. Various signalling 
was carried on by means of white flags above Piedmont. Several persons who 
saw him in the ambulance report him spitting blood, and it seems to be the 
general impression that he cannot live. There is no doubt in my mind but 
what he is yet in the country, concealed; seriously, if not mortally 
wounded. In both expeditions I lost neither men nor horses and captured 
nine prisoners.

(Signed) Douglas Frazar, 
Major Commanding. 

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[Indorsement]
Headquarters First Separate Brigade, 
Fairfax C. H., Va., Jan. 1, 1865. 

   Respectfully forwarded to department headquarters. I exceedingly regret 
that such a blunder was made. I have given direction that all wounded 
officers and men of the enemy be hereafter brought in, although any 
officer ought to have brains and common sense enough to do so without an 
order.

(Signed) W. Gamble, 
Colonel Commanding Brigade.   


[Gamble to Augur]
   I am also informed that Major Frazar was too much under the influence 
of liquor to perform his duty at the time in a proper manner. Under the 
circumstances I have deemed it best to send Major Frazar with 300 men to 
scour the neighborhood and ascertain, if possible, something definite 
about it, he being the officer present at the time the rebel officer was 
shot in the house where it is supposed Mosby was wounded.
   Sheridan seemed as much delighted to hear of my death as the troops in 
Fairfax. No doubt he expected no more annoyances that winter. A short time 
afterward he sent a body of cavalry under a Major Gibson to that 
neighborhood one night, but Dolly Richards got after him and sent most of 
his men prisoners to Richmond. The 

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last heard of Major Gibson was that he had been unhorsed and was getting 
back to his camp full speed over the snow in a sleigh.


[Stevenson to Sheridan]
December 29, 1864. 

   Mosby was shot by a party from General Augur's command at Rector's 
Crossroads. There were two or three men in the party; they fired at Mosby 
and some of his men through the windows, wounding Mosby in the abdomen. He 
was then moved to the house of widow Glasscock. Torbert tried to catch him 
there, but he had been taken away in an ambulance. Torbert searched the 
house of Rogers at Middleburg, but he was not there. Mosby's wound is 
mortal. He and his party were eating supper when the attack was made on 
the house by General Augur's men.


[Augur to Sheridan]
December 30, 1864. 

   Richmond papers of the 27th report Mosby's death as having occurred at 
Charlottesville.


[Sheridan to Emory]
December 31, 1864. 

   How are you getting along? The storm is unfortunate. I have no news to-
day except the death of Mosby. He died from his wound at Charlottesville.

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   The following account of the wounding of Mosby was written by a "Yankee 
Major General" for the New York Herald of December 31, 1864, and was 
copied by the Confederate newspapers:

   On Tuesday, December 17, an expedition comprising the Thirteenth and 
Sixteenth New York and Eighth Illinois Cavalry, under the command of 
Lieutenant Colonel Clendenin, started to scout the country this side of 
the Blue Ridge, in search of Mosby. On arriving at White Plains on 
Wednesday the command separated. . . . The first named (13th New York) 
proceeded toward Salem, and when a short distance from Middleburg came 
upon the house at which Mosby was then dining. Captain Taylor's Company of 
the 13th New York were in the advance, and manoeuvered to surround the 
house, near which two horses, with cavalry equipment were fastened. 
Corporal Cane or Kane, of Company F, rode near the house and was about to 
secure the horses, when Mosby opened the door and fired at the Corporal. 
Kane raised his carbine to fire in return; when Mosby closed the door and 
ran into another part of the house. The Corporal, seeing him pass a 
window, instantly fired, shooting Mosby through the bowels. Captain Taylor 
and others hastily entered the house. Some of the men proposed finishing 
the rebel; but Captain Taylor, having examined his wound, pronounced it 
mortal. Major Frazar, 13th New York Cavalry, also examined the wound and 
declared that the man would die. The rank and name of the wounded man were 
not known 

Page 352

at this time. He had on a magnificent cloak of gray, trimmed with English 
scarlet and gold clasps. This cloak had often been talked about by 
inhabitants of the valley as belonging to Mosby, and was described by 
citizens as the richest article of the kind in either army. The boots of 
the wounded man were carried off and found to agree exactly, in make and 
maker's name, with a pair taken from Mosby's house when burned last 
summer. The rebel accounts show that their conclusions were correct; but, 
if we are to believe the rebel stories, Mosby is not yet dead. He may 
possibly recover: "The devil takes care of his own."



Page 353

CHAPTER XVII 
FINAL SCENES(1)
   THE war drama was now drawing to a close. According to General John B. 
Gordon, Lee's troops were subsisting on parched corn, and one day a 
private accosted him with the request, "I say, General, can't you give us 
a little fodder?" Gordon also said that Lee's surgeons reported to him 
that the men were in such bad condition that, if wounded, they would 
become gangrened. Grant's remorseless policy had caused the Confederates 
"to rob the cradle and the grave." And the blockade had all the time been 
aiding the Federal armies, silently but effectively.

   Colonel Mosby was wounded on December 21, 1864, and, naturally, it was 
some time before he could get to work again.

(1. This chapter was prepared from material collected by Colonel Mosby.)

Page 354

[Extracts from the diary of Mosby's mother]
Sunday, Jan. 1, 1865.
   Hear by the papers to-day that dear John is recovering. We feel intense 
anxiety about John. No tidings from John.


Tuesday, 3rd.


   This evening . . . John arrived safely and doing well.

Feb. 24th.


   John sent Mrs. J. S. Mosby his photograph and a piece dedicated to 
Mosby and his men - "They Will Never Win Us Back." We feel so sad at the 
thought of our dear John leaving us to-morrow.

Feb. 25th.


   The day has come and the hour has passed that saw our dearest one leave 
once more the household group to go back to battle for his country and all 
that is dear to man and woman. It is one of the saddest events of my life, 
when I have to part from my dear boys, to go to the Army, yet I know God 
is there as well as around the peaceful and secure fireside. . . . A 
crisis is upon us. We are beset on all sides by a powerful enemy.
   But while Colonel Mosby was recovering his men were by no means idle.



[Extract from a Confederate newspaper]
   The part attributed to Captain Taylor's Company, in a notice copied 
into yesterday's paper, was in reality 

Page 355

an exploit of Major Richards, of Mosby's command, as accurate accounts 
have since established. On Thursday last, Major Richards, with a force of 
sixty men, struck the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad between Duffield and 
Martinsburg, and captured a train of fifteen cars propelled by two engines 
and loaded with supplies for Sheridan's army. The engines were blown up 
and the cars consumed by fire. Our adventurous soldiers loaded their 
horses with such articles as they could carry; many of them possessing 
themselves in this manner of sacks of coffee, besides other desirable 
supplies. Major Richards has already established his fame as one of the 
most active and successful of Mosby's indefatigables.

   When Mosby went to Richmond early in December, 1864, he presented the 
following letter to the Confederate War Department: 

December 6, 1864. 

Hon. James A. Seddon, 
Secretary of War. 

Sir: 
   I beg leave to recommend, in order to secure greater efficiency in my 
command, that it be divided into two battalions, each to be commanded by a 
Major. The scope of duties devolving upon me being of a much wider extent 
than on officers of the same rank in the regular service, but small time 
is allowed me to attend to the duties of organization, discipline, etc. I 
am confident that the arrangement I propose would give 

Page 356

me much more time both for planning and executing enterprises against the 
enemy. I would recommend Capt. Wm. H. Chapman (Commanding Co. C. 43d Va. 
P. R. Battalion) and Captain Adolphus E. Richards (Commanding Co. B. same 
battalion) for the command of the two . . . [letter mutilated] have both 
on many occasions . . . valor and skill to which my reports . . . so in 
engagements with the . . . Aldie, Charles Town, and . . .

Very respectfully,
Your obedient servant,
(Signed) John S. Mosby,
Lieutenant Colonel. 

   On January 9, 1865, Mosby's commission as a colonel was issued. William 
Chapman, whose brother Sam, a Baptist preacher, whom Colonel Mosby 
described as the only man he ever saw who really enjoyed fighting, and who 
generally went into the fray with his hat in one hand and banging away 
with his revolver with the other, became a lieutenant-colonel.

   On March 27, 1865, Colonel Mosby was put in command of all northern 
Virginia. And then on April 8th came the surrender of Lee at Appomattox.

   The Colonel often said that if his small mother had been in command of 
the Southern armies, the war would have been going on yet.

Page 357

[Extracts from the diary of Mosby's mother]
Saturday, March 6.

   To-day will be a day never to be forgotten. We heard the Yankees 
occupied Charlottesville last evening and are advancing up here. All is 
consternation and confusion. We are trying to get our things out of the 
way. Rumor after rumor arrives, and we know not how to proceed. We expect 
to be driven from our homes. Oh! may we be spared, and our house, and the 
vile Yankees driven back.

Saturday, April 3.


   Captain Kennon left and Mr. Moore to go to Col. Mosby's command. . . . 
There is a craven spirit abroad with our people. If overpowered we will 
have to submit to the powers that be, but I would feel that the Yankees 
themselves would despise us, if we recanted our Southern principles. They 
would have no confidence in us and look with contempt on us, as they 
should do. I think a deserter on either side the most degraded human being 
that breathes. Yes, we hate them, and the Yankees do too, and they will 
hiss them.

Sunday, April 9th.


   I went out and heard the deep toned cannon, carrying hundreds and 
perhaps thousands to that long sleep that knows no waking. Oh, how my 
heart went up for our great, our noble Lee, that God would give him 
strength in weakness to bring us out of battle a victorious people. If God 
does see fit to crush us and bow us down, because of our sins and the sins 
of this 

Page 358

nation, I feel it will be in justice and mercy, and will even believe he 
doeth all things well; but there are hearts too noble to be conquered. Our 
Lee will stand out a man in all the nations of the earth, nobler and 
greater in adversity than any other man with a crown on his head. . . . I 
hear of fearful desertions. Poor craven spirits, - I hope the Yankee 
bullets will yet pierce their hateful hides. General Lee surrendered to 
superior numbers to-day at Appomattox Court House.


Headquarters Middle Military Division, 
Winchester, Va., April 10, 1865. 

   The Major-General Commanding announces to the citizens in the vicinity 
of his lines that General Robert E. Lee surrendered with the Army of 
Northern Virginia yesterday to Lieut. General Grant near Appomattox Court 
House. . . . Officers and men were all paroled. . . .

(Signed) W. S. Hancock, 
Maj. Genl. U. S. Vols. 

Official, 
E. B. Parsons, 
Assistant Adjutant General, 
A. P. M. G. 

P. S. All detachments and stragglers from the Army of Northern Virginia 
will, upon complying with the above conditions, be paroled and allowed to 
go to their homes. Those who do not so surrender will be brought in as 
prisoners of war. The Guerilla Chief Mosby is not included in the parole. 

W. S. H. 

Page 359

Headquarters Middle Military Division, 
Winchester, April 11, 1865. 

Colonel John S. Mosby, 
Commanding Partizans, 
Colonel: 
   I am directed by Major General Hancock to inclose you copies of letters 
which passed between Generals Grant and Lee on the occasion of the 
surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia. Major General Hancock is 
authorized to receive the surrender of the force under your command on the 
same conditions offered to General Lee, and will send an officer of equal 
rank with yourself to meet you at any point and time you may designate, 
convenient to the lines, for the purpose of arranging the details, should 
you conclude to be governed by the example of General Lee.

Very respectfully, 
Your servant, 
C. H. Morgan, 
Bat. Brig. Genl. 
Chief of Staff. 

April 15, 1865. 

Major General W. S. Hancock, 
Commanding, 
General: 
   I am in receipt of a letter from your Chief of Staff General Morgan, 
enclosing copies of correspondence between Generals Grant and Lee, and 
informing me that you would appoint an officer of equal rank with myself 
to arrange the details for the surrender of the 

Page 360

forces under my command. As yet I have no notice through any other source 
of the facts concerning the surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia, 
nor, in my opinion, has the emergency yet arisen which would justify the 
surrender of my command. With no disposition, however, to cause the 
useless effusion of blood or to inflict upon a war-worn population any 
unnecessary distress, I am ready to agree to a suspension of hostilities 
for a short time, in order to enable me to communicate with my own 
authorities or until I can obtain sufficient intelligence to determine my 
future action. Should you accede to this proposition, I am ready to meet 
any person you may designate to arrange the terms of the armistice. I am,

Very respectfully, 
Your obedient servant, 
John S. Mosby, 
Colonel C. S. A. 

   (This letter to Hancock, who was at Winchester, was written at 
Warrenton, Fauquier Co., Va., the home of the Washington family. It was 
sent by a flag of truce that was carried by Colonel Wm. H. Chapman, Dr. 
Monteiro, and my brother, Wm. H. Mosby, who was my adjutant. J. S. M.)

[Mosby's Farewell Address to his Command]

Fauquier County, April 21, 1865. 

Soldiers - 

   I have summoned you together for the last time. The visions we have 
cherished of a free and independent 

Page 361

country have vanished, and that country is now the spoil of the conqueror. 
I disband your organization in preference to surrendering it to our 
enemies. I am no longer your Commander. After an association of more than 
two eventful years, I part from you with a just pride in the fame of your 
achievements and a grateful recollection of your generous kindness to 
myself. And at this moment of bidding you a final adieu, accept the 
assurance of my unchanging confidence and regard. Farewell!

Jno. S. Mosby, 
Colonel. 

Valley Farm, Aug. 27, '65. 

My dearest Pauline: 
   I staid almost a week at Pa's and then returned to Uncle John's, as the 
infernal Yankees were in Lynchburg, which made it dangerous to remain 
there longer. Uncle John made John Hipkins go to Richmond, as we were 
anxious to learn what were the designs of the Yankees towards me. Mr. 
Palmer went to see General Lee. General Lee sent me word by Willie Cabell 
that he was waiting to see General Grant; he also said that he entirely 
approved of everything I had done. He is going to move up to Haymarket. 
When I passed through Charlottesville there were fourteen Yankee cavalry 
in the place. I met a lieutenant and one man in the street. They said 
nothing to me. I went up to the University to call on Dr. McGuffey. A 
short while after I left, it was 

Page 362

surrounded by two companies of Yankee cavalry. If you see Willie tell him 
Pa is anxious for him to return home. I want to find out what will be the 
course of the Yankees towards me before I return to Fauquier.

[Extract from a Lynchburg, Virginia, paper of 1865]

   Some little stir was created in the city yesterday by the report that 
Col. Mosby, the celebrated partisan chieftain, was in Lynchburg. Various 
reasons were expressed as to the cause of his appearance, but the 
following are, we believe, the facts of the case. Some days since Col. 
Mosby's brother came to Captain Swank, Provost Marshal of this city, to 
inquire if Mosby would be paroled on coming in and surrendering to the 
authorities. Capt. Swank replied that he would make inquiries upon the 
subject, and give him an answer in a few days. Day before yesterday, he 
again called to see the marshal upon the subject, and was told that Col. 
Mosby would be paroled if he would come in and give himself up. In 
accordance with this information, Mosby came into Lynchburg yesterday, and 
applied at the Provost Marshal's office for a parole. Capt. Garnett 
happened to be attending to the duties of the office at the time and, not 
being aware of the arrangement, sent to Col. Duncan for instructions. He 
was immediately ordered not to parole Col. Mosby until further orders from 
Col. Duncan. In the meantime a dispatch was received from Richmond, and 
Mosby was ordered to leave town immediately, while the Provost guard were 
instructed 

Page 363

to see that he did so without molestation or hindrance. The dispatch is 
generally supposed to have been an order for his arrest, probably under a 
misapprehension of the facts, - and, as he had come here under an implied 
safeguard from the military authorities, they felt bound in honor not to 
take advantage of the act.

[Extract from the Alexandria State Journal, 1865]

   We last night noticed the fact that Major [sic] Mosby was in the city, 
and his presence was much courted by his friends and admirers. An hour 
after his arrival there was hardly a sympathizer with the late Confederacy 
here who did not know of his presence. Wherever he went he was followed by 
a large crowd of friends. He seemed to make Harper's store his 
headquarters, and whenever stationed there large crowds, composed of a 
plentiful sprinkling of colored men and boys, gathered on the corner and 
blockaded the sidewalk, sometimes almost obstructing the street. This 
became so annoying that about four o'clock P.M. last evening, the military 
authorities ordered his arrest. He was arrested by Capt. McGraw at the 
residence of Mrs. Boyd Smith, on St. Asaph Street, and taken before Genl. 
Wells, who held him until he communicated with headquarters at Washington 
and received orders for his release.
Leesburg, January 8, '66. 

Dearest Pauline: 
   I was just in the act of starting home this morning when an order came 
for my arrest. I am now under 

Page 364

arrest here, awaiting orders from General Ayres. Don't be uneasy. . . .

Yours affectionately, 
John S. Mosby. 

[From the Baltimore Sun, February 6th, 1866]

   Col. Mosby has been released upon parole by Genl. Grant, he being 
included in the terms of Genl. Lee's surrender.

   Thus it was nearly a year after Lee's surrender that the war closed for 
Mosby.



Page 365

CHAPTER XVIII 
IN RETROSPECT
   [IN December, 1899, Colonel Mosby wrote the following letter to John S. 
Russell - his chief scout in the war - which throws valuable sidelights on 
many of the episodes connected with his command, and sums up his 
deliberate opinion of many of the controversial points connected with his 
partisan life. In this survey of the past, Colonel Mosby stated many of 
his final conclusions.] 
Francisco, Dec. 16, 1899. 

Mr. John S. Russell, 
Berryville, Va. 

Dear John: 
   I have mailed you a set of photographs of the Berryville raid that made 
Sheridan retreat fifty miles down the Valley to the place where he started 
from. In 1867 Captain McAleer, of Baltimore, visited the scene, made 
sketches, and procured photographs of many of our men. He then went to 
Paris and had the pictures painted by two distinguished artists.(1) . . . 

(1. Beaucé and Philippoteaux. Photographic reproductions of these 
paintings were widely circulated in France, England, and America shortly 
after the war, and one is reproduced in this volume.)

Page 366

   Number 1 ("Mosby Planning an Attack on the Federal Cavalry") represents 
the battalion just as we reached the east bank of the Shenandoah - "the 
daughter of the stars." You are near me, listening intently to an order I 
am giving you to cross the river and find out what was in front. You 
returned after dark, when I was asleep enjoying a soldier's dream, "and 
the sentinel stars had set their watch in the sky", and told me that a 
long train, heavily guarded, was passing on the pike. In a few minutes all 
were mounted and moving to the attack.

   Number 2 represents the Berryville fight and the stampede of the train 
guard. I am with Sam Chapman's company that was kept in reserve with the 
howitzer that is firing while Richards's squadron charge at one point on 
the line and William Chapman and Glasscock with their companies charge at 
another. Stockton Terry, of Lynchburg, is near me with the battalion 
colors. A body of the enemy formed behind a stone fence and made some 
resistance. Here Lewis Adie, of Glasscock's company, was killed. I 
remember very well when Guy Broadwater rode up and reported it to me in 
the midst of the fight. All I said was, "I can't help it." He was a fine 
boy.

   Do you remember how the yellow-jackets routed us, and were near 
spoiling all my plans of that day? The howitzer came up at a gallop and 
was unlimbered on a knoll that commanded the pike. The gun was put in a 
position right over a nest of yellow-jackets. They were home-rulers, like 
the Boers, and instantly a swarm flew out to repel the invasion of their 
territory. 

Page 367

My men had stood a volley from a body of infantry on the pike, but the 
sting of the yellow-jackets was too much for their courage. The horses 
reared and plunged, the men ran away from the gun. Whether the scene was 
sublime or ridiculous depends upon one's point of view at the time. My 
horse was frantic, and I felt a good deal like Hercules did when he put on 
the shirt of the Centaur and couldn't pull it off. We were on the verge of 
a panic - a few minutes' delay would give the enemy time to recover from 
their surprise. A shot from the howitzer was to be the signal for the 
squadrons to charge. They were waiting. But just then one of the men - 
Babcock I think it was - rushed forward, recaptured the howitzer, and 
dragged it off. The yellow-jackets returned in triumph to their hole in 
the ground. In a minute a shell burst among the wagons; it knocked off the 
head of a mule, the guard stampeded, while the braying of the mules could 
be heard above the roar of the gun. The mules we captured supplied General 
Lee's army with transportation, and the drove of fine beeves was sent as a 
present and furnished beefsteaks for his soldiers.

   You will observe in the picture representing our return a figure on 
horseback playing a fiddle. It is Bob Ridley (Eastham). He got it from a 
headquarters wagon. Bob is playing a tune to which he had danced - 
"Malbrook has gone to the Wars."

   Our object was to impede Sheridan's march.

   I was sorry I could not be with you at the unveiling of the monument to 
our men at Front Royal, and I 

Page 368

dissent from some historical statements in Major Richards's address. I do 
not agree with him that our men were hung in compliance with General 
Grant's orders to Sheridan. They were not hung in obedience to the orders 
of a superior, but from revenge. A man who acts from revenge simply obeys 
his own impulses. Major Richards says the orders were "a dead letter" 
after I retaliated, which implies that they had not been before. I see no 
evidence to support such a conclusion. In his letter in the Times, Major 
Richards says that Sheridan's dispatches about hanging our men were 
"visionary", i.e., he never hung any. If so the order had always been a 
"dead letter." No one ever heard of his hangings until his dispatches were 
published a few years ago; Sheridan was then dead, but his posthumous 
memoirs say nothing about hanging, although two pages are devoted to an 
account of the killing of Meigs and Custer's burning dwelling houses in 
Rockingham County in revenge. Meigs was not killed by my men; we never 
went that far up the Valley.

   Sheridan's dispatches in the War Records about the men he hung were not 
even a revelation to me, - they revealed nothing. They were simply 
spectres of imagination, like the dagger in the air that Macbeth saw. If 
Sheridan had communicated Grant's dispatch of August 16th to any one to be 
executed, it would have been to Blazer, who commanded a picket corps that 
was specially detailed to look after us. In his report Blazer speaks of 
capturing some of my men; he never mentions hanging any. Those he captured 

Page 369

were certainly not hung, for I saw them when they came home after the 
close of the war.

   The following dispatches record the rise and fall of Blazer.


[Sheridan to Augur]
August 20, 1864. 

   I have 100 men who will take the contract to clean out Mosby's gang. I 
want 100 Spencer rifles for them. Send them to me if they can be found in 
Washington.

P. H. Sheridan, 
Major-General Commanding. 

[Indorsement]
   Approved: By order of the Secretary of War.
C. A. Dana, 
Asst. Secretary. 


[Stevenson to Sheridan]
Harper's Ferry, November 19, 1864. 

   Two of Captain Blazer's men came in this morning - Privates Harris and 
Johnson. They report that Mosby with 300 men attacked Blazer near 
Kabletown yesterday about 11 o'clock. They say the entire command, with 
the exception of themselves, was captured or killed. I have ordered Major 
Congdon with 300 Twelfth Pennsylvania Cavalry to Kabletown to bury dead 
and take care of wounded, if any, and report all facts he can learn. I 
shall immediately furnish report as soon as rec'd.

Page 370

   Exit Blazer!

   Richards commanded in the Blazer fight. I was not there. As an affair 
of arms it passed anything that had been done in the Shenandoah campaign 
and recalled the days when Knighthood was in flower. When we sent Blazer 
and his band of prisoners to Richmond, they would not have admitted that 
they ever hung anybody.

   Major Richards refers to Grant's orders to destroy subsistence for an 
army so as to make the country untenable by the Confederates, and 
pathetically describes the conflagration. He ought to know that there had 
been burning of mills and wheat stacks in Loudon two years before Grant 
came to Virginia. Grant's orders were no more directed against my command 
than Early's. Augusta and Rockingham were desolated, where we never had 
been. But I can't see the slightest connection between burning forage and 
provisions and hanging prisoners. One is permitted by the code of war; the 
other is not.

   After General Lee's surrender I received a communication from General 
Hancock asking for mine. I declined to do so until I could hear whether 
Joe Johnston would surrender or continue the war. We agreed on a five 
days' armistice. When it expired nothing had been heard from Johnston. I 
met a flag of truce at Millwood, and had proposed an extension of ten 
days, but received through Major Russell a message from Hancock refusing 
it and informing me that unless I surrendered immediately he would proceed 
to devastate the country. The reply I sent by Russell was, "Tell 

Page 371

General Hancock he is able to do it." Hancock then had 40,000 men at 
Winchester. The next day I disbanded my battalion to save the country from 
being made a desert. If any one doubts this, let him read Hancock's 
report. If it was legitimate for Hancock to lay waste the country after I 
had suspended hostilities, surely it was equally so for Grant to do it 
when I was doing all the damage in my power to his army. Stanton warned 
Hancock not to meet me in person under a flag of truce, for fear that I 
would treacherously kill him. Hancock replied that he would send an 
officer to meet me. He sent General Chapman. The attention Grant paid to 
us shows that we did him a great deal of harm. Keeping my men in prison 
weakened us as much as to hang them.

   Major Richards complains of the "debasing epithets" Sheridan applied to 
us. I have read his reports, correspondence, and memoirs, but have never 
seen the epithets. In common with all northern and many southern people, 
he called us guerrillas. The word "guerrilla" is a diminutive of the 
Spanish word "guerra" (war), and simply means one engaged in the minor 
operations of war. Although I have never adopted it, I have never resented 
as an insult the term "guerrilla" when applied to me.

   Sheridan says that my battalion was "the most redoubtable" partisan 
body that he met. I certainly take no exception to that. He makes no 
charge of any act of inhumanity against us. The highest compliment ever 
paid to the efficiency of our command is the statement in Sheridan's 
"Memoirs", that while his 

Page 372

army largely outnumbered Early's, yet their line of battle strength was 
about equal on account of the detachments he was compelled to make to 
guard the border and his line of communication from partisan attacks. Ours 
was the only force behind him. At that time the records show that in round 
numbers Early had 17,000 present for duty, and Sheridan had 94,000. I had 
only five companies of cavalry when Shendan came in August, 1864, to the 
Shenandoah Valley. A sixth was organized in September. Two more companies 
joined me in April, 1865, after the evacuation of Richmond. They came just 
in time to surrender.

   I don't care a straw whether Custer was solely responsible for the 
hanging of our men, or jointly with others. If we believe the reports of 
the generals, none of them ever heard of the hanging of our men; they must 
have committed suicide. Contemporary evidence is against Custer. I wonder 
if he also denied burning dwelling houses around Berryville.

   I once called at the White House in 1876 to see General Grant; sent him 
my card, and was promptly admitted. When I came out of his room, one of 
the secretaries told me that General Custer had called the day before, but 
that General Grant had refused to see him. The incident is related in the 
"Life of Custer." A few weeks afterward Custer was killed in the Sitting 
Bull Massacre.

   Major Richards further says "that there was scarcely a family in all 
that section that did not have some member in Mosby's command." If that is 
true, 

Page 373

I must have commanded a larger army than Sheridan. I didn't know it. He 
describes the pathos of the scenes that might have been if the "severe and 
cruel order" had been executed to transfer the families from that region 
to Fort McHenry, and says it would have "paralyzed" my command. If so, 
that would have been a more humane way of getting rid of it than killing 
the men. Now I have never considered women and children necessary 
appendages to an army; on the contrary, I would rather class them with 
what Cæsar, in his "Commentaries", calls impedimenta. Homer's heroes were 
not paralyzed when Helen was carried off to Troy; it only aroused their 
martial ambition. Sheridan knew that if he did anything of the kind it 
would stimulate the activity of my men, so he didn't try it. As for our 
lieutenant-colonel, who, as Major Richards says, married in that section, 
I think that if Sheridan had captured his wife and mother-in-law and sent 
them to prison, instead of going into mourning, he would have felt all the 
wrath and imitated the example of the fierce Achilles when he heard that 
Patroclus, his friend, had been killed and his armor had been captured. 
"Now perish Troy," he said, and rushed to fight.

Very truly yours, 
John S. Mosby. 



Page 374

CHAPTER XIX 
MY RECOLLECTIONS OF GENERAL LEE
   MY first meeting with General Robert E. Lee was in August, 1862, when I 
brought the news of Burnside's reinforcement of Pope, a story I have told 
in the preceding pages. The next time we met was at his headquarters in 
Orange, about two months after Gettysburg. He did not seem in the least 
depressed, and was as buoyant and aggressive as ever. He took a deep 
interest in my operations, for there was nothing of the Fabius in his 
character. Lee was the most aggressive man I met in the war, and was 
always ready for an enterprise. I believe that his interest in me was 
largely due to the fact that his father, "Light Horse Harry", was a 
partisan officer in the Revolutionary War.

   After General Stuart was killed, in May, 1864, I reported directly to 
General Lee. During the siege of Petersburg I visited him three times - 
twice when I was wounded. Once, when I got out of the ambulance, he was 
standing near, 

Page 375

talking to General Longstreet. When he saw me hobbling up to him on 
crutches, he came to meet me, introduced me to General Longstreet, and 
said, "Colonel, the only fault I have ever had to find with you is that 
you are always getting wounded."

   Such a speech from General Lee more than repaid me for my wound.

   The last time I saw him during the war was about two months before the 
surrender. I had been wounded again. He was not only kind, but 
affectionate, and asked me to take dinner with him, though he said he 
hadn't much to eat. There was a leg of mutton on the table; he remarked 
that some of his staff officers must have stolen it.

   After dinner, when we were alone, he talked very freely. He said that 
in the spring of 1862, Joe Johnston ought not to have fallen back from the 
Rapidan to Richmond, and that he had written urging him to turn against 
Washington. He also said that when Joe Johnston evacuated his lines at 
Yorktown, in May of that year, he should have given battle with his whole 
force on the isthmus at Williamsburg, instead of making a rear-guard fight.

   When I bade Lee good-by after our last interview, 

Page 376

I had no idea that it was my final parting with him as my commander. I can 
never forget the sympathetic words with which he cautioned me against 
unnecessary exposure to danger.

   The following is the last order he ever gave me. It was dated March 27, 
1865, and put me in command of all northern Virginia:

   Collect your command and watch the country from the front of 
Gordonsville to Blue Ridge, and also the Valley. Your command is all now 
in that section, and the general (Lee) will rely on you to watch and 
protect the country. If any of your command is in Northern Neck, call it 
to you.

W. H. Taylor, 
Assistant Adjutant-General. 

   Lee was raised in the political school of Washington and Hamilton. In 
the Virginia convention of 1788, his father had voted against the imbecile 
confederation and for the Constitution which made the laws of the Union 
supreme law of the land, and in 1798 spoke and voted against the famous 
States-rights' resolutions. In the year 1794 he commanded the Virginia 
troops that were ordered to Pennsylvania to suppress the Whiskey 
Insurrection. It is difficult to distinguish in law between Washington's 
proclamation in 1794, calling out the military force to 

Page 377

execute the laws of the United States, and Lincoln's in 1861.

   As Lieutenant-Colonel of the Second Cavalry, Lee was stationed in Texas 
in February, 1861, but was ordered to Washington, arriving there about the 
time of the presidential inauguration. The commander-in-chief, General 
Scott, a Virginian, was too old for active service - there was then no 
retirement law - and he wanted Lee near him as an adviser and second in 
command. On March 16, Colonel Edwin V. Sumner was promoted to be a 
brigadier-general in place of Twiggs, who had been dismissed for treachery 
in surrendering the Union troops in Texas. A Virginia lady, who met Lee 
about that time, told me, many years ago, that he spoke to her with great 
indignation about General Twiggs's conduct. Lee now became colonel of the 
First Cavalry. His biographers do not seem to have heard of this promotion 
and have ignored the fact that he accepted a commission from President 
Lincoln. Lee was with his family at Arlington and on confidential 
relations with the War Department up to the day of his resignation, April 
20, 1861. As the command of the U. S. Army was offered to him, Scott must 
have thought that he would stand by the Union, and Lee's 

Page 378

purpose to resign in the event of Virginia passing an ordinance of 
secession had not been disclosed.

   Lee was forced by circumstances to take the side for which he fought in 
the war. On the subject of slavery and the right of secession, he agreed 
with Abraham Lincoln. Five years before, in writing about slavery, he had 
said, "It is a moral, social, and political evil."

   Writing at Fort Mason, Texas, on January 23, 1861 - after seven States 
had passed ordinances of secession - Lee said:

   The framers of our Constitution would never have exhausted so much 
labor, wisdom, and forbearance in its formation, and surrounded it with so 
many safeguards and securities, if it was intended to be broken by every 
member of the confederacy at will. It was intended for "perpetual union", 
so expressed in the preamble, and for the establishment of a government, 
not a compact, which can only be dissolved by revolution, or by the 
consent of all the people in convention assembled. It is idle to talk of 
secession. Anarchy would have been established, and not a government, by 
Washington, Hamilton, Jefferson, Madison, and all the other patriots of 
the Revolution.

   When Lee resigned his commission to join the forces of his native 
State, he acted, as nearly every soldier acts, from personal sympathy with 
the combatants, and not on any legal theory of right 

Page 379

and wrong. On the day when he resigned, he wrote his sister that he could 
not draw his sword against his family, his neighbors, and his friends.

   On the previous day, he happened to go into a store in Alexandria to 
pay a bill. His heart was burdened with a great sorrow, and he uttered 
these words, which the merchant wrote down in his journal - they still 
stand there to-day: "I must say that I am one of those dull creatures that 
cannot see the good of secession."

   Below this entry the merchant wrote, "Spoken by Colonel R. E. Lee when 
he paid this bill, April 19, 1861."

   A few days later, Lee was made commander-in-chief of the forces of the 
State of Virginia. There was no competition for the position. The late 
Judge John Critcher represented Westmoreland, Lee's native county, in the 
secession convention, and was one of the committee sent to notify him of 
the appointment. The judge told me that when Lee returned with the 
committee to the convention hall, in the Capitol at Richmond, they had to 
wait for a few minutes in the rotunda. Looking at Houdon's statue of 
Washington, Lee said, very gravely, "I hope we have seen the last of 
secession."

   He evidently feared that the seceding States 

Page 380

would soon separate from one another. "The Life of Alexander Stephens" 
shows that the apprehension was not unfounded, and that the members of the 
Confederacy were held together only by the pressure of war and by the 
despotic power of the central government at Richmond.

   I once heard General John C. Breckenridge say, at a dinner in 
Baltimore, soon after he returned from his exile in Canada, that if the 
Southern Confederacy had been established, "there would have been such a 
spirit of local self-assertion that every county would have claimed the 
right to set up for itself."

   I met General Lee a few times after the war, but the days of strife 
were never mentioned. I remember the last words he spoke to me, about two 
months before his death, at a reception that was given to him in 
Alexandria. When I bade him good-by, he said, "Colonel, I hope we shall 
have no more wars."

   In March, 1870, I was walking across the bridge connecting the Ballard 
and Exchange hotels, in Richmond, and to my surprise I met General Lee and 
his daughter. The general was pale and haggard, and did not look like the 
Apollo I had known in the army. After a while I went to his room; our 
conversation was on current topics. 

Page 381

I felt oppressed by the great memories that his presence revived, and 
while both of us were thinking about the war, neither of us referred to it.

   After leaving the room, I met General Pickett, and told him that I had 
just been with Lee. He remarked that, if I would go with him, he would 
call and pay his respects to the general, but he did not want to be alone 
with him. So I went back with Pickett; the interview was cold and formal, 
and evidently embarrassing to both. It was their only meeting after the 
war.

   In a few minutes I rose and left the room, together with General 
Pickett. He then spoke very bitterly of General Lee, calling him "that old 
man."

   "He had my division massacred at Gettysburg," Pickett said.

   "Well, it made you immortal," I replied.

   I rather suspect that Pickett gave a wrong reason for his unfriendly 
feelings. In May, 1892, at the University of Virginia, I took breakfast 
with Professor Venable, who had been on Lee's staff. He told me that some 
days before the surrender at Appomattox, General Lee ordered Pickett under 
arrest - I suppose for the Five Forks affair.(1) I think the professor 
said that he carried the order. 

(1. Battle of April 1, 1865.)

Page 382

I remember very well his adding that, on the retreat, Pickett passed them, 
and that General Lee said, with deep feeling, "Is that man still with this 
army?"

   I once went to see the tomb of Montcalm in the chapel of the Ursuline 
Convent at Quebec. When I read the inscription - "Fate denied him victory, 
but blessed him with a glorious immortality" - it recalled General Robert 
E. Lee.



Page 383

CHAPTER XX 
MY RECOLLECTIONS OF GENERAL GRANT
   I FIRST met General Grant in May, 1872, after Mr. Greeley had been 
nominated for the presidency by a convention whose members called 
themselves Liberal Republicans - although, as a matter of fact, many of 
them had been the most radical element of the party, but had seceded on 
account of personal grievances. My home was then at Warrenton, Virginia, 
where I was practising law. As it was only fifty miles from Washington, I 
was frequently there, but I had only once seen General Grant - one evening 
at the National Theatre, when he was in a box with General Sherman. Both 
men seemed to enjoy the play as much as the gods in the gallery.

   In common with most Southern soldiers, I had a very kindly feeling 
towards General Grant, not only on account of his magnanimous conduct at 
Appomattox, but also for his treatment of me at the close of hostilities. 
I had never called on him, however. If I had done so, and if he had 

Page 384

received me even politely, we should both have been subjected to severe 
criticism, so bitter was the feeling between the sections at the time.

   No doubt, in those days, most Northerners believed the imaginative 
stories of the war correspondents and supposed that my battalion fought 
under the black flag. General Grant was as much misunderstood in the South 
as I was in the North. But time has healed wounds which were once thought 
to be irremediable; and there is to-day no memory of our war so bitter, 
probably, as the Scottish recollection of Culloden. Like most Southern 
men, I had disapproved the reconstruction measures and was sore and very 
restive under military government; but since my prejudices have faded, I 
can now see that many things which we regarded as being prompted by 
hostile and vindictive motives were actually necessary, in order to 
prevent anarchy and to secure the freedom of the newly emancipated slave.

   I had given little attention to politics and had devoted my time to my 
profession, although I was under no political disability. As we had all 
been opposed to the Republican party before the war, it was a point of 
honor to keep on voting that way.

   When Horace Greeley was nominated, I saw - or thought I saw - that it 
was idle to divide 

Page 385

longer upon issues which we acknowledged to have been legally, if not 
properly, settled; and that if the Southern people wanted reconciliation, 
as they said they did, the logical thing to do was to vote for Grant. I 
have not changed my opinion, nor yet have I any criticism to make of those 
who differed with me. We were all working for the same end. Some said they 
couldn't sacrifice their principles for Grant's friendship; I didn't 
sacrifice mine.

   Not long before the death of the late General M. C. Butler, United 
States Senator from South Carolina, I met him on the street in Washington.

   "We ought to have gone with you for Grant," he said.

   My views and opinions of that period are set forth in the following 
interview published in the Richmond Enquirer, in January, 1873.

   Reporter: "I see it stated generally that you have some influence with 
General Grant, - is this true?"

   Colonel Mosby: "I don't know what amount of influence I may have with 
the President, but General Grant knows the fiery ordeal I have been 
through here in supporting him, and I suppose he has some appreciation of 
it."

   Reporter: "What is the policy that you have advocated for the Virginia 
people?"

   Colonel Mosby: "The issues that formerly divided 

Page 386

the Virginia people from the Republican party were those growing out of 
the reconstruction measures. Last year the Virginia people agreed to make 
no further opposition to those measures and to accept all questions 
growing out of them as settled. There being no longer any questions, then, 
on principles separating Virginia people from General Grant, it became a 
mere matter of policy and expediency whether they would support him or 
Horace Greeley. I thought it was the first opportunity the Southern people 
had had to be restored to their proper relation and influence with the 
Federal administration. In other words, I said the Southern statesmen 
ought to avail themselves of this opportunity and support General Grant 
for re-election, and thereby acquire influence and control over his 
administration. That was the only way I saw of displacing the carpetbag 
crew that represented the Government in the Southern States. I think that 
events have demonstrated that I was right.

   "General Grant has certainly accorded to me as much consideration or 
influence as any one man could have a right to expect. I know it is the 
disposition of General Grant to do everything in his power for the relief 
of the Southern people, if Southern politicians will allow him to do it. 
The men who control the policy of the Conservative party combine with the 
extreme Radicals to keep the Southern people arrayed against General 
Grant. As long as this course is pursued, the carpetbag crew who profess 
to support the administration get all the Federal patronage. This is the 
sustenance, the support of the carpetbag 

Page 387

party in the South. Deprived of that, it would die to-morrow. I admit, as 
every Southern man must admit, the gross wrongs that have been perpetrated 
upon the Southern people. I am no apologist for them, but neither party 
proposes any atonement or indemnity for the past. I propose at least to 
give security for the future by an alliance between the Southern people 
and General Grant's administration." . . .

   Reporter: "Has the President ever tendered you any position under his 
administration?"

   Colonel Mosby: "Shortly after the presidential election the President 
said something to me on the subject of giving me an office. I told him 
while I would as lief hold an office under him as under any other man who 
had ever been President, yet there was no office within his gift that I 
desired or would accept. I told him that my motives in supporting him had 
been assailed, and my accepting a position under his administration would 
be regarded as a confirmation of the truth of the charge that I was 
governed by selfish motives. But my principal reason for not accepting 
anything from him was that I would have far more influence for good by 
taking nothing for myself."

   Reporter: "Colonel, I have heard that you are now promoting claims 
against the Government, - is that a fact?"

   Colonel Mosby: "It is not. I have filed one claim for a citizen before 
the Southern Claims Commission. I shall turn this over, however, to a 
claim agent. I have had hundreds of claims of all sorts for prosecution 

Page 388

against the Government offered me, but have declined them all, as I have 
no idea of bartering my political influence. . . . I do not think that any 
man nominated at Lynchburg will stand the most remote chance of success, 
because he will only be supported by the negroes of the State, led by a 
few white men. No matter what my relations to the administration may be, I 
wouldn't assist in putting this set in power."

   I had strong personal reasons for being friendly with General Grant. If 
he had not thrown his shield over me, I should have been outlawed and 
driven into exile. When Lee surrendered, my battalion was in northern 
Virginia, on the Potomac, a hundred miles from Appomattox. Secretary of 
War Stanton invited all soldiers in Virginia to surrender on the same 
conditions which were offered to Lee's army; but I was excepted. General 
Grant, who was then all-powerful, interposed, and sent me an offer of the 
same parole that he had given General Lee. Such a service I could never 
forget. When the opportunity came, I remembered what he had done for me, 
and I did all I could for him.

   Early one morning, a few days after the election of 1872, I had to go 
to the Treasury Department on business. The Secretary, Mr. Boutwell, 

Page 389

had not come, and I was waiting in an anteroom. To my surprise, General 
Grant walked in. He shook hands with me, and said, "I heard you were here, 
and came to thank you for my getting the vote of Virginia." That is the 
only time I ever saw a President in any of the departments. Of course, I 
appreciated General Grant's compliment, although he gave me credit for a 
great deal more than I deserved.

   General Grant had also done another thing which showed the generosity 
of his nature. A few weeks before the surrender, a small party of my men 
crossed the Potomac one night and got into a fight, in which a detective 
was killed. One of the men was captured and sent to Fort McHenry. After 
the war he was tried by a military commission and sentenced to be 
imprisoned. The boy's mother went to see President Johnson, to beg a 
pardon for her son; but Johnson repelled her roughly.

   In her distress, she went over to the War Department to see General 
Grant. He listened patiently to her sorrowful story, then rose and asked 
her to go with him. He took her to the White House, walked into the 
reception room, and told the President that there had been suffering 
enough, and that he would not leave the 

Page 390

room without a pardon for the young Southerner. Johnson signed the 
necessary paper.

   In spite of the parole that I had taken, after I had settled down to 
the practice of law, I was several times arrested by provost-marshals 
stationed at the court houses where I went on the circuit. This was both 
annoying and unfair. My parole was a contract with the government that was 
binding on both parties. To arrest me before I had violated it was a 
breach of it.

   As my wife passed through Washington on her way to Baltimore, she 
determined to go to the White House, not to ask for a pardon, but to make 
a complaint. She had not intimated her purpose to me. Her father and 
President Johnson had served in Congress together, and had been friends; 
so she told Johnson whose daughter and whose wife she was. Instead of 
responding kindly, he was rude to her.

   She left him and went to see General Grant at the War Department. He 
treated her as courteously as if she had been the wife of a Union soldier, 
and then wrote the following letter, which he gave to her. He did not 
dictate the letter to a clerk; the whole is in his small, neat hand-
writing. It gave me liberty to travel anywhere unmolested as long as I 
observed my parole.

Page 391

Headquarters of the Armies of the United States, 
Washington, D. C., Feb'y 2nd, 1866. 

   John S. Mosby, lately of the Southern Army, will, hereafter, be exempt 
from arrest by military authorities, except for violation of his parole, 
unless directed by the President of the United States, Secretary of War, 
or from these headquarters.

   His parole will authorize him to travel freely within the state of 
Virginia, and as no obstacle has been thrown in the way of paroled 
officers and men from pursuing their civil pursuits, or traveling out of 
their States, the same privilege will be extended to J. S. Mosby, unless 
otherwise directed by competent authority.

(Signed) U. S. Grant, 
Lieutenant General. 

   When General Ewell was captured by the Federal forces, on the retreat 
from Richmond, he was sent to Fort Warren. Mrs. Ewell - who had married 
the general during the war - was from Nashville, and had known Johnson 
when he was Governor of Tennessee. She, too, called on the President, 
presuming on their old acquaintance, to ask that her husband be released 
on parole. Ewell was in a feeble condition; he had lost a leg in the war. 
Johnson treated her just as he had treated my wife, and asked her why she 
had "married a one-legged man."

Page 392

   Mrs. Ewell then went to see General Grant, who expressed great pleasure 
at being able to do something for "my old friend Ewell", and ordered that 
the poor fellow should be released from prison. He did hundreds of similar 
things.

   As I have said, my first interview with General Grant was in May, 1872, 
when I was introduced to him by Senator Lewis of Virginia. He immediately 
began telling me how near I came to capturing the train on which he went 
to take command of the Army of the Potomac in 1864. I remarked, "If I had 
done it, things might have been changed - I might have been in the White 
House and you might be calling on me."

   "Yes," he said.

   In our talk I became convinced that he was not only willing but anxious 
to lift the Southern people out of the rut they were in, but he couldn't 
help them without their coöperation. If they insisted on keeping up their 
fire on him, he had to return the fire. I knew that he was in favor of 
relieving Southerners of the disabilities imposed by the Fourteenth 
Amendment, as he had recommended in his message. Such a bill had passed 
the House, but in the Senate, Sumner had insisted on tacking to it his 
Civil Rights Bill, which made it odious, and the measure was defeated.

Page 393

   I suggested that if he could get such a bill passed, it would be 
construed as an olive branch, and would create such a reaction in his 
favor in Virginia that we could carry the State for him.

   "We will see what can be done," he replied.

   As I was under no disability myself, it would have been hard to 
discover a selfish motive in what I urged Grant to do. A few days 
afterwards, a bill removing political disabilities was reported in the 
House; the rules were suspended, and the bill passed. It was sent to the 
Senate; there was a night session; Sumner went to his committee room to 
take a nap, and while he was asleep, the bill was called up and became a 
law. He was furious when he awoke and found out what had been done. Many 
Confederates who had been excluded from public position were then sent to 
Congress or received appointments from Washington. Among them was the Vice-
President of the Southern Confederacy.

   I crossed the Rubicon when I paid my first visit to the White House, 
and I never recrossed it. My son Beverly, who was about twelve years old, 
was with me. He had been with his mother six years before, when she called 
on Andrew Johnson. That night, when he knelt by her to say his prayers, 
after getting through the usual form, 

Page 394

he turned to her and said, "Now, mamma, may I pray to God to send old 
Johnson to the devil?"

   I told the story to Grant.

   "A great many would have joined in Beverly's prayer," he said, laughing.

   As many people in the South regarded me as a connecting link between 
the administration and themselves, I had to pay frequent visits to the 
White House, either to ask favors or to carry complaints. Such a duty is a 
shirt of Nessus to any one who wears it. Although I declined to take 
office from General Grant and exerted all the influence I had with him for 
the benefit of the Virginia people, this did not save me from the 
imputation of sordid motives.

   It is generally believed that Grant appointed me consul at Hong Kong. 
He did not; I was appointed by Mr. Hayes.

   Often as I went to the White House during Grant's second term, I never 
failed to see him except once, when he was in the hands of a dentist. In 
those days hundreds went to him for appointments, who would now be sent to 
the Civil Service Commission. In spite of all this pressure, he never 
seemed to be in a hurry. He was the best listener I ever saw, and one of 
the quickest to see the core of a question.

Page 395

   I once called at the White House about seven o'clock in the evening, 
with a telegram I had received from General Hampton. The door-keeper said 
that the President was at dinner. I gave the man my card and told him I 
would wait in the hall. He returned with a message from General Grant, 
asking me to come in and take dinner with the family. I replied that I had 
already dined. Then Ulysses S. Grant, Junior, came out and said, "Father 
says that you must come in and get some dinner."

   Of course, I went in. At the table, the General spoke of having called 
that evening on Alexander Stephens, who was lying sick at his hotel. It 
looked as if our war was a long way in the past when the President of the 
United States could call to pay his respects to the Vice-President of the 
Confederate States.

   A few weeks before the close of Grant's second term, I introduced one 
of my men to him.

   "I hope you will not think less of Captain Glasscock because he was 
with me in the war," I said.

   "I think all the more of him," the President promptly replied.

   I once said to General Grant, "General, if you had been a Southern man, 
would you have been in the Southern army?"

Page 396

   "Certainly," he replied.

   He aways spoke in the friendliest manner of his old army comrades who 
went with the South. Once, speaking of Stonewall Jackson, who was with him 
at West Point, he said to me, "Jackson was the most conscientious being I 
ever knew."

   I saw Grant on the day when he signed the Electoral Commission Bill to 
decide the Hayes-Tilden dispute. He was in an unusually good humor, and 
said that the man in whose favor the commission decided should be 
inaugurated. He talked a good deal about his early life in the army and 
gave a description of his first two battles - Palo Alto and Resaca de la 
Palma.

   A few days after he left the White House, I called on General Grant at 
the home of Mr. Hamilton Fish, where he was staying. I did not ask him to 
recommend me to the new administration, as some members of the Cabinet 
were not friendly to him.

   President Hayes, however, appointed me United States Consul at Hong 
Kong; and it was there, in 1879, during Grant's tour of the world, that I 
last saw him. I went in a boat to meet him, and, as I was the official 
representative of the United States, the other craft that surrounded the 
steamship as soon as it anchored gave me the right of 

Page 397

way. As I went up the gangway, I recognized him, with his wife and eldest 
son, standing on the deck. It did look strange that I should be there 
representing the government, while General Grant was a private citizen.

   There was with me an old Virginian who had gone to Hong Kong before the 
war. When I introduced him, I told General Grant that when I arrived I had 
found this fellow countryman of mine in about the same temper that I was 
in when the general was fighting in the Wilderness; but that he was 
willing to surrender to the man to whom General Lee had surrendered. Mrs. 
Grant spoke up and asked liberal terms for him, and Grant said that he 
paroled him, and hoped he would be a loyal citizen.

   The Governor of Hong Kong met General Grant's party at the wharf, and 
they went to the Government House. Next morning the general paid his 
respects to me at the American Consulate. He was the guest of the governor 
for about ten days. On several days I breakfasted with him, and we had 
many free and informal talks. Once he was giving a description of his ride 
on donkey-back from Jaffa to Jerusalem.

   "That," he said, "was the roughest road I ever traveled."

Page 398

   "General," I replied, "I think you have traveled one rougher road than 
that."

   "Where?" he inquired.

   "From the Rapidan to Richmond," I answered.

   "I reckon there were more obstructions on that road," he admitted.

   I went with the general, Mrs. Grant, Colonel Fred Grant, and the 
governor, in a launch, to the United States man-of-war which carried his 
party up the China coast, and bade him my last farewell. When we started 
ashore, the ship began firing a royal salute of twenty-one guns, in honor 
of the governor, and the launch stopped. When the firing was over, General 
Grant lifted his hat, and we responded. I never saw the great soldier 
again.

   Some time afterwards, I sent the general a Malacca cane which I had had 
lacquered for him. It bore the inscription, "To General U. S. Grant from 
John S. Mosby, Hong Kong."

   He was in very poor health when he received it, but Colonel Fred Grant 
wrote me that his father was pleased at my remembrance of him.

   When I heard that President Cleveland had removed me as consul, in 
1885, I wrote to General Grant and asked him to secure me employment from 
some-corporation, by which I could make 

Page 399

a living. I did not then know how near he was to his end. My letter was 
forwarded to him at Mount McGregor, and on the day before I sailed from 
Hong Kong a dispatch announced his death. I felt that I had lost my best 
friend.

   I did not suppose that my letter would have any result, but on arriving 
in San Francisco, I learned that he had dictated a note to Governor 
Stanford, of the Southern Pacific, asking him, as a personal favor, to 
take care of me. I was made an attorney in the company and held that 
position for sixteen years.

   I have given as faithful an account as Æneas did to Dido of events - 
all of which I saw and part of which I was. No one clung longer to the 
Confederacy than I did, and I can say with the champion of another lost 
cause that if Troy could have been saved by this right hand even by the 
same it would have been saved.