MOSBY'S RANGERS: LESSONS IN INTELLIGENCE AND SPECIAL OPERATIONS LESSONS LEARNED AND HISTORY RIDE

• Document Type: SPECIALCOLLECTION
• Collection: FOIA Collection
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 06500908
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 73
• Document Creation Date: March 16, 2022
• Document Release Date: February 25, 2016
• Case Number: F-2015-02488

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MOSBY S RANGERS
LESSONS LEARNED AND HISTORY RIDE
CENTER FOR THE STUDY OF INTELLIGENCE
WASHINGTON, DC 20505
for Release: 2016/02/10 C06500908
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This product is intended for internal training uses only.
Center for the Study of Intelligence
Central Intelligence Agency
Washington, DC 20505
703-613
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� Mosby's Rangers: Lessons in Intelligence
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Lessons Learned and History
Staff Ride
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Center for the Study of Intelligence
Central Intelligence Agency
Washington, DC
2015
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Mosby's Rangers: Staff Ride Handbook
Contents
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Introduction
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Mosby's Early Years
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Strategic Setting, 1860-61
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Birth of Mosby's Rangers
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Strategic Setting, 1861
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Mosby's Oak
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Thompson's Corner Raid Site
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Weapons
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Chantilly Plantation Overseer's Hourse
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16 October 1863 Wagon Train Ambush Site�Chantilly Regional Library
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Laura Ratcliffe's Civil War Home Site
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Frying Pan Church
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Mosby's Rock
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Merrybrook�Laura Ratcliffe's Postwar Home
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Worldgate Marriott�Laura Ratcliffe's Grave
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Herndon Raiload Station
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Deception, Captured Union Equipment, and Supplies
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Union Army Counterpartisan Operations and Tactics
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The Battle of Dranesville
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The Sugarland Run Ambush
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Miskers Farm
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Mt. Zion Baptist Church
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Old Carolina Road
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Aldie Mill and Bridge
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Dover Crossroads
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Oakham Farm
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Middleburg�Lorman Chancellor Home
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Red Fox Inn
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Rector's Crossroads�Now known as Atoka Village
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Upperville
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Lakeland�Where Mosby was shot, December 1864
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Five Points, Rectortown�New Year's Day, 1864
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Woodward's Store
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Rectortown Lottery Site
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Mosby's Rangers
and the Laws of War 47
Punitive War: The
Union Army Response in Dealing with Partisans�What Not to Do 50
Disbanding Site,
Salem (present-day Marshall) 53
Mosby Home in
Warrenton 55
Warrenton Cemetery
and Mosby's Grave 55
Fairfax Courthouse
Raid, the Capture of General Stoughton 56
Aftermath 61
Psychological effect of Mosby's Operations 61
Distant Notes on Mosby's Legacy and Influence 62
Image credits 65
Readings 66
Websites 67
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Lessons Learned and History
Staff Ride Handbook
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Col. John S. Mosby
As glides in seas the shark,
Rides Mosby through green dark.
�Herman Melville
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Introduction
During much of the Civil War, Col. John Singleton Mosby, Confederate States of Amer-
ica (CSA), and his Partisan Rangers operated as an uncorprentional force and followed a
tradition of American irregular warfare handed down by Maj. Robert Rogers of Rogers'
Rangers of the French and Indian Wars and Francis Marion, the Swamp Fox, of the
American Revolution.
On this staff ride, you will travel through some of the areas known as Mosby's Confed-
eracy in Fairfax, Loudoun, and Fauquier Counties. The staff ride will pass on some of
the intelligence and special operations lessons learned by Colonel Mosby and his Parti-
san Rangers during the American Civil War.
On 21 April 1862, the rebel government in Richmond passed the Partisan Ranger Act
authorizing and encouraging the formation of irregular or guerrilla units to harass a
much larger and well-supplied Union Army mobilizing to invade the South at multiple
points. In the trans-Mississippi West on the Missouri-Kansas border, William C. Quan-
trill commanded a sizable rebel guerrilla unit that included Jesse and Frank James,
and Cole, Jim, and John Younger�of postwar outlaw fame. "Bloody Bill" Anderson
and Sterling Price also operated in Missouri. M. Jerome Clarke formed a similar rebel
irregular unit in Kentucky while Nathan Bedford Forrest and John Hunt Morgan raised
mounted units that would harass Union forces in Tennessee, Kentucky, Ohio, Missis-
sippi, and Alabama. Similar units came into being later in the war in Arkansas, Georgia,
North Carolina, and even California, where Rufus Henry Ingram formed a guerrilla
band to combat the Confederacy's enemies on the Pacific Coast. In Virginia, a major
center of rebel power and population close to Washington, DC, numerous guerrilla
units formed under John Mobberly, Turner Ashby, Elijah White (White's Rebels), John
Hanson McNeill (McNeill's Rangers), and, perhaps the most famous, John S. Mosby�
the Confederacy's "Gray Ghost'
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Mosby and his command, although partisans like the others, developed strategies and
tactics that made them unique in the history of Civil War irregular warfare. Mosby's
success was due to a combination of audaciousness, leadership skills, detailed planning,
and brilliant use of intelligence, terrain, mobility, and weaponry. His accomplishments
are considered expnplars of unconventional/irregular warfare and form part of the core
of the US military's special operations capabilities today. They deserve careful study.
In World War II, the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) studied Mosby and his methods,
and his tactics ana lessons learned remain a current focus of research and study by US
Special Forces and Special Operations Forces. In 1951, at the Army War College, OSS
founder Maj. Ge7. William J. Donovan spoke of Mosby's Rangers and their part in the
tradition of American partisan warfare:
If there is one certain deduction to be drawn from past experience, it is that
guerrilla tachcs, when carried out by a resourceful and persistent enemy, have
generally resulted in prolonged warfare, especially against invading armies.
Mosby has had a tremendous and lasting effect on the way the US military�especially
our Special Operations Forces�operates. Today, the John Singleton Mosby Reserve
Army Center at Fort Belvoir is home to the 55th Sustainment Brigade. The crest of that
unit incorporates Mosby's famous slouch hat with ostrich plume. The current edition of
the US Army's Ranger Handbook states:
The American Civil War was again the occasion for the creation of special
units such as Rangers. John S. Mosby, a master of the prompt and skillful use of
cavalry, was one of the most outstanding Confederate Rangers. He believed that
by resorting to aggressive action he could compel his enemies to guard a hundred
points. He would then attack one of the weakest points and be assured numerical
superiority. ,
Mosby's Ranger are honored on the official website of the 75th Ranger Regiment,
which traces its lineage to Mosby and other American Ranger units such Rogers' Rang-
ers, Francis Marion's Partisans, the Rangers of World War II, and Merrill's Marauders.
Colonel Mosby is a member in the US Army Ranger Hall of Fame.
Every US Army Special Forces soldier swears to the Special Forces Creed. They live and
sometimes die hy its motto "De Oppresso Liber" (To Free the Oppressed). An older
version of that creed states, "I serve with the memory of those that have gone before me:
Rogers' Rangers', Francis Marion, Mosby's Rangers, the First Special Service Forces and
Ranger Battalio7s of World War II, the Airborne Ranger Companies of Korea."
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Mosby's Early Years
John Singleton Mosby was born in Powhatan County, Virginia, in 1833 to Virginia
McLaurine and Alfred Daniel Mosby. John's father attended Hampden-Sydney College,
a rare event for that time. The Mosby family had deep Virginia roots, having emigrated
from England before settling in Charles County in the early 1600s. The family moved
to Charlottesville, Virginia, while John was still very young. Several accounts describe
him as a child small in stature, frail and sickly, who was often bullied. As a boy, Mosby
read an account of Revolutionary War hero Francis Marion, the Swamp Fox. It made
an impression. Mosby initially attended his father's alma mater to study mathematics
but transferred to the University of Virginia in 1849 to pursue classical studies. While
there, he quarreled with, and then shot and wounded, another student over a perceived
insult, and at age 19 ended up serving several months in prison. Expelled from the uni-
versity because of his misdemeanor conviction, he used his seven months in detention
to study law and write a request for a pardon to Virginia Governor Joseph Johnson.
Receiving the pardon in late 1853, Mosby continued his law study and was admitted
to the Virginia Bar. In December 1857 he married Pauline Clarke, the daughter of a
prominent Kentucky attorney, former congressman, and well-connected politician.
Mosby eventually settled down to practice law in Bristol, Virginia, and the couple had
three children, two born before the Civil War, and one during the conflict. As sectional
tensions between the north and south flared between 1860 and 1861, and as talk of war
grew more frequent, John Mosby spoke out against those advocating Virginia's seces-
sion from the Union.
Strategic Setting, 1860-61
The election of Abraham Lincoln to the presidency in November 1860 split the nation.
Although the president-elect was a moderate on the abolition question, southerners,
fearing that northern radicals and abolitionists would control his administration,
viewed Lincoln's election as a political, economic, and social threat to their traditional
way of life and the region's economy. Certain that no compromise was possible and that
continued existence within a federal union dominated by those perceived as hostile
to the planter aristocracy of the South, many states began to talk openly of secession.
South Carolina voted to leave the Union on 20 December 1860, followed in January
1861 by Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and, on 1 February, Texas
(all Deep South slaves states heavily engaged in cotton production), establishing the
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Confederate Stat4 of America. The border slave states of Maryland, Kentucky, Missouri,
and Delaware remained in the Union, even though their populations were divided in
their loyalties. Optgoing President James Buchanan viewed secession as illegal but
also viewed going to war to stop or reverse secession as being illegal as well. Stymied,
Buchanan did nothing as the Union dissolved. When inaugurated on 4 March 1861 in
Washington, Presf dent Lincoln sought to reach out to the rebellious states to effect some
compromise but to no avail. On 15 April, after the fall of Fort Sumter, Lincoln called
for 75,000 volunters to crush the rebellion. Northern states, especially Pennsylvania,
New York, and Massachusetts, rapidly answered the call and dispatched troops to
Washington. Virginia, which had doubts about the wisdom of secession, had no doubts
about Lincoln's iiitent to use armed force to act against seceding states. Virginia voted
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to secede on 17 April and joined the Confederacy in May, soon followed by Arkansas,
Tennessee, and North Carolina.
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Birth of Mosby's Rangers
Like many Virginians fearing an immi-
nent northern invasion, Mosby enlisted as
a private in the 1st Virginia Cavalry and
fought at the First Battle of Manassas (or
First Bull Run) on 21 July 1861, a southern
victory that dispelled any illusions on the
part of the Nortli that the rebellion would
be short-lived. During his time with the
1st Virginia, Mc30y was mentored by Col.
William "Grumble" Jones. Mosby came
to the attentiori of Confederate cavalry
commander James Ewell Brown (J.E.B.)
Stuart and received a commission as a 1st
lieutenant to seive as an adjutant in early
1862. When Grumble Jones was replaced
by vote (electing officers was a Confederate
practice for ranks below brigadier general),
Mosby resigned pis commission, in lieu of
being relieved by the new commander, and
reverted to being a private.
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That year Mosby began working as a scout, collecting intelligence, for now-Brigadier
General Stuart during the Union's ill-fated Peninsula Campaign (March-July 1862)
between the James and York Rivers south of Richmond. The campaign ended in another
military disaster for the Army of the Potomac commanded by Maj. Gen. George B.
McClellan, but nearly entailed personal disaster for Mosby, who was captured by Union
forces in July 1862. Mosby was privy to important verbal dispatches; however, he said
nothing. He was held for a short period in Washington's Old Capitol Prison before being
paroled and exchanged for a Union officer. While he was being transported by boat for his
release, he took great notice of Union troop movements and elicited information from the
boat captain. On his return, he reported this intelligence immediately and directly to Gen.
Robert E. Lee, the recently appointed commander of the Army of Northern Virginia.
Mosby returned to ride with Stuart during the battles of Second Manassas, Chantilly, and
Antietam in 1862 and they developed a mutual trust and friendship.
As Mosby began his military career, he read military books whenever he could, includ-
ing William Hazlitt's The Life of Napoleon. He kept his wife Pauline busy sending him
books not just on military topics though.
Mosby was given his first independent command under General Stuart on 30 Decem-
ber 1862 when he was ordered to raise and operate a squad-size stay-behind force from
the 1st Virginia Cavalry. Mosby began to collect intelligence and conduct raids be-
hind Union lines in the counties along
the Potomac River between Virginia
and Maryland. To avoid detection from
larger and ever-present Union forces,
his Rangers would form up on predes-
ignated dates and at specific locations,
conduct their raids, often at night,
and then disperse. When these tactics
proved successful, Stuart ordered Mosby
to recruit more men and conduct more
operations. The recruitment of partisan
units helped boost the total manpow-
er available to the Confederacy. Many
southerners were willing to support the
cause but did not want to leave their
homes and local areas, especially if vul-
nerable to Union military action, as in
the case of Northern Virginia. Service in
a partisan unit allowed the individual to
stay close to home and take part in the
fighting rather than join a larger regular
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Mosby troops in ambush waiting to capture a bearer of dispatches. Virginia State Library.
force, such as Lee's Army of Northern Virginia, that frequently campaigned far and
wide and whose soldiers were always required to be either on the march, in battle, or in
camp. It also allowed for profit from captured animals and weapons.
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From then on, Mosby reported directly to Stuart until Stuart's death resulting from the
Battle of Yellow Tavern in May 1864. After that he reported directly to Lee, an uncom-
mon chain of conunand for a partisan leader during the war. When the Rangers dis-
persed they would reside alone or in small groups at "safe houses" owned by the many
Confederate syrnpathizers in Northern Virginia, especially in areas within 25 miles of
the District of Cnlumbia that were occupied by Union forces. If there was an emergency
or a need to conduct an operation, a rider would be sent to the various safe houses to
alert the Ranger S when and where to gather. Their targets included Union pickets, small
camps and outposts, railroads and locomotives, supply and US mail wagons, and, as we
shall see, high Union military leadership. This staff ride visits sites associated with some
of those targets.
While Mosby pri acticed unconventional warfare, his operational successes can be at-
tributed to his understanding of basic military tactics (the same as practiced by Robert
Rogers and Fraricis Marion) and the operational principles that guide them. In today's
US military thee principles are codified as the nine Principles of War:
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Mass Surprise Unity of Command
Objective Economy of Force Security
Offensive Maneuver Simplicity
Lesson Learned (Unity of Command): Mosby knew his commander's intent and
was generally allowed to act independently of higher command authority. He
chose his own targets that fit into overall Confederate campaign or strategic
goals. Mosby and his men had the support of the local population, who housed
and fed them, from Manassas to the Shenandoah Valley.
The Rangers existed largely off of what weapons, horses, and supplies they captured and
local popular support as authorized under the Partisan Ranger Act. At times the Rang-
ers also captured large sums of money, in Union payrolls, which had a demoralizing
effect on the Union soldiers who went unpaid. Although considered outlaws, bandits,
or "bushwhackers" by many northerners and most federal troops, Mosby's 43rd Virgin-
ia Cavalry Battalion, like Elijah V. White's 35th Virginia Cavalry Battalion to Mosby's
north, was a formal unit listed on the Army of Northern Virginia's order-of-battle. Fully
or partially uniformed in Confederate gray, Mosby's Partisan Rangers were therefore
considered to be official and legitimate members of the Confederate armed forces and
were allowed the same status under accepted rules of warfare as their Army of Northern
Virginia or Union Army contemporaries, although as we will see, exceptions occurred.
As a general custom, everywhere on both sides, if you were caught in your army's uni-
form, you were a prisoner of war; if you were in disguise, you were a spy and could be
hanged. Men who rode with the "Gray Ghost" and other such military units were for the
most part considered soldiers. Many other riders, particularly a Confederate espionage
group operating under Gen. Braxton Bragg in Tennessee known as Coleman's Scouts,
commanded by Henry B. Shaw under the pseudo Coleman, were treated as "spies."
Lesson Learned (Offensive): Mosby and his Rangers operated year-round. In an
era of truly poor transportation routes that hindered logistics and the supply of
armies even in the best of weather, conventional Union and Confederate forces
would go into winter quarters from late fall until late spring, restricting their
activities both by necessity and design. Taking advantage of stationary and often
inactive adversaries, Mosby's Rangers would accelerate their operations during
the colder months to wreak maximum havoc. Mosby also avoided main roads and
traveled via the woods and local paths as much as possible to avoid becoming a
victim of ambush himself The Rangers also captured most of their equipment,
horses, and weapons. Use of captured equipment is still a principle of guerrilla
warfare.
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Strategic Setting, 1861
Being some 60 miles south of the
Mason-Dixon Line, Washington,
DC, remained surrounded by slave
states (Maryland, Virginia, and
nearby Delaware) through the Civ-
il War. Populations in these states,
and in the capital itself in the ear-
ly years, remained divided in their
loyalties. Baltimore, for example,
was considered a hot bed of sedition
and had experienced violent rioting
at Camden Yards as Union military
units, especially militia units from
Massachusetts, the home of the ab-
olitionist movement, traveled south
by rail to Washington in the spring
of 1861. The artillery pieces of Fort
McHenry, normally defending the
Patuxent River access to the inner
harbor, were repositioned to cov-
er the city itself to intimidate the
city's pro-South elite. Across the
Potomac, residents of Arlington
and Alexandria proudly flew rebel
flags from their homes and busi-
nesses, clearly visible to govern-
ment officials in the White House
and US Capitol. Within the capital
itself, rebel sympathizers infiltrated
the District's newly formed militia
and other military units. Soon after
Lincoln's inauguration, Col. Charles
Pomeroy Stone was appointed as
inspector general of the DC mili-
tia and through 1861 pursued rebel
sympathizers in the District of Co-
lumbia and collected intelligence
on numerous southern plots, most
of which turned out to be more ru-
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mor than fact. Buit, even after these rebel sympathizers were ferretted out or crushed,
Union officials remained wary.
Very much "behirid the lines: Union Army engineers began constructing several rings
of fortifications, eventually numbering nearly 200 individual posts, to protect the capi-
tal from rebel attack; Union troops also secured the Chain Bridge and other vital river
crossings (two on the Potomac and one on the Anacostia). Between April and July
1861, troops of the Army of the Potomac moved into Northern Virginia, occupying
hostile territory as far as Centreville, Chantilly, and Herndon. Federal troops sporadi-
cally operated in other areas of western Fairfax and eastern Loudoun Counties as well,
with their headquarters at Fairfax Courthouse.
While several rings of fortifications eventually surrounded the capital (Fort Totten, Fort
Stevens, Fort DrUm, Fort Washington, Fort Marcy, and Fort Hunt, among others�all
connected by Military Road), with thinner "picket lines" of federal troops farther out,
the early defense,s were porous. Although required to have a pass to enter and leave
the federal city (easily forged), a person could move back and forth largely unhindered
between areas in Maryland, the District of Columbia, and Northern Virginia, especially
at night and espeCially if one avoided heavily patrolled main thoroughfares and the few
bridges into the City
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This nonexistent heavily manned "front line" would facilitate Mosby's later operations,
as well as espionage rings centered in the nation's capital, the largest established by Vir-
ginia Governor John Letcher, whose members included Thomas Jordan, Betty Duvall,
and Rose O'Neal Greenhow�all prominent Virginians well-connected in Washington
social circles. Together, they formed the "Secret Line: the name for the network of
operatives from Baltimore, through Washington, to Richmond, 150 miles to the south.
The Secret Line became the conduit to smuggle vital intelligence in the form of letters,
verbal intelligence reports, and other documents to Confederate military and political
leaders, especially those working for the South's Secret Service Bureau under Maj. Wil-
liam Norris. Although known to Union military and counterintelligence officials, the
agents of the Confederate Secret Service Bureau, and those along the Secret Line, like
Mosby, operated with varying degrees of success for the duration of the Civil War.
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1. Near the intersection of Route 123 and Hunter Mill Road at 2911
Hunter Mill Road, Oakton
Mosby's Oak
During the Civil War, this area of Oakton was
known as Flint Hill. This oak tree on Hunter
Mill Road is over 400 years old. Mosby used
it at times as a rendezvous location and, while
working as a scout for Stuart, tried to capture
a Union sympathizer named Alexander Haight
near here. Haight got away. Hunter Mill Road
was an important route used by Mosby during
the Civil War, and there were many engage-
ments along its length, especially in the area
of the former W&OD railcrossing on Hunt-
er Mill (now the bike trail). During the Civil
War, the railroad here was named the Alex-
andria, Loudoun & Hampshire Railroad. It
was a frequent target of Mosby's Rangers. On
18 October 1864, Mosby's men, led by Capt.
Richard Montjoy (Mosby was not present), en-
tered Falls Church to capture horses. They also
captured a Baptist minister John D. Read (or
Reed), a Union sympathizer, alleged spy, and detested abolitionist. Read is also alleged
to have blown a horn to alert the home guard as the Rangers entered town. That same
day, 18 October 1864, not far from the railcrossing, farther down Hunter Mill Road and
off the rail line, Mosby's men executed Reverend Read near Piney Branch. There is a
marker near the spot. There was an old jump rope song that school kids sang in the area
for many years afterwards:
Isn't any school,
Isn't any teacher;
Isn't any church,
Mosby shot the preacher'
Near here, behind the Old Methodist Church at the foot of Hunter Mill Road on Route
123, at 2951 Chain Bridge Road, Oakton, was a campground for a 20-man detachment
from the 16th New York Cavalry. On 7 March 1865, barely a month before Lee's sur-
render at Appomattox Courthouse ending the Civil War in Northern Virginia, Mosby's
men attacked the unit while it was on patrol, killing two, wounding one, and capturing
three troopers along with several horses without suffering any casualties of their own.
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The rest of the Union patrol ran. During the Civil War there was no Chain Bridge
Road/Route 123 in this area, but there was a Courthouse Road. The original Methodist
Church at that time was on nearby Blake Lane. North from here on Route 123 is Flint
Hill Cemetery wliere four of Mosby's Rangers are buried.
In Vienna, the 1..T Army constructed and manned Freedom Hill Fort as a signal tower
location and to specifically guard against raids and ambushes in the area by Mosby and
the Rangers. Company A from the 5th Pennsylvania Artillery Regiment manned Free-
dom Hill. Mosby's Rangers just went around it.
Lesson Learned: Freedom Hill is a good example of how large numbers of Union
forces were tiei up guarding against Mosby's irregular operations. Guarding
static locations' against highly mobile forces has occurred countless times in the
history of guerrilla warfare. Mosby and his men were always capturing Union
horses; they keIpt the very best of them for their own use and as remounts while
others were sold and sent on to the Confederate Army.
Freedom Hill is preserved today as a small park off of Courthouse Road near Route 123.
There is a historical marker, and the outline of some of the entrenchments can still be
seen.
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2. Get on 1-66 West and then turn west onto US-50 W/John S. Mos-
by Highway. From U5-50 W turn north onto West Ox Road for
approximately 1.7 miles to the corner of Thompson Road.
As you turn off US 50 please note that on 1 September 1862, the Battle of Chantilly was
fought here at the intersection of Little River Turnpike (now US-50) and West Ox Road.
At the time of the battle, Mosby was with Stuart's cavalry, which conducted reconnais-
sance and acted as a cavalry screen for Maj. Gen. Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson, who
launched the main attack against Union fgrces. A few days earlier at Second Manassas
Mosby had his horse shot out from under him.
Thompson's Corner Raid Site
On 25 February 1863, Mosby and 25 Rangers left Rector's Crossroads, which is a stop
later on the staff ride, for one of their earliest raids. The raid was planned against a
picket of 50 troops from the 18th Pennsylvania Cavalry camped here at the corner of
Thompson Road and West Ox Road. The weather was a mix of snow and rain on the
morning of 26 February when Mosby and his Rangers surprised the encamped Penn-
sylvanians, causing them to flee. Three Union troopers and one officer were killed, sev-
eral were wounded, and five were taken prisoner along with 39 horses. Mosby recorded
no casualties in the raid. Sgt. James F. Ames, who had deserted to Mosby from the 5th
New York Cavalry on 11 February 1863, accompanied the raid, though Mosby insisted
he do so unarmed as a test of his loyalty Nicknamed "Big Yankee the unarmed, but
large and muscular, Ames captured a Union trooper who was well-armed with saber,
pistol, and carbine. These Pennsylvania cavalry fell under the overall command of a
British soldier of fortune commanding a Union cavalry brigade, Sir Percy Wyndham,
who hence called Mosby a "horse thief'
Lessons Learned (Mass, Offensive, Surprise, and Maneuver):
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Selection of Mosby Rangers Weapons
Colt Model 1860 Army revolver
Remington 1858
S &W Model 2
Sharps
Merrill
Remington New Model Army revolver
Remington Navy
�-�
Spencer
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Weapons
Even though there were more Union troopers at Thompson's Corner than Mosby's
Rangers, Mosby was able to concentrate his combat firepower to high effect. While
most light and heavy cavalry units on both sides were equipped with sabers (usually the
1860 model Light Cavalry and the older, more common 1840 model Heavy Dragoon
known as the "wrist breaker" ) and carbines (usually the .52 to .56 caliber Smith, Sharps,
Burnside, Merrill, or Spencer), which were deemed more manageable for a mounted
rider, cavalrymen on both sides carried at least two and as many as six revolvers. Most
common on both sides were the single-action 1851 model Colt and 1858 model Rem-
ington revolvers, long military staples. Two new revolvers that appeared the year before
secession were highly sought after: the Colt 1860 single-action Army model (in .44
caliber) and the 1860 Navy model (in .36 caliber). There were three series of Remington
Army and Navy models revolvers produced during the Civil War, two of which incor-
porated improvements to the original 1858 patent design. The guns produced in the
third Remington series, the 1863 version, were called the New Model Army revolver (in
.44 caliber) and the New Model Navy revolver (in .36 caliber).
In addition to government-issued weaponry, cavalrymen on both sides often purchased
their own weapons, sometimes of smaller calibers, such as the Smith & Wesson No. 2
Army Model with the new .32 caliber rimfire cartridge. Most pistols were of standard
cap and ball variety which required each of the six chambers to be loaded individually
with black powder from a flask and a lead ball, with a percussion cap primer needed on
each cylinder cone or nipple, all rammed home with a built-in rod. Soon after the war
began, paper "cartridges" became available, each cartridge containing a proper measure
of powder and the ball as one unit wrapped in flammable nitrate paper. The cartridge
could be slid into the chamber, speeding the loading process. Reloading on a galloping
horse under fire, however, was not a task for the amateur, thus the tendency of the cav-
alrymen to carry multiple revolvers to avoid constant and often difficult reloading. By
carrying several of these pistols each, the Rangers had significantly more close-range
firepower (18-24 shots) than their Union infantry opponents armed, typically, with
only a single-shot, muzzle-loaded Springfield rifled musket. At one March 1864 ren-
dezvous before an operation, Ranger J. Marshall Crawford reported that each of the
200 Rangers carried three Colt Army Model revolvers. He also noted the use of double
barrel shotguns by the Rangers with 24 buckshot loaded in each barrel.
After one lopsided engagement, Mosby sent word to the Union commander that their
sabers and Merrill carbines made them defenseless and that the US government would
do better to arm them with revolvers like Mosby. The Merrill was a single-shot, breech-
loading carbine. All the pistols that Mosby's men carried, especially the .44 caliber Colts
and .36 caliber Remington, had been captured from Union arsenals in the early days of
the war or from federal troops they encountered. A few of Mosby's men were armed in
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addition with carbines. Breech-loading carbines were highly valued because they could
be reloaded in the, saddle. The Spencer, known in the parlance of the day as a "repeater:'
was considered state-of-the-art in modern weaponry. It had a seven-round tube in the
buttstock and fired some of the first metallic cartridges ever developed�containing
bullet, powder, arid primer all in one�allowing upwards of 20 shots per minute (10
times the rate of fire of the average infantryman). It was very expensive to manufacture
and only cavalry Units received them.
3. Turn around and return south on West Ox Road to US-50 and
then proceed west on US-50 to the International Country Club.
000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
Chantilly Plantation Overseer's House
The historic houlse on the right, or north side, of US-50 was the overseer's house for
Chantilly Plantation. The plantation covered a large area from here to the north and
west. The plantation house was built by the husband of Cornelia Lee Turberville Stuart
on land she had inherited from her father. In February 1863, Union soldiers burned the
plantation house. A small segment of the plantation is now the golf course.
After a long ride,' on 23 March 1863 near here, Mosby and a group of Rangers emerged
from the woods near Chantilly Plantation. Their horses were already tired as they
approached a 9-lion picket stationed along Little River Turnpike (now US-50). The
Rangers charged, the mounted Union pickets known as "vedettes" from the French word
for "lookout" One Union soldier was killed and five or six were captured in this melee.
A reserve cavalry force of 70 men from the 5th New York Cavalry counterattacked,
and Mosby, seeing he was outnumbered, retreated west on the turnpike for a mile or
so until reaching Sander's (or Saunder's) Toll Gate (intersection of today's US-50 and
Centreville Road).
The Rangers' mounts were too tired though to outrun the Union cavalry, so Mosby had
his men take cover in a group of fallen trees just off the turnpike, where they waited
to ambush the pursuing Union cavalry. The Union troopers were strung out as they
galloped along the turnpike in hot pursuit. As the Union soldiers came abreast of the
concealed Rangers, Mosby's men opened fired at close range. Then, giving a rebel yell,
they charged the Union cavalry from the flank Five Union troopers were killed and
35 were quickl) captured. The regimental history lists three enlisted killed or mortally
wounded, two 'enlisted and one officer wounded; and 35 enlisted and one officer
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captured. These troopers belonged to the command of Lt. Col. Robert Johnstone. In his
report on the ambush, Johnstone wrote of his men: "The column broke and was pursued
by the enemy for one and a half miles. It was then rallied by the exertions of Majors
Bacon and White' Another Union cavalry force near Frying Pan heard the firing and
joined in the fight. Mosby and the Rangers took off heading west and were pursued for
about eight miles before the Union cavalry halted their pursuit at night fall.'
Lessons Learned (Maneuver, Surprise, Mobility): Mosby understood intrinsically
the following standing order issued to Rogers' Rangers: "If somebody's trailing
you, make a circle, come back onto your own tracks, and ambush the folks that
aim to ambush you." In conjunction with using the woods and lesser known paths
to approach, hereafter Mosby always made sure that the horses were well rested
when they hit a target. He had learned this hard lesson during the raid on the
Chantilly picket.
� �
4. At intersection of US-SO and Stringfellow Road turn south
on Stringfellow Road and enter parking lot of the Chantilly
Regional Library at 4000 Stringfellow Road, Chantilly.
16 October 1863 Wagon Train Ambush Site�Chantilly Regional Library
On the cloudy night of 16 October 1863 Mosby and seven of his men were concealed
behind Union lines along the Little River Turnpike when they observed a Union wagon
train moving west along the turnpike without an armed escort. In the darkness, Mosby
and his Rangers fell in behind the wagon train acting like they were a Union cavalry
escort. They passed through a large Union camp with its campfires that covered both
sides of the turnpike. After passing the last picket (near where the Chantilly Library
now stands), Mosby and his men sprung their ambush on the wagon train. The Con-
federates killed a Union officer and captured 13 Union soldiers and a captain; 36 mules,
and seven horses.
Farther south, where Stringfellow Road turns into Clifton Road at the intersection with
modern Route 29, is where Mosby was wounded on 14 September 1864.
Stringfellow Road may be named after a famous Confederate scout who served under
J.E.B. Stuart and who at times worked with Mosby. Capt. Benjamin Franklin (Frank)
Stringfellow often disguised himself as a Union soldier or officer on his "behind the
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lines" missions. A story from a contemporary account claims that on one of these oc-
casions five mounted Union soldiers approached him and questioned him at length.
Satisfied by his stiory, they decided to ride on, but Stringfellow was not satisfied. He
drew his revolvers and shot three of them from their saddles�the other two escaped.'
The truthfulness 4 this story is in doubt. Stringfellow was an excellent scout and spy,
and�having alre#dy had his cover pass scrutiny�it is hard to imagine he would have
jeopardized this riiiission, or future ones, without a good reason.
In another instaniFe of derring-do, Stringfellow disguised himself as a woman and was
coached by two Southern women, a mother and daughter, on how to behave. On the
mission he attended a dance, collected intelligence, and captured a Union Army lieu-
'
tenant.4
Another account from Stringfellow himself claimed that during one intelligence-
gathering mission he found himself close enough to Gen. US. Grant to have shot him
but declined to do so. Stringfellow also penetrated wartime Alexandria and Washington,
DC, to collect intelligence. During these missions he used a cover of being a dental
assistant and obtained a dental license.
Mosby and Stringfellow had a falling out though. Mosby blamed Stringfellow for faulty
leadership during the 9 January 1864 Loudoun Heights Raid, which took place on a
peak overlooking Harper's Ferry. Stringfellow had discovered the camp of some trou-
blesome Marylarid cavalry and proposed a raid to Mosby. It was conducted at night in
frigid temperatures by two elements. The coordinated attack failed to accomplish its
goal and Mosby Saw it as a defeat. More on this later in the staff ride.
5. Return tio Route US-50 W then turn north onto Centreville Road.
00 0 0 0 0� 0 0 0001 OOOOOO 0 000 00000 0 0 0 00 0 0 @� 0 0 0 0000 0 OOOOO 0 00 00 000 0 0 00 0 0
Farther south on Centreville Road where it turns into Walney Road is the present-day
Eleanor C. Lawrence Park During the Civil War this area was the property of Lewis
H. Machen and ,then his widow. Capt. William Chapman leading Company A of Mos-
by's Rangers surprised and ambushed a 40-man patrol of Union cavalry from the 16th
New York Regiment, who were grazing their horses and picking cherries near Machen's
barn. The Ranws killed six Union soldiers and captured 20 more and 30 horses.'
One of the Union cavalrymen captured was Sergeant Thomas R "Boston" Corbett, who
on 24 April 186p shot John Wilkes Booth.
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During the Civil War, the area on the left (west) side of Centreville Road,
was the property of the Turley family and site of the family
estate Turley Hall, which fell into ruins and was torn down.
Laura Ratcliffe's Civil War Home Site
Also on the west side of Centreville Road, in front of Discovery Square, is the area where
Laura Ratcliffe, a distant cousin of Robert E. Lee and friend and informant to both Mosby
and Stuart, lived and operated during the Civil War. Both Mosby and Stuart were guests at
her home during the war. Laura's relationship with Stuart has fueled some historical spec-
ulation. Although Stuart was married, he wrote romantic poetry to Laura Ratcliffe, which
survives in an album she kept. Stuart introduced Mosby to Ratcliffe and there were two
aspects to that. Not only was Ratcliffe going to serve as an intelligence source for Mosby,
but Stuart wanted Mosby to keep an eye out for her welfare.
The Ratcliffe property appears on Civil War-era maps, but the exact location of her
wartime home, which was razed in the 1990s, has been a matter of dispute. However,
we believe it to be at the location of the fire hydrant in front of Discovery Square Town-
houses.
+ � +
6. Continue to 2615 Centreville Road
Frying Pan Church
There were several skirmishes here during the
Civil War. On 26 January 1863, Mosby and his
Rangers captured two mounted Union sen-
tries at the church. From here, Mosby and the
Rangers continued south to the "Old Chan-
tilly Church" where they captured nine or 10
pickets from the 18th Pennsylvania Cavalry.6
The Old Chantilly Church no longer exists; it
had been located farther south on Centreville
Road in an area we passed�generally where
Lowe Street now intersects Centreville Road.
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There was another skirmish here at Frying Pan Church on 17 October 1863 involving
Confederate troops and Union cavalry.
Mosby and his Rangers often used the meeting house/church as a rendezvous location,
and it was close to the home of Laura Ratcliffe. One of Mosby's Rangers, Mortimer
Lane, is buried in ithe churchyard in an unmarked grave. Lane died of tuberculosis after
being imprisonedl and paroled.
Intelligence Lesisons Learned: Mosby raided lines of communication and captured
dispatch riders with Union Army operational plans. When Mosby's men took
prisoners they segregated them from other prisoners and questioned them
individually so they could not concoct a story among themselves. His practice of
controlling the 'prisoners in this fashion followed Rogers' Rangers Standing Orders
and is the same technique the US military uses today. Early in their existence the
Rangers sometimes paroled a few of their Union prisoners as they did not have
the manpower to guard them or escort them south. This practice evolved though
as the 43rd Virginia grew in size with Union prisoners being sent under guard
mainly to LibbY Prison ("Hotel Libby") in Richmond. The Rangers also targeted US
I Mail deliveries looking for intelligence and greenbacks. The Rangers had their own
scouts whom Mosby sent out to look for targets of opportunity.
� � �
7. Enter McNair Farms Road on the west side of Centreville Road
and continue to the terminus of Squirrel Hill Road to the Mt.
Pleasant Baptist Church. Mosby's Rock is farther down Squirrel
Hill Road near the church overflow parking lot near Big Boulder
Road. There is a marker at the location.
00000000000 00 oom00000000m0000000 0 0 0 00000000 o 0 o oo 0000e co 00000
Mosby's Rock
Mosby's Rock isia large rock formation that Mosby and Ratcliffe used as a dead drop. It
was a short walking distance from Ratcliffe's home on Centreville Road; she left mes-
sages for Mosby, and he in return left her US currency captured during his many raids.
This allowed MOsby and Ratcliffe to minimize face-to-face meetings in an area with a
heavy Union presence.
Lesson Learned: (Security)
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8. Continue north on Centreville Road and cross under the Dulles
Toll Road to 2346 Centreville Road, Herndon
Merrybrook�Laura Ratcliffe's Postwar Home
Just before crossing under the Dulles Toll Road on the left near Woodland Park Road is
Merrybrook where Laura Ratcliffe lived after the Civil War. This is a private residence;
however, the property owners hold commemorative events honoring Laura Ratcliffe,
and there is a website "Friends of Laura Ratcliffe' There is a historical marker and a
small place to park near Merrybrook.
�
9. Pull into Worldgate Centre on the right and loop around to the
Marriott Hotel parking lot at 13101 Worldgate Drive, Herndon.
Worldgate Marriott�Laura Ratcliffe's Grave
As noted, Laura Ratcliffe provided Stuart and Mosby with information on Union troop
movements in Fairfax County On 11 February 1863, she learned from a Union soldier
who came to her house to buy eggs and milk that federal troops were planning to cap-
ture Mosby. After he left, she set off three miles in the direction of the Coleman House
where Worldgate is now located. There she found Mosby and his men and warned him
that Union forces near Frying Pan were planning to ambush and capture him. Mosby
had been planning a raid in this location and federal troops hoped he would do just
that, surfacing so an even larger Union force could ambush and capture him. Mosby
was able to avoid contact and he remained ever in Ratcliffe's debt. Eventually, as the war
went on, Union officials began to suspect Ratcliffe's loyalties and debated arresting her
on espionage and treason charges. However, she was careful enough to avoid confirma-
tion of those suspicions. Ratcliffe died at the age of 87 at Merrybrook in 1923.
Laura Ratcliffe is buried in a small copse of trees near the parking lot.
Intelligence Lesson Learned: Mosby had a network of informants, of whom
Ratcliffe was one, to inform him of Union Army movements. Laura was a very
careful spy, who was never caught though she was certainly suspected.
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10. Continue north on Centreville Road, which becomes Elden,
turn leftanto Lynn Street. Herndon Station is located at 717
Lynn Street, Herndon.
Herndon Raiload Station
At the time of the Civil War, there was a sawmill here in addition to the station. On
16 March 1863, Mosby gathered 40 Rangers at Rector's Crossroads (modern day Atoka)
and rode toward Herndon, resting that night at Ball's Mill at Goose Creek in Loudoun
County. On the 17th, St. Patrick's Day, the Rangers emerged out of the woods. This was
a tactic they used regularly to get close to their target and also avoid using main roads
and being discovered or ambushed. Some were wearing captured Union overcoats and
this gave the Union troopers pause. The Rangers achieved surprise and attacked a pick-
et of Vermont Cavalry stationed here at the Herndon railroad station and nearby saw-
mill. The Rangers captured nearly all of the troopers, horses, and supplies of the post.
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As Mosby's men were leaving the area, they saw four horses tied up outside of a house.
The horses belonged to four Union officers dining at the home of Kitty Kitchen Hanna.
This house was located where the Main Street Bank is now situated at 727 Elden Street,
Herndon. Two of the officers ran outside intending to fight and were captured. The oth-
er two tried to hide in the attic; one of Mosby's men�some say it was the Union Army
deserter "Big Yankee" Ames�shot through the ceiling, causing it to collapse and with
it the two Union officers came crashing down to the floor below.
Yesterday I attacked a body of the enemy's cavalry at Herndon Station, in Fairfax
County, completely routing them I brought off 25 prisoners�a major (Wells), I
captain, 2 lieutenants, and 21 men, all their arms, 26 horses and equipments. One,
severely wounded was left on the ground. The enemy pursued me in force, but
were checked by my rear guard, and gave up the pursuit. My loss was nothing. The
enemy have moved their cavalry from Germantown back of Fairfax Court-House,
on the Alexandria Pike. In this affair my officers and men behaved splendidly.
�John Singleton Mosby
Lesson Learned (Maneuver, Surprise, Offensive, and Mass): Mosby nearly always
seized and maintained the initiative. His principal aim was to tie up Union forces
and disrupt lines of communication in Northern Virginia. In the summer and fall
of 1864, when Maj. Gen. Philip H. Sheridan was conducting a scorched earth
campaign in the Shenandoah Valley�the breadbasket of the Confederacy�
Mosby's operations tied up between one-third to two-thirds of his 90,000-man
force, depending on whose version you read. Effectively, this reduced Sheridan's
ability to engage in combat with regular Confederate forces under Jubal
Early. Although Sheridan outnumbered the Confederate forces and eventually
overwhelmed them, if all of the Union forces detailed to guard against Mosby and
to hunt for him are taken into account, Union and rebel forces in the Valley were
more evenly matched.
�
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Deception, Captured Union
Equipment, and Supplies
Mosby's Rangers iwere heavily depen-
dent on captured Union weapons, uni-
forms, and supplies. Generally, they
tried to keep a seriThlance of Confeder-
ate Army appearance, but many wore
jaunty slouch hats with plumes typical
of many cavalry lunits dating back to
the Royalist Cavaliers of the English
Civil War. In one :'raid on a wagon train
along the Little Ri'ver Turnpike, Mosby's
Rangers are known to have captured a
shipment of Uriion cavalry boots�
enough for eacli Ranger to procure
three new pairs. very Ranger carried a
sack or two on their horse for carrying
away captured supplies.
Mosby at times *ore very elegant cus-
tom-made Confederate Army uni-
forms. Records show the Rangers req-
uisitioned from the Quartermaster of
the Confederate l Army large numbers
of uniform pants jackets, and bulk gray
cloth. In some fnstances the Rangers
deliberately disguised themselves as Union soldiers by wearing captured blue Union
overcoats; the highly prized overcoats had the additional benefit of being quite warm.
They also wore a rain coat of a type common to both armies, which simply allowed
them to pass ththnselves off as Union soldiers. When Union pickets challenged them,
the Rangers, at times, responded that they were Union cavalry of such and such a unit.
Password and challenges were used in the Civil War, especially by pickets, but often the
troops on patrol might not have known them.
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Union Army Counterpartisan Operations and Tactics
As the Union pickets were, in the parlance of the day, getting "gobbled up:' many posts
started to string wire near their pickets to unseat Mosby's riders. Confederate sources and
Ranger scouts, though, usually warned the Rangers as to their existence and locations.'
General Sheridan even employed a special force, Blazer's Scouts, specifically to find, kill,
or capture Mosby and his Rangers. Armed with deadly seven-shot Spencer carbines, the
unit was made up of hand-picked soldiers and named after its commander 1st Lt. (later
Capt.) Richard Blazer. Mosby and his men were normally able to elude them. But on
17 November 1864, Blazer's Scouts killed several Rangers in a fight with Ranger
Company D led by Capt. Richard Montjoy. The next day in Cabletown (or Kabletown),
West Virginia, the 1st Squadron of Mosby's Rangers, composed of Companies A and
B, under the command of Capt. Adolphus "Dolly" Richards, came looking for Blazer's
Scouts. The Rangers found them and engaged in a "desperate fight" According to one
account, 31 Union soldiers were killed or wounded and 19 more were taken prisoner,
including Captain Blazer. The Confederates also captured scores of the valuable Spencer
carbines and 35 horses. Captain Richards' recollection of the incident was that close to
62 were captured and only 15 or 16 of Blazer's men escaped.9 The casualties of the
Blazer's Scouts far outnumbered those who escaped. Captain Blazer had fought bravely
and only surrendered when he was knocked from his horse. Mosby's Rangers lost one
killed and six wounded. Three Rangers being held prisoners of the Blazer Scouts at the
time of the fight were also released. As a result of this fight, Blazer's Scouts was essentially
wiped out as an effective fighting force and was formally disbanded in January 1865.10,
Another Union unit, the Jesse Scouts, operated in Confederate uniforms and collected
intelligence on Confederate movements. The Jesse Scouts operated in small teams
and for a period collected intelligence and reported to Union cavalry commander
Philip Sheridan during his 1864 Shenandoah campaign. The unit also conducted
counterguerrilla operations against Mosby and John H. McNeill and their partisan
ranger groups. At times its men posed as Mosby's Rangers. The existence of the Jesse
Scouts and its near-constant presence behind the Confederate lines were known to
Mosby, and the unit's operational methods, very similar to Mosby's own, gave added
cause for the rebels to always be on their guard. One Civil War historian noted that as
a counterintelligence response to this threat Mosby issued membership cards to the
real Rangers.12 Mosby's Rangers also arrested�and in at least one case executed�those
suspected of being Union spies.
Another Union unit with an antipartisan mission was the Loudoun Rangers. Formed
from Union sympathizers�surprisingly, many of them Quakers�living in Loudoun
County, the Loudoun Rangers were the only Union Army unit raised in Virginia. It was
ideally suited as a scout unit because it knew the operational area. It took part in Sher-
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idan's Shenandoah Valley campaign (August-October 1864) then returned to scouting
and an antipartisan role. In one engagement in November 1864, the Loudoun Rangers
killed one of Moshy's best officers, Capt. Richard Montjoy.
On 6 April 1865, three days before Appomattox, the Loudoun Rangers were encamp-
ed near Key's Switch, west of Harper's Ferry. It did not react as a large body of what
appeared to be Union cavalry approached. In reality it was the 52 Rangers of Compa-
ny H of the 43rd Battalion, led by 24-year-old Capt. George Baylor, who had joined
the Rangers after serving as an officer in the regular Confederate Army. Company H,
formed just one day earlier, was under orders to hunt down the Loudoun Rangers,
which had caused such problems and had killed Captain Montjoy. Mosby's men got
the jump on the Loudoun men and, in the ensuing engagement, captured 65 Union
soldiers and 81 horses. Company H's casualties were one wounded. Before they left,
Mosby's Rangers burned the camp. There was an exchange of gunfire with some of the
remaining Loudoun Rangers and one of the latter was killed." The Loudoun Rangers
ceased to exist as 'an effective fighting force and was formally mustered out of service a
short while later.'
Lessons Learned (Maneuver, Objective, Offensive, and Surprise): Mosby
understood the role his forces played in drawing off his enemy's strength from
the main campaign and quoted Sheridan's own postwar memoirs to make his
point. Sheridan wrote that his effective strength to meet rebel Gen. Jubal Early's
force was depleted because he had to guard his supply lines and communications
from Rebel partisan attacks. According to the groundbreaking Mosby author,
Virgil Carringtoln Jones, Sheridan understated Mosby's effect. It was only when
the official unit records were released years after the war that it became clear to
what extent MOsby had tied up Sheridan's command.
The Union antippitisan forces formed to target Mosby effectively used tactics similar
to those the Rangers used. Mosby realized they threatened his operational mission and
success and therlalso became Ranger targets.
The military value of the species of warfare I have waged is not measured by the
numbers of prisoners and material of war captured from the enemy, but by the
heavy detail it has already compelled him to make, and which I hope to make
him increase) in order to guard his communications to that extent diminishing his
aggressive strength.
�John Singleton Mosby"
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11. Head north on Elden to Fairfax County Parkway and take that
north to Route 7. Exit Fairfax County Parkway and head west
on Route 7.
000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
The Battle of Dranesville
The Battle of Dranesville was fought in this area on 20 December 1861. The battle took
place between Confederate forces under the command of Brig. Gen. J.E.B. Stuart and
Union forces under Brig. Gen. Edward O.C. Ord. On the 20th, Stuart withdrew after his
artillery was knocked out and Ord sent his infantry forward. Casualties on both sides
were light, but the Confederates lost more men. Stuart returned to the area the next day;
however, the Union forces had already left the area.
12. On Route 7 heading west, just before crossing Dranesville Road,
is Sugarland Run�a creek that flows under Route 7.
0000000000000000000000000000120000000000000000000000000000000000
The Sugarland Run Ambush
Here on the morning of 22 February 1864, Mosby set an ambush for a company-size
Union patrol from the 2nd Massachusetts Cavalry, which included 25 men from the
16th New York Cavalry. Mosby had sent out two of his scouts, Sam Underwood and
Walter Whaley, to watch the patrol's movements, and they let him know its route. The
Union cavalry had been in Rector's Crossroads the day before hunting for Mosby and
was moving east back toward its camp in Vienna. The Union soldiers were probably
looking forward to getting back to camp.
�
�
�
Companies A, B, and C of Mosby's Rangers were involved in the ambush. Mosby set up
an L-shaped ambush (to the front and side) with a mobile element that was to charge
the rear of the spread-out Union column, which had vedettes (scouts) and security
deployed forward. Mosby dismounted 15 men with carbines and hid them along one
side of the turnpike under the command of Capt. Richard Montjoy. These men were the
ambush element.
Mosby wanted the Union column to bunch up before initiating the ambush. He had Lt.
Frank H. Rahm and a few Rangers, disguised as Union soldiers, position themselves
in the path of the Union patrol. As the vedettes approached, they challenged Rahm; he
challenged them in return, claiming that he and his men were from the 5th New York
Cavalry. This caused confusion and several minutes of delay as both sides went back
and forth accusing the other of probably being rebels. In that time, the main body of the
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Union patrol dosed on the vedettes�just as Mosby wanted. Watching this, Mosby blew
a whistle to initiatiF the ambush and the Rangers with carbines opened up. This volley
of fire was followed by the mounted assault element, led by Capt. William Chapman,
attacking the patrol from the rear while giving the rebel yell. A small number of Union
soldiers escaped ,e kill zone and raced toward the Potomac. "They fled in every direc-
tion in the wildest confusion," Mosby noted in his report.i5
The commander of the Union patrol, Capt. J. Sewell Read, surrendered to Baron Robert
von Massow, a Prussian Army officer serving with Mosby. Von Massow ordered Read
to move to the rear and turned his back on him. Van Massow, however, had failed to
relieve Read of his pistol, and Read shot him in the back, seriously wounding him.
Captain Chapman then took one well-aimed shot and killed Read. Mosby reported
the Union patrol suffered 12-15 killed, about 25 wounded, and 75 captured. Mosby's
men also captured 90 horses and numerous weapons. One Ranger was killed and four
wounded, including von Massow.
Lessons Learned: (Surprise, Offensive, and Maneuver). The forces were fairly
evenly matched. Mosby had about 160-175 men against 150-167 Union cavalry.
Mosby executed a classic L shape ambush that started with the violent action
of the volley from the carbines. The tactic is still taught at the US Army Ranger
School. The Rarlger mounted element assaulted through the kill zone as the men
with carbines would have shifted their fire and/or aimed at individual targets. The
assault through the kill zone to clear it is still the preferred ambush technique in
use today. At Ranger School, students are taught that, as the kill zone is cleared,
prisoners are disarmed, collected, and controlled. At Sugarland Run, Mosby's
Rangers failed to do this. Not only did Read shoot von Massow, but another
Ranger, John Munson, was also wounded by a Union soldier whom he had
captured and f.Ciled to disarm.
Mosby watched his target carefully and sprung the ambush at the place and
time of his choosing. In this case, and numerous others, he set the ambush on
the return routh of the Union patrol when they would be less alert and eagerly
looking forward to a rest back in camp. Lieutenant Rahm's ruse probably worked
well because he was encountered as the Union patrol was heading back to their
camp in Viennq and getting close to Union lines from which Rahm appeared to be
coming.
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13. Continue west on Route 7. Turn off at the intersection of State
Hwy 808 (Broad Run Drive) at the Galilee United Methodist
Church. Proceed about one mile to Dairy Lane then turn right.
Miskel's Farm
Miskel's Farm was the site of the "April Fools Fight" On the night of 1 April 1863,
Mosby and a 65-man detachment bivouacked at this farm. Believing themselves to be
far from the closest Union force, they posted no lookouts. A Vermont cavalry force of
200-plus men commanded by Capt. Henry Flint, hunting Mosby's Rangers, approached
early in the morning of 2 April. A Union sympathizer had tipped them off to Mosby's
presence. One of his men staying nearby tried to alert Mosby but arrived only moments
ahead of the Union troops that came galloping behind him. Mosby and his men were
caught by surprise. About 25 of them took shelter in a barn and mounted their horses
for a counterattack. The audacity of the action and the accuracy and rapidity of the fire
from the Confederates drove off the Union cavalry, which got bottled up on a narrow
road. Now Mosby and the Rangers were in pursuit of the much larger federal force. In
the fight, Ranger Lt. Sam Chapman distinguished himself emptying both of his Colt
pistols and then drawing his saber. Mosby lost one killed and three wounded. Union
Army casualties totaled nine killed, including Captain Flint, 15 wounded, and 82 cap-
tured. The Union detachment also lost about 100 horses.
Lessons Learned (Security and Offensive): At Miskel's Farm, Mosby had not
paid enough attention to his own security. Though surprised, he escaped by
launching an aggressive counteraction that turned the tables. The technique of
attacking your way out of an ambush is still taught in US Army Ranger School
and incorporates what are known as immediate action drills. Mosby's Partisan
Rangers were deadly accurate with their Colt pistols because they practiced
extensively. There was no formal practice per se, but the standard was to be able
to fire and hit a tree three times while riding at a full gallop toward and past it.
In combat, some of the Rangers held the reins in one hand while firing; others
who had a familiar mount let loose the reins and fired revolvers in both hands.
Because of the difficulty of reloading a cap and ball pistol on horseback, many
cavalrymen�both sides�carried multiple pistols. By carrying several of these
pistols the Rangers had significantly more close-range firepower than their Union
counterparts, who were armed with sabers, revolvers, and carbines. The 1860 Colt
had a removable cylinder for rapid reloading, but there is no evidence the Rangers
used them as an alternative to the manual reload of all the chambers.
Many of Mosby's engagements show that the Union commander was either killed
or captured, often early in the fight. This was by design: Mosby trained his men to
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go after the Union commanders for the shock effect their loss would have on unit
cohesion. This lesson of the effect of targeting enemy leadership is applicable to
irregular warfare today. After Miskel's Farm, Mosby would never again drop his
guard.
14. Loop around back to Broad Run and then back on Route 7
west to take the Loudoun County Parkway south to US-50 W.
When completed the parkway will run directly from Route 7 to
US-50. While work is underway, travel to US-50 Won the
Loudouni Country Parkway until reaching Ryan Rd., then turn
right aniil continue until Evergreen Mills Rd. Turn right again
and take, Evergreen Mills Rd. to Watson Rd., then turn left
(north). This route comes out at the Mt. Zion Baptist Church
near US-, 150 and Route 15.
Mt. Zion Baptist Church
Numerous event Is related to Mosby's
Rangers took plce here at the Mt.
Zion Baptist ChUrch. At daybreak on
26 January 1863,! Mosby held a ren-
dezvous with his original 15 men.
From here they headed to Frying Pan
Meeting House, Which we visited ear-
lier, and there they captured the two
vedettes later that same day.16
On 6 July 1864, Union Army Maj. Wil-
liam Forbes was leading a 150-man-
strong force of New York and Massa-
chusetts cavalry that was out hunting for Mosby. They paused here at the Mt. Zion
Church for a rest. Mosby and his men came from the east of the church and they sur-
prised them at this location. Mosby used a light field piece, a 12-pound Napoleon can-
non, in the engagement. Capt. Sam Chapman, a former divinity student, who had been
an artilleryman in the "Dixie Artillery" before joining Mosby, commanded the cannon
and crew. The cannon fire spooked some of the Union horses.
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The Rangers then seized the moment and charged the Union troopers on horseback
yelling and firing their pistols. They closed quickly and their skill in using the .44 Colt
revolvers again gave them the advantage. Major Forbes fought until his horse was killed
and fell on top of him. Pinned underneath, he was forced to surrender. Hand-to-hand
fighting continued for the next hour and carried over into the surrounding woods. In
this time, the Union Army had 14 men killed, 37 wounded, and 55 captured. Mosby
only lost one Ranger in this fight and six wounded.
Lesson Learned (Mass, Offensive, Surprise, and Maneuver): Once again, Mosby
and his men applied several principles of war They were deadly accurate with
their Colt pistols and the Union soldiers had great difficulty engaging them. The
cannon at Mt. Zion Church had a psychological effect; however, it would later
prove too cumbersome for Mosby's style of mobile warfare, and he, like most
cavalry commanders on both sides, eventually discarded artillery altogether.
Mosby's Rangers used two other types of artillery pieces during the war�a six-
pounder and a 3-inch ordnance rifle.
The graves of the Union soldiers who fell that day are in the cemetery and VA markers
commemorate 12 of them. Two of Mosby's Rangers are also buried here; however, they
did not fall in this engagement. One of those is Capt. Jesse Mcintosh of Company E,
who was captured by the Union Army and held at Fort Warren, Massachusetts. He died
a year after the war ended.
During the rest of the war, the church was used at various times as a hospital and as a
Union prison for Mosby's supporters. By 1981, the church congregation had thinned to
the point that the elders turned the property over to Loudoun County
Old Carolina Road
The Old Carolina Road ran alongside the back side of the cemetery Today's Route 15
generally follows the route of the Old Carolina Road and part of the original can still
be seen here. Even before the colonial period, Indians used the road to travel from
Pennsylvania to the Roanoke River on the Virginia-Carolina border.
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15. Head vvest on US 50 to Aldie Mill at 39401 US-50 (John S. Mos-
by Highway), Aldie There is a visitor parking lot located here.
0000000000000.00000000000000000000000000000000000000000 0 0 0000000
Aldie Mill and Bridge
Aldie Mill was built in 1807. Here on 2
March 1863, Mosby and a small detach-
ment of Rangers, attacked a larger force
of Vermont Cavalry numbering 59 men.
This detachment was part of Sir Percy
Wyndham's cav41ry command. Wynd-
ham was a colorful character who had
served in Giuseppe Garibaldi's Red Shirt
army during the unification of Italy in
1860-61. He died in 1879 in a hot air
balloon accident, in Burma.
Union cavalry had been searching for
Mosby around Middleburg, and when
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they did not find them they took some local men captive. After Union troopers left
the town, Mosby and his men learned what had happened and pursued them in the
direction of the mill. Mosby's Rangers came galloping from the direction of Middleburg
and surprised and scattered the Union troopers. In the ensuing short action, Mosby's
spooked horse galloped toward Union forces out of control. At the bridge just east of
the mill, Mosby jumped off his horse and rolled toward the river. Many of the surprised
Union soldiers tried to hide in the mill and 19 of them were pulled out covered in flour.
Mosby released the captured Middleburg residents.
At the western edge of Aldie was the Snicker's Gap Turnpike�a strategic route to the
Blue Ridge passing through Snicker's Gap.
Lessons Learned (Surprise)
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16. Continue farther west on
US-50 to the area between
Champe Ford Road to the
south and Cobb House Road to
the north. This is Dover.
Dover Crossroads
During the Civil War, Dover Crossroads
was a small village used often as a rendez-
vous point for Mosby and his Rangers. It
was a strategic location where Little River
Turnpike and Ashby's Gap Turnpike (now
Route 50) terminated. It was here on 8
March 1863, a cold, wet day with snow on
the ground, that Mosby gathered a group
of 29 Rangers to try and capture the En-
glish mercenary Percy Wyndham, who
was headquartered at Fairfax Courthouse
with Brig. Gen. Edward Stoughton. Mosby
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was seeking to ncTIce Wyndham pay for his remark that Mosby was a "horse thief:'
This would become Mosby's most famous raid and we will see the site later in the day.
Very few of Mosby's men knew their operational targets as they headed for the Fairfax
Courthouse.
Lessons Learned (Security): Mosby practiced operational security (OPSEC) on
the raid by only iletting his key leaders know his plan in case any of the Rangers
were captured en route to the Fairfax Courthouse target. Once they had passed
through a gap i? Union lines and were closing on Fairfax Courthouse, he spread
word on their actual mission. Special Operations advisers working with indigenous
forces of unknown reliability in unconventional warfare often apply this technique
of OPSEC. If the key leaders are killed or captured, though, the mission could fail
because it and the intent are unknown to subordinates.
17. Continue 0.7 miles west on US-50 to Oakham Farm Lane
WOO OOOOOO 00.0�0 OOOOOOO 0000000.200000�0 OOOOOOO 0041�0000000�00000
Oakham Farm
On the right, heading toward Middleburg, is Oakham. It was here on 29 December
1862 that Mosby, then working as a scout for J.E.B. Stuart, proposed that he remain
behind Union lines to collect intelligence and conduct special operations. Stuart agreed
and Mosby's first efforts were so successful that he was granted an independent squad-
size command in the 1st Virginia Cavalry.
Oakham is now a private residence.
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18. Continue on US-50 to Middleburg
Middleburg�Lorman Chancellor Home
The Lorman Chancellor home is on the left coming into town at 301 E. Washington
Street, Middleburg. Currently the home holds the offices of the Middleburg Museum
Foundation.
On Sunday, 8 March 1863, Mosby stopped here for lunch at the home of Lorman Chan-
cellor before the raid on Fairfax Courthouse. Chancellor was the mayor of Middleburg
during the Civil War, a southern sympathizer, and a supporter of Mosby, who often
came here. During lunch this day, Mosby told Chancellor, "Tonight I shall mount the
stars or sink lower than the plummet ever sounded:'
Civil War author Kevin Siepel wrote:
Although for the most part good fighting men, his rangers were, in some ways,
the 'featherbed soldiers" they were accused of being. They were strangers to
camp routine. They slept not outdoors but in comfortable quarters provided by
a sympathetic populace. They seldom even made coffee for themselves, let alone
fired bacon, soaked hardtack, or washed a shirt. Most couldn't pitch a tent and
didn't know the first thing about cavalry drill.... In fact, it was the ranger's very
lack of regimentation that made them successful; they were encouraged to think
for themselves. Boarding with local families made for as many obligations as
privileges.17
Lessons Learned: Mosby and his Partisan Rangers normally dispersed to "safe
houses" between operations and also depended upon support of a sympathetic
populace in their irregular warfare. During operations, Mosby and the Rangers
would camp in the woods or on farms. Mosby did not have a permanent
headquarters. Sometimes, he would use a particular safe house as a temporary
headquarters for a brief period.
Support or control of the populace is a formalized and recognized principle in
guerrilla wars. Mosby was familiar with the term "guerrilla," meaning "little
war" and, while he himself did not use the term to describe his men and their
operations, he did not regard it as an insult. Mosby's Rangers had to behave as
gentlemen while guests of local civilians in order to earn their continued support.
Mosby did not tolerate any errant behavior among those serving under his
command. When a rendezvous was planned, the men were expected to show up
promptly. Failure to do so would result in their return to service in a regular unit
in Lee's Army of Northern Virginia, where discipline was even stricter and the
lifestyle more regimented and Spartan.
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19. On the right at 2 E. Washington Street, Middleburg
Red Fox Inn
In 1863 the Red Fox Inn was known
as the Beveridge House. It was here
on 17 June 1863, , prior to the Battle
of Gettysburg, that Mosby provid-
ed J.E.B. Stuart With intelligence on
Union forces trying to gain entry into
the Shenandoah Valley in order to de-
termine Lee's whereabouts and plans
for that summer's Campaign to invade
Pennsylvania and divide the North.
20. Take US-50 west to Atoka (Rector's Crossroads)
Rector's Crossroads�Now known as Atoka Village
Rector's Crossroads was at the heart of Mosby's Confederacy. During the Civil War, the
location contained a general store, a blacksmith's shop, a springhouse, and a friendly
populace. The Caleb Rector House, which is now the headquarters of the Mosby
Heritage Area, played a key role in the establishment of Mosby's Rangers as the 43rd
Virginia Cavalry Battalion. It was here on 10 June 1863 in the front parlor of the home
that then-Major Mosby appointed the officers of Company A�the first company of the
43rd Battalion, as his Rangers became regularized�at least in name.
Mosby resisted pressure from Stuart to drop the term "Partisan Rangers:' which the
Partisan Ranger Act of April 1862 had authorized. They had many exchanges on this
subject. There was a compromise solution. Mosby persuaded Stuart to let him use the
name "Partisan Ranger," which had more allure for recruiting purposes, but in reality
though Mosby was leading a regular Confederate unit, "a partisan corps:' supporting the
main army independently and using irregular tactics. Although Mosby's Rangers were
no longer purely Partisan Rangers under the Partisan Ranger Act, they did retain at least
one important aspect of the Partisan Ranger Act throughout the war: they were allowed
to sell captured weapons, horses, and mules to the Confederate War Department for US
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"greenbacks." The South needed these supplies and Mosby's Rangers were an excellent
source. The profits were divided among the Rangers, although Mosby is not known to
have taken any share.
For the most part, Mosby followed standard Confederate Army procedures for the
administration of his unit. For example, Mosby signed a receipt for $32,244 paid on
29 October 1863 by the Quartermaster Confederate States Army for 103 mules, one
horse, 72 wagon straps, and 13 wagon saddles that had been captured and sold to the
Site of Exivil-War Store,
blocksmith's house stilkstands behind
te$,stone springhouselin
PetVg-t--
vvaterMosbwd:his men
canteetsfbeforP
gully provided
theiRhorses,and
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CSA. By order of J E.B. Stuart with a note from Stuart's adjutant-general, Major Henry
B. McClellan."
Mosby went to Richmond in December 1864 to seek permission for his command to
become a formal regiment. On 6 December 1864, he wrote a letter on the subject to
Confederate Secretary of War James A. Seddon. Mosby submitted the request through
Robert E. Lee, his commander. Lee endorsed the request on 7 December and added,
"No officer has done better Service than Col. Mosby and if the law permits I should be
much gratified if he was promoted to a Colonelcy."19 Seddon approved the plan and the
promotion and the promotion recommendation was forwarded to Confederate Presi-
dent Jefferson Davis. In January 1865, Mosby's 43rd Virginia Partisan Rangers became
a regiment divided, into two battalions�one led by Lt. Col. William Chapman and the
other by Maj. Adolphus "Dolly" Richards. Mosby was promoted to colonel with an ef-
fective date of rank of 7 December 1864.
Some 1,900 men served in Mosby's Rangers between January 1862 and the end of the
Civil War. At times, Mosby also used a squadron organization, generally meaning two
.
companies worlung together. Although Mosby handpicked the officers for his compa-
nies, they also had to be subsequently elected by the men, following Confederate Army
procedure. On 27 March 1865, as the Confederacy was crumbling, Lee sent an order to
Mosby appointing him commander for all of Northern Virginia.
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21. Continue on US-50-W to the village of Upperville
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Upperville
Upperville has not changed much since the Civil War, and Mosby and his men would
probably recognize it. Here on 9 January 1864, Mosby held a rendezvous for about 100
Rangers for a raid On Maj. Henry Cole's 1st Potomac Home Brigade of Maryland Cavalry,
which was encamped at Loudoun Heights, a few miles to the north. The winter nighttime
raid became one of the Ranger's worst defeats. Capt. Frank Stringfellow, the scout, had
located the camp and proposed the daring raid to Mosby. The operation involved a two-
pronged night attack; Mosby led one element of Rangers and Stringfellow led a smaller
element of 10 scouts, who were to penetrate the camp and capture Cole. On that starry
night, with temperatures hovering near zero, the two Confederate assault elements saw
each other silhouetted by the snow as they maneuvered close to the Union camp.
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Although accounts differ about which group opened fire first, most likely it was String-
fellow's men. But, soon�with each thinking the other was the enemy�they charged.
Several of Mosby's casualties were the result of this friendly fire. The shots awakened the
Maryland Cavalry, which put up a stiff resistance, rallied by Capt. George Vernon, who
kept fighting despite having an eye shot out. The Rangers retreated. During the fight,
Ranger Capt. William R. Smith (Company B) and Lt. William Thomas Turner (Compa-
ny A) were killed. Smith was a regular Confederate officer, who had joined Mosby after
serving in the "Black Horse Cavalry" In all, the Rangers suffered over a dozen casualties
and Stringfellow lost one of his scouts. Cole's brigade lost six men killed, 14 wounded,
and six captured. Because Stringfellow had proposed the raid and led the other assault
element, Mosby held him responsible for the death of two of his most valuable officers
and thereafter bore a grudge against him. The day after the raid, Mosby sent a message
under a flag of truce to Major Cole asking to recover the bodies of his dead. Cole is said
to have replied, "If Mosby wants them so badly, let him try attacking this camp again."20
Lessons Learned: This complex nighttime winter raid, involving two maneuvering
assault elements, approaching their objective over difficult terrain, was too much
of a stretch even for Mosby's Rangers. Mosby certainly felt the raid had tarnished
his reputation as a leader and tactician. In today's military such an operation
would include the use of night vision goggles and communication between the
elements. As a result of the raid, the temporarily demoralized Rangers reduced
their operational tempo for the next month. Although Mosby saw it as a failure,
Generals Lee and Stuart saw it differently, encouraging him to keep up the
pressure on the Union enemy. They recommended to President Jefferson Davis
and the War Department that Mosby be promoted to lieutenant colonel, which
took place soon after.21
22. Return to U5-50 E in the direction of Atoka. Turn right onto
Atoka Road (Route 713 South).
Lakeland�Where Mosby was shot, December 1864
Coming out of Atoka and heading south to Rectortown on the left (1654 State Route 713,
Marshall) you will see Lake Field School, which is a one-room Civil War-era school-
house. Just past the schoolhouse on the right (1690 State Route 713) is the former home
of Ludwell Lake, known as "Lakeland." The home was one of Mosby's safe houses. It is
currently a private residence.
On the night of 21 December 1864, Mosby was having a dinner here of ribs, biscuits,
and coffee. Ludwell Lake Jr., whose father owned the house, was a private in Mosby's
Command. Mosby and another Ranger, Tom Love, had arrived at Lakeland after
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attending a wedding of a Ranger in
nearby Rectortowri. A company of New
York Cavalry, searching for Mosby, saw
horses tied up outside and approached
the house. Mosby, who could be seen
through the window, was shot by
one of the troopers and was hit in the
abdomen. Before the Union troopers
could enter the house, the seriously
wounded Mosby took off and hid his
uniform jacket, with its lieutenant
colonel insignia, and then smeared more
blood on his face aid mouth while lying
down on the floor. Some of the Union
troopers had beeri drinking, and they
and their commander, Maj. Douglas
Frazer, examineil and questioned
Mosby, who claimed he was Lieutenant
Johnson of the 6th Virginia Cavalry.
The Lake familY, played along and
declared Mosby ?. complete stranger.
Thinking "Lieutenant Johnson" was
mortally wounded:, the Federals left him
for dead, but not before stripping him of
his cavalry boots. Tom Love was taken
prisoner, but he did not reveal Mosby's
identity.
A young slave from Lakeland saved
Mosby by taking I him in an oxcart to
"Rockburn," anotlier home more than a
mile away. "I was rolled up in quilts and
blankets...:' Mosby wrote in his mem-
oir, "It was an aWful night�a howling
storm of snow, rain, and sleet. I was ly-
ing on my back ir the cart�we had to
go two miles to the house of a neighbor, over a frozen road cut into deep ruts.""
By the time the Union troopers realized they had made a mistake and circled back to
collect Mosby, he was gone. At Rockburn, Mosby received life-saving care and the bul-
let was removed from his side. Major Frazer wrote a letter to his commander saying that
none in his unit reaclized at the time it was Mosby and that they thought the wound was
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fatal. Frazer's commander called the mistake a blunder. Rumors began circulating that
Mosby was dead. Mosby would spend until February 1865 recovering from his wound.
Lesson Learned (Security):-Have a good cover story and stick to it. Mosby claimed
to be Lieutenant Johnston and Tom Love backed up his story as did the Lake
family. Mosby was wounded three times during the Civil War. When wounded,
Mosby's Rangers were cared for in the safe houses of supporters. Mosby also had
a doctor, William L. Dunn, assigned as the unit's surgeon for most of the war. At
times, Dunn was well equipped from captured Union medical supplies. Another
doctor, Aristedes Monteiro, also served as the Ranger's surgeon and he wrote
about his wartime service in his memoirs. Seriously wounded Rangers, as was
Mosby in this situation, were sent south away from the front lines to recover
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While Mosby was away recovering
from his wound, Lieutenant Colonel
Chapman followed by Maj. "Dolly"
Richards commanded the Rangers. Mosby
handpicked and mentored his subordinate
commanders. Richards was aggressive and
the operational tempo did not slow during
Mosby's recovery. On 18 February 1865,
Maj. Thomas Gibson, commanding 125
Union cavalry from the 14th Pennsylvania,
launched a raid near Upperville searching
the family homes of known Rangers and
capturing some 18 Rangers. Richards hid
in a "secret room" as Union troops searched
his father's house, finding his Confederate
uniform and equipment.
When they left, Richards donned an old
brown suit and gathered between 38
and 43 Rangers, who pursued the Union
raiders. Richards knew the terrain and had scouts observe the Union cavalry. He easily
outmaneuvered them and, when the Union troopers entered a narrow defile near Mt.
Carmel Church in Paris, Virginia, Richards ordered a charge. The Union cavalrymen
had no room to escape and their casualties were heavy: 25 killed or wounded, 64 taken
prisoner, including Major Gibson, and most of their horses captured. All of the captured
Rangers were freed. Mosby himself wrote after the war about an event where he was not
present, "I have always said it was the most brilliant thing our men ever did:'23 24
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To counter these increasingly frequent Union raids, the Rangers started planting pres-
sure activated "torpedos"�a primitive type of improvised explosive device (IED), or
land mine�on the roads leading to some safe houses. Many of the safe houses had se-
cret rooms. Some had trap doors hidden under carpets in the floor for hiding or a quick
escape. To avoid surprise raids, the Rangers sometimes built small huts in the woods
and mountains near the safe houses and slept there when the weather was mild, while
still taking their meals at the safe houses. The evenings at the safe houses were pleasant
affairs as the accounts show they were entertained with music and played cards.25
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23. Continue on Atoka Road in direction of Rectortown. Five Points
is located at the intersection of Atoka Road (State Route 713)
and Carter's Mill Road and nearby 5 Points Road.
00 0 0 000 0 0 000 0 0 0 00 0 0 00 GO 0 000 0 0 000,0 0 000 0 0 0000 0 GOO 0 0 000 00 000 000000
Five Points, Rectortown�New Year's Day, 1864
Early on the morning of 1 January 1864, Capt. A. M. Hunter and 77 troopers, from the
1st Potomac Home Brigade of Maryland Cavalry (Cole's Cavalry) were passing through
Five Points. They had come from Harper's Ferry to search for Mosby. Coincidentally,
Capt. William Smith and about 30 Rangers from Company B had gathered that day at
nearby Rectortown (Mosby was not present). Smith found the Marylanders first and
ambushed them here, where five roads come together. In the first salvo, Captain Hunter's
horse was shot out from under him and he was captured. Around 22 Union troopers
were killed or wounded, 35-54 taken prisoner, and 50-69 horses were captured (there
were varying accounts). The few remaining Union soldiers fled. The wounded Union
soldiers were cared for in local homes and paroled. In the action, the Rangers captured
39 brand new Colt Army Model revolvers. The Rangers discarded the captured sabres
and carbines as they found them of little use.
Lessons Learned (Maneuver, Surprise, and Offensive): Aggressive action allowed
Smith's smaller force, which had more firepower, to overwhelm a larger force. This
engagement also shows how the Rangers' tactical success was not dependent on
Mosby's presence.
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24. Turn west on Route 710 and continue to Route 713.
Woodward's Store
Mosby and his men used the building at the corner of Route 710 and Route 713, Wood-
ward's Store, as a meeting site and safe house. In September 1864, the Union Army
briefly occupied Rectortown with 2,000 men.
Lessons Learned: Mosby held regular inspections to see who would turn up
at a planned rendezvous and check on their equipment. One such inspection
conducted in Rectortown on 11 November 1864 drew 500 men and was designed
to root out those who came along on raids only to loot or who were known to
avoid fighting. Based on accounts from their company captains, these men were
called out and relieved of all equipment and weapons and placed under guard.
Some 80 men were struck from the rolls of the 43rd Battalion that day and sent to
Richmond under guard to join Lee's besieged army in the trenches at Petersburg,
though some of them escaped along the route.27
25. Turn left on to Route 713 (here Maidstone Road) and proceed
to Lost Corner Road (less than a mile).
Rectortown Lottery Site
The lottery site building is near 3000 Lost Corner Road, Delaplane. There is a historical
marker there.
The Rectortown Lottery Site had both strategic and tactical significance in the Civil War.
Following the indecisive Battle of Antietam on 19 September 1862, President Lincoln
traveled to the headquarters of the Army of the Potomac to meet with its commander
George McClellan. Lincoln was disappointed that McClellan had not moved more
aggressively against Lee's army during the battle, and even more disappointed that
McClellan's larger force did not pursue and finish off the retreating rebel army.
Witnesses described the meeting as tense. McClellan did not hide his low opinion of the
president, and Lincoln finally realized that McClellan was not the type of leader who
could win the war. As the Union Army moved into Northern Virginia winter quarters
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in 1862, this site became McClellan's headquarters. It was here in November 1862
that a telegram fropa the White House sent via the War Department arrived relieving
McClellan of command and replacing him with his subordinate Maj. Gen. Ambrose
Burnside. McClellan would leave the army, only to return as the Democratic candidate
opposing Lincoln for reelection in November 1864. Shortly after assuming command
in this building, Burnside would take the Army of the Potomac off to another major
defeat at Lee's hands at the Battle of Fredericksburg. Burnside would soon receive a
telegram announcing his relief as well, as Lincoln continued his search for a winning
general.
But the site gets its name for another event,
one with more tragic and poignant over-
tones. It started on 23 September 1864,
when Union Cavalry under the command
of Brevet Brig. Gen. George Armstrong
Custer, a subordinate of Sheridan's, cap-
tured and executed six of Mosby's men near
Front Royal.
Whether Custer gave the order is a subject
of debate among some historians. Mosby,
however, blamed Cluster. The hangings may
have been retaliation for the Rangers exe-
cuting a group of 4uster's Michigan volun-
teer cavalry in August 1864 when they were
caught burning houses but more likely it
was the result of an incident that occurred
Private Lucien Love, Company D, Mosby's Rangers. One
on 22 September 1864. A group of Rang- of the Rangers hanged in Front Royal.
ers led by Capt. Sam Chapman attacked a
Union ambulance jtrain. In the fight, Union Army Lt. Charles McMaster was killed.
Some of the Union!, soldiers said McMaster had been shot while surrendering and there
were calls for revenge. In October, Union Col. William Powell executed another Rang-
er. Mosby, thinking it would deter further executions, requested Lee's permission to
execute seven Union soldiers in retaliation. Lee endorsed the request and forwarded it
to the Confederatej War Department, which issued an order approving the executions.
On 6 November 1864, at this location, Mosby's Rangers assembled 27 captured Mich-
igan cavalrymen and had them draw lots. Seven numbered strips of paper were drawn
and seven men were designated for execution. Mosby kept his distance from the death
lottery while it was underway. But upon learning from his sergeant major, Guy Broad-
water, that a Union drummer boy had drawn a fatal slip of paper, Mosby spared him
and had the drawing continue for a replacement.
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The condemned soldiers were led away toward Berryville to be executed close to Union
lines. On the way, the group met Ranger Captain Montjoy, escorting his own group of
Union prisoners. Montjoy was a Mason and was wearing a necklace with the Masonic
square and compass. One of the condemned Union soldiers was also a Mason and, see-
ing this symbol on Montjoy, gave him a Masonic hand signal for distress. Obligated to
assist another Mason in need, Montjoy had this soldier replaced with one from his own
group of prisoners. Closer to Berryville, two of the Union soldiers slipped their ropes in
the dark and rain and escaped. Fearing more would escape, the Rangers shot two pris-
oners on the spot and hanged the remaining three with bed cords. The Union soldiers
who were shot and left for dead survived their wounds, although one lost an eye.
Upon learning that some of the Union soldiers had escaped execution, Mosby did not
order any replacements. On 11 November, he wrote a letter to General Sheridan, which
was sent under a flag of truce with one of his best scouts, John Russell. In the letter Mos-
by explained the executions and said that in the future he would treat Union prisoners
humanely as long as the Union treated his captured men the same. Sheridan agreed.
The executions stopped on both sides.
Two months later Mosby was in Richmond, recovering from his wounding, when he
decided to observe a prisoner exchange. On one of the boats on the James River holding
Union prisoners awaiting exchange was the drummer boy from Rectortown. He recog-
nized Mosby and ran and embraced him for sparing his life.
Mosby's Rangers and the Laws of War
Union Army Maj. Gen. Henry Halleck had first-hand experience with the frustrations
caused by Confederate partisans, irregulars, guerrillas, and bushwhackers in Missouri.
He called them all guerrillas and his solution was to hang or shoot them. His General
Order No. 2, 13 March 1862, known as the "No Quarter" order stated, "All persons are
hereby warned that, if they join any guerrilla band, they will not, if captured, be treated
as ordinary prisoners of war, but will be hung as robbers and murderers" After his ser-
vice in Missouri, Halleck came to Washington in the July1862 as commanding general
of the Union Army. He remained in that position until Grant replaced him in March
1864.
In August 1862, "Old Brains" Halleck, as he was nicknamed, commissioned Dr. Francis
Lieber, a Prussian-born legal scholar who had served in the Napoleonic Wars, to study
the issue of partisans, irregulars, guerrillas, and "bushwhackers" to differentiate be-
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tween these forces and determine what, if
any, protection each was afforded under the
laws of war. The initial result was a treatise
titled "Guerrilla Parties: Considered with
Reference to the Laws and Usages of War."
Lieber defined what constituted a partisan
corps as soldiers who operated in uniform
detached from the main army "chiefly upon
the enemies' lines of connection and com-
munication, and outside of or beyond the .
lines of operation of his own army, in the
rear and on the flanks of the enemy." The
partisan's chief means of success, he con-
cluded, was "rapid and varying movements
and surprises.., but he is part and parcel of
the army, and as such, considered entitled
to the privileges of the law of war, so long
as he does not transgress it:" This definition
closely fit with the tactics and mission of
Mosby's Rangers.
Halleck had a legal background and he asked Lieber to draft a formal army regulation
that would include these definitions as well as provide instructions on how to handle
irregular warfare in its many forms from the legal to criminal perspectives. The result
was the "Lieber Code It was written and approved for Union soldiers and published on
24 April 1863 as General Order 100. Many of the Halleck's actions in Missouri, includ-
ing the "No Quarter" order, were defined as illegal under the Lieber Code, specifically
Article 60. The Lieber Code regulated how Union soldiers were supposed to deal with
various situations of irregular warfare but, despite its publication, was not well known
in the Union Army. The Confederacy never adopted it. The Confederate Army operated
under the Confederate Articles of War adopted in 1861, and the Partisan Ranger Act
of 1862, under which Mosby's unit was originally formed. The Confederate Articles of
War were a verbatim copy of the "United States Army Articles of War" that had been
adopted in 1806 and were still in use in the US Army at the start of the Civil War.
While the Lieber Code did not carry the force of law in the Confederacy, Articles 27
and 28 covered retribution and when it is justified, and Article 59 allowed an exception
to the treatment ofIprisoners of war in retaliation.
Article 27 states:
The law of war Can no more wholly dispense with retaliation than can the law of
nations, of which it is a branch. Yet civilized nations acknowledge retaliation as
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the sternest feature of war. A reckless enemy often leaves to his opponent no other
means of securing himself against the repetition of barbarous outrage.
Article 28 states:
Retaliation will, therefore never be resorted to as a measure of mere revenge, but only
as a means of protective retribution, and moreover, cautiously, and unavoidably;
that is to say, retaliation shall only be resorted to after careful inquiry into the real
occurrence, and the character of the misdeeds that may demand retribution."
The Lieber Code offered protections to legitimate prisoners of war, unless they were
guilty of a crime; however, Article 59 also states:
All prisoners of war are liable to the infliction of retaliatory measures.
Article 81 of the Lieber Code defined partisans in much the same way as Lieber's earlier
treatise:
Partisans are soldiers armed and wearing the uniform of their army, but belonging
to a corps which acts detached from the main body for the purpose of making
inroads into the territory occupied by the enemy. If captured, they are entitled to all
the privileges of the prisoner of war.28
It is not known whether Mosby was personally aware of the contents of those articles,
but, in essence, they would have justified his request to General Lee to retaliate for the
hangings of his Rangers. As part of that retaliation Mosby was not seeking revenge, but
a way to end any further executions of his men.
In his 1951 speech at the Army War College, OSS founder William Donovan cited Lieber
and his works and used Lieber's definition of what constitutes a partisan. While explain-
ing OSS partisan and guerrilla warfare operations in World War II, General Donovan,
also a lawyer, classified Mosby's Rangers as a partisan corps. "[The] term has been em-
ployee he told his audience, "to designate a corps whose mission it is to strike the enemy
by action distinctive from that of the corps' main army. Since its duty is to support the
main effort it is an integral part of the army and as such entitled to the privileges of the
laws of war. It generally acts against the enemy's lines of communication and beyond the
lines of operation of his own army in the rear and on the flanks of the enemy"
In early 1864, the Confederacy repealed the Partisan Ranger Act for all units except Mos-
by's and John H. McNeill's, following reports of some excesses byself-forming bands. Mos-
by's Rangers, the 43rd Battalion of Virginia Cavalry, was by then a hybrid�a regular unit
conducting irregular warfare under provisions of the Partisan Ranger Act; one unique
aspect was that Rangers could sell captured animals and weapons to the Confederate War
Department. Mosby himself called his unit the 43rd Virginia Partisan Ranger Battalion
in official correspondence.
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Punitive War: The Union Army Response in Dealing with Partisans�What
Not to Do
The tactical difficulty of combatting guerrillas led Union forces to rely primarily on
the unoriginal, and usually unproductive, tactic of punishing civilians.
Clay Mountcastle29
Despite Lieber's views, and the code, Halleck himself remained a proponent of punitive
measures against supporters of southern partisans or guerrillas in order to curb their
activity. In late 1864, as Grant's chief of staff, he ordered the destruction of all homes
and property within five miles of railroad lines in the area known as Mosby's Confed-
eracy." These harsh measures did not significantly impede Mosby's ability to threaten
the rail networks.
Grant and Sheridan also shared similar views during the war on the need to destroy
Mosby's ability to Operate and live off support from the populace. Weary of hearing
about Mosby, Grant issued an order to Sheridan to hang without trial any guerrilla he
captured." That ended, though, when Sheridan agreed to stop the executions of Mosby's
men after the incident at Rectortown lottery. The Rangers still knew that if they were
captured wearing Union Army uniforms, such as the popular and warm blue overcoats,
they would be executed. Some dyed the blue overcoats black to avoid this fate.
In late November 164, frustrated in the efforts to capture Mosby and to deny his Rang-
ers assistance from the local populace in Mosby's Confederacy�and on direction of
the Secretary of War Edwin Stanton�General Sheridan ordered the destruction of all
farms and crops and the confiscation of all horses and other livestock in Loudoun and
Fauquier Counties. In addition, all males between the ages of 15 and 50 were subject
to summary arrest and detention. Stanton's orders were part of a larger Union strategy
that came from Grant's suggestion that Union commanders everywhere begin to focus
on destroying the South's infrastructure and war-making capabilities; impoverishment
of the southern civilian population by destroying farms and property was part of that
strategy. A conventional army during the Civil War could not survive long without lo-
cal support to provide food for themselves and forage for their animals.
Gen. William T. Slierman's infamous "March to the Sea" in 1864 that cut a swath of
destruction 50 miles wide and several hundred miles long through central Georgia
and South Carolina was intended to "make the south howl." Although Grant's 1864
campaign destroyed less of Northern Virginia than Union armies destroyed elsewhere,
during the autumn of 1864, Sheridan's command conducted a devastating campaign
the length and breadth of the Shenandoah Valley.
What became known as the "Burning Raid" commenced on 28 November 1864. Some
5,000 Union cavalrr troops from Sheridan's 1st Cavalry Division led by Brevet Maj.
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Gen. Wesley Merritt entered Loudoun County. The objective was to destroy all support
for Mosby's Rangers in Loudoun and Fauquier Counties. For five days Union troops
burned barns, destroyed crops, confiscated or slaughtered livestock, and arrested all
males between the ages of 15 and 50. It caused carnage among both rebel and Union
sympathizers, but it was a flawed policy and tactic because it hardened the resolve of
Mosby's men, some 80 percent of whom were from these very areas. There was a lo-
gistical effect on Mosby's Rangers though. As a result of the lack of supplies and for-
age, when Mosby's command became a regiment in January 1865, and with Lee's per-
mission, Mosby dispersed one of the new battalions to operate in Virginia's Northern
Neck�the Chesapeake Bay area bounded by the Potomac River to the north and the
Rappahannock to the south. Lt. Col. Chapman led that battalion independently starting
on 3 January 1865 and then returned to join Mosby and the regiment on 10 April 1865.
The torching of the homes of known, or suspected, Mosby supporters was another ac-
tion that often hardened the anti-Union attitudes of Northern Virginians. These were the
Ranger's own families and relatives who were affected, and there is no evidence that sup-
port for the partisans waned. They certainly did not start turning in their sons, husbands,
and male relatives. Also, many Rangers stayed in safe houses that were home to young
and eligible Southern women. A great number of marriages occurred between Rangers
and the daughters of those families that provided support thus strengthening these ties.
There were Union sympathizers in Northern Virginia as well, however, and they pro-
vided intelligence to the forces hunting Mosby. There was also a large Quaker com-
munity in these counties and most, but not all, took no active part in the Civil War.
Mosby's Rangers often purchased supplies from the Quakers, who did not generally
provide them freely. The Quakers, nonetheless, also suffered under the Union burning
raids and were usually not spared the destruction. If anything, punitive war in Mosby's
Confederacy only seemed to encourage the Rangers to act more aggressively and seek
revenge. When horses were no longer available in Mosby's Confederacy, Mosby and his
men raided behind Union lines to capture the mounts they needed.
Sheridan's actions in the Shenandoah Valley in the late summer and fall of 1864 caused
devastation and severely reduced supplies, which considerably hindered the operations
of Lee's larger Army of Northern Virginia. When Mosby and his Rangers started oper-
ating in the Shenandoah the following spring the populace welcomed them and provid-
ed support�what little was still available.30
In a similar fashion, Mosby's Revolutionary War hero, Francis Marion, the Swamp Fox,
tormented the British Army in South Carolina by collecting intelligence, alternating
between ambushing them and hiding from them, and attacking their lines of commu-
nication and supply. And like the British Army with Marion, the Union Army had to
spend an inordinate amount of time trying to deal with Mosby.
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The Germans, too, faced an unseen enemy combating Soviet partisans in occupied ar-
eas of the Soviet Union, and their punitive war and measures against the populace only
strengthened the partisans and their base of support. The frustration of combating an
enemy that remains unseen until it chooses to attack and has a base of support among
the populace has cionfronted US forces in modern wars in Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghan-
istan.
As discussed earlier, the Union response to his campaign of irregular warfare that seems
to have troubled Mosby most was the employment of special antipartisan units, such
as the Jesse Scouts i Blazer's Scouts, and Loudoun Rangers, whose mission was to hunt
down him and hi S men. Blazer's Scouts treated southerners and their property with
respect and obtainFd more cooperation than otherwise would have been expected in a
region where most, favored the South." Mosby made their defeat a priority, and in the
case of Blazer's Scouts and the Loudoun Rangers, he succeeded.
Lessons Learned:11 Current US military counterinsurgency doctrine is
clear on the need, to refrain from engaging in punitive war because of its
counterproductiveness. US military counterinsurgency doctrine is to "secure the
safety and suppoirt of the local populace."32 US doctrine also calls for protection
of personal property and for any destruction of property not to be excessive and
done only to gaina military advantage.
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26. From the lottery site, loop back to Rectortown using Route
713, turn right on Route 710 (Rectortown Road) to head south
toward Marshall.
In Marshall, turn right on West Main and continue several
blocks to 8372 West Main Street then turn right on to Frost. A
closed PNC Bank is on the right side. This is the location of the
disbandment marker.
Disbanding Site, Salem (present-day Marshall)
Although the marker commemorating the dis-
bandment of Mosby's Rangers is located near
the former PNC Bank in Marshall, which was
known as Salem at the time of the Civil War,
the actual site, however, is located down Frost
Road near Salem Street closer to woods.
Mosby often used Salem as a rendezvous site, and
he summoned his command to gather here on
21 April 1865, less than two weeks after Lee had
surrendered and a week after Lincoln's assassi-
nation. Prior to Appomattox, Lee had hoped to
break free from Grant's pursuing forces�whose
overwhelming strength had ended the siege of
Petersburg and captured Richmond�and link
up with the other remaining Confederate army
under Joseph E. Johnston still retreating before
Sherman's forces in North Carolina. Lee, howev-
er, could not make his escape.
Mosby learned of Lee's surrender from a circular distributed by Maj. Gen. Winfield
Scott Hancock, who at the time was commanding Union forces in the Shenandoah.
Scott had issued an statement that Mosby would not to be allowed to surrender on the
same terms as Lee. Brevet Brig. Gen. Charles Hale Morgan, Hancock's chief of staff,
retracted that statement and said that Mosby would indeed be granted the same terms
as Lee. Not trusting the various versions, Mosby entered into negotiations with the
Union Army while he sought guidance from the CSA. Mosby sent Ranger Channing
Smith to Richmond, which had fallen, and he was able to penetrate Union lines. The
Confederate government had fled, but Smith met with General Lee, who was paroled
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after Appomattox and living in Richmond. Lee, who knew Smith, told him that as a
condition of his parole he could no longer issue orders, but that on a personal level he
recommended Smith and the Rangers go home to their families."
Mosby continued !his negotiations with the Union Army. While he was parlaying in
Millwood, one of lUs men was engaged in a horse race against a Union soldier. As they
finished the race just outside of the town of Millwood, the Ranger saw a brigade of
Union cavalry, which was in the area by chance. Mosby's man raced back and alerted
his commander. Siuspecting a trap, Mosby broke off the talks and galloped out of
town. Given this level of uncertainty, Mosby chose to disband his command instead
of surrendering. Several hundred Rangers gathered here at Salem on 21 April 1865.
They were well clothed and armed and had fine mounts. They neither looked, nor
acted, defeated. Colonel Mosby's younger brother William ("Willie"), who served as his
adjutant, read the disbandment order:
Soldiers! I havelisummoned you to gather for the last time. The vision we have
cherished of a free and independent country has vanished, and that country is now
the spoil of the Conqueror. I disband your organization in preference to surrender-
ing it to our enemies. Jam now no longer your commander. After an association
of more than to eventful years, I part from you with a just pride in the fame of
your achievements and grateful recollections of your generous kindness to myself
And now at this moment of bidding you a final adieu, accept the assurance of my
unchanging confidence and regard. Farewell!'
The next day, a large group of Rangers, led by Lt. Col. William Chapman, obtained their
paroles in Winchester, Virginia. Mosby and a small group of Rangers headed south,
considering a lin, with Johnston's army still fighting in North Carolina. Johnston,
however, surrendered to Sherman in Raleigh on 26 April before Mosby could join him.
As there was still a $5,000 price on Mosby's head, he waited before seeking his own
parole. On 17 June' 1865, Mosby along with his brother Willie obtained their paroles
from the Union Ariny in Lynchburg, Virginia. Most accounts note that Mosby wore his
Confederate uniform and had his holstered Colt revolvers on his belt and slung over
his shoulder. There is a bit of a mystery here though. While John Mosby's signed parole
is not in his Confederate service record, Willie's is. It shows that he was paroled by the
Union Provost Marshal General on 17 May in Winchester, Virginia.
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27. Get back on the road to Warrenton, which now becomes
Business Route 17. Cross over 1-66 and continue to Warrenton.
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Mosby Home in Warrenton
Mosby took up his former career as a
lawyer after the war, living here in War-
renton from 1867 to 1876. Mosby was
not popular in Warrenton because of his
views on reconciliation with the north
and his close friendship with former
adversary U. S. Grant. When Grant ran
for president of the United States, Mos-
by served as his Virginia state campaign
manager, and after his election Mosby
accepted an appointment as American
consul to Hong Kong, serving in China
for the State Department for seven years.
Thereafter, Mosby did legal work for the
Southern Pacific Railroad, served in the
US Department of the Interior, and later
in the Department of Justice.
Warrenton Cemetery and Mosby's Grave
The town of Warrenton owns and operates this cemetery, which is located at W. Lee
Street and S. Chestnut Street. The cemetery is open during the day and visitors are
asked to be respectful. Mosby's tomb is near the center of the cemetery not far from a
Confederate Obelisk. There is a plan of the cemetery at the groundskeeper's shed. Mos-
by's grave is surrounded by those of his family members.
Colonel Mosby died at the age of 82 on 30 May 1916 and is buried here with numerous
other Rangers from his Civil War command. During the compilation of the official
war records of the Union and Confederate armies, it was discovered that, more than
any other Confederate officer, Mosby was "mentioned in dispatches" by General Lee.
They had a friendship that continued until Lee's death in 1870. In fact, Lee told Mosby,
"Colonel, the only fault I have ever found with you is that you are always getting wound-
ed" (from Mosby's memoirs). There are numerous complimentary notes in the official
archives of the CSA Army from Lee on Mosby.
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28. Return to 1-66 East and head toward Washington. Get off at
the US-50 exit to Fairfax.
Fairfax Courthouse Raid, the Capture of General Stoughton
The snow was melting on the night of 8/9
March 1863, and a! cold drizzle and mist
was in the air as Mosby and his men rode
into Fairfax atound 2 a.m. His objective
was to capture three senior Union Army
commanders: Col! "Sir" Percy Wynd-
ham, Brig. Gen. Edwin Stoughton, and
Lt. Col. Robert Johnstone, 5th New York
Cavalry.
Earlier that day, Mosby had gathered 29
Rangers at Dover! Crossroads, a small
village near Middl 'ourg. For operation-
al security, only a few Rangers knew the
details of their intended mission as they
rode toward Fairfax Courthouse.
The targeted seniof Union officers were
billeted near the ,courthouse. Security
was light. Union soldiers were garrisoned
a mile outside of town near what is
now Jermantown (also then known as
Germantown). They felt safe�after all they were some 10 miles behind Union picket
lines. As they had sa often in the past, Mosby and his men used deception, and so when
Union sentries challenged them as they entered the town they simply claimed to be
Union cavalry.
The operation was certainly aided by the Union Army deserter "Big Yankee" Ames, who
knew the area and rode as one of the 29 men with Mosby that night. Ames guided the
raiders through a Op in the Union picket lines between Chantilly and Centreville. "
The Truro Episcop41 Rectory, adjacent to the Episcopal church and across the street
from Fairfax Courthouse, was owned during the Civil War by Dr. William Gunnell. The
brick house has been expanded since the Civil War and the seam is visible to the right
side of the front entrance. Stoughton was asleep in the first floor bedroom on the left
side of the house when Mosby awakened him with a slap on the backside. Stoughton
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had been "entertaining" that night, and there were a few champagne bottles scattered
around the room. The surprised, yet groggy, Union general was surly and demanded
to know what was going on. Mosby asked if he had heard of Mosby. When Stoughton
gruffly replied that he had, Mosby informed him that he was now his prisoner.
There is a plaque in the churchyard commemorating the event. The main target,
Wyndham, was not captured because he was then in Washington. Johnstone, another
target, was awakened by the riders in town and escaped in his night clothes by hiding
out under an outhouse behind the Oliver Gunnell House at 4023 Chain Bridge Road
where he was staying. His wife struggled with Mosby's Rangers to delay their search of
the house while Johnstone hid. He would forever more be known to the lower ranks in
both northern and southern armies as "Outhouse Johnstone'
Following the raid, Union troops
arrested several Fairfax Courthouse
citizens suspected of having provided
intelligence to Mosby, including Joshua
Gunnell and Antonia Ford. To this day
it is not known if either was involved,
although Ford's circumstances were
certainly suspicious. Antonia was the
"Belle of Fairfax:' and at the time of
the raid both Stoughton's mother and
sister were lodging at her father's home
at 3977 Chain Bridge Road. Antonia
came from a well-known and prominent
pro-rebel family. Her father, Edward R.
Ford, publicly supported the South, her
brother was serving under J.E.B. Stuart's
command, and she herself supposedly
held an "honorary commission" signed
by Stuart.36
She was arrested by Maj. Joseph Willard,
provost marshal in Fairfax, after an undercover female agent (probably Frankie Abel)
working for Union Secret Service chief Lafayette Baker visited her to elicit information
about her possible connection to the raid. Ford was imprisoned in Old Capitol Prison,
located on the site of today's US Supreme Court, while Willard, who had become
smitten with her, worked diligently for her release. In 1864, she married Willard�part
owner of the famous Willard Hotel in Washington. One thing that points toward her
possible role in the raid or as a Confederate source is that her first cousin was Laura
Ratcliffe; the two were very close and often stayed with each other. Laura Ratcliffe was
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born at Fairfax Courthouse where Ford lived. At least one of Stuart's letters to both of
them survives, written at a time when Ford may have been staying near Frying Pan.
Mosby in several letters denied her involvement.37 Since Antonia convinced Willard of
her innocence, and married him, it would stand to reason that she may not have wanted
to be identified as a spy, but this is only a theory.
Mosby sent the following report to Stuart after the raid:
General:
I have the honor to report having accurately ascertained the number and
disposition of die troops in Fairfax County, I determined to reach Fairfax
Court-House, where the general headquarters of that portion of the army were
established. Sunday night, the 8th instant, being dark and rainy, was deemed
propitious. I kept the Pike until I got within about a mile and a half of the Court-
House, when Ilturned to the right in order to avoid some infantry camps, and
came into Fairfax Court-House from the direction of the railroad station, The
few guards stationed around the town, unsuspecting danger, were easily captured.
I then sent one party to the headquarters of Colonel Wyndham...another party
to Colonel Johnstone's, while with 6 men I went myself to Brigadier General
Stoughton's. Unfortunately Colonel Wyndham had gone down to Washington, but
his assistant adjutant-general and aide-de-camp were made prisoners. Colonel
Johnstone having received notice of our presence, made his escape. General
Stoughton I folund in bed asleep.
While these things were going on, other detachments of my men were busily
engaged in dialing the stables of the fine horses with which they were filled. It
was about 2 o'clock when I reached the Court-House, and I did not deem it safe
to remain there over one hour and a half, as we were 10 miles within the enemy's
lines, and it was necessary that we should get out before daylight, the close
proximity of tie enemy's forces rendering our situation one of great peril, there
being three regiments of cavalry camped 1 mile distant, at Germantown, two
infantry regiments within a few hundred yards of the town, one infantry brigade
in the vicinitylof Fairfax Station, and another infantry brigade, with artillery and
cavalry, at Centreville. About 3:30 o'clock, therefore, I left the place, going in the
direction of Fairfax Station, in order to deceive the enemy as to my line of retreat...
When I came:to within a half mile of Centreville I turned to the right, passed so
close to the fortifications there that the sentinels on the redoubts hailed us, while
we could distinctly see the bristling cannon through the embrasures. ...
The fruits of the expedition are 1 brigadier-general (Stoughton), 2 captains, and
30 men priso7ers. We also brought off 58 horses most of them being very fine,
belonging to officers; also a considerable number of arms. We left hundreds of
horses in the stables and other places, having no way of bringing them off as I was
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already encumbered with more prisoners and horses than I had men. I had 29 men
with me; sustained no loss. They all behaved admirably."38
Lessons Learned (Mass, Objective, Offensive, Maneuver, Security, Surprise,
Simplicity): This raid illustrates how tactical operations can have strategic effects.
At Fairfax Courthouse, Mosby had a simple and audacious plan. He used weather
and darkness to cover his movements and obtain surprise. On the way into
Fairfax, according to one account, he cut the telegraph lines heading west. This
prevented notifying the Union infantry in Centreville who could have blocked his
retreat. The Rangers also captured the telegraph operator in Fairfax Courthouse
that night.
The use of "Big Yankee" Ames for his knowledge of the area was critical to
planning and carrying out the operation but he had to be throughly vetted first.
He was distrusted when he first deserted, and Mosby "tested" him several times
to ensure his loyalty and reliability. Prior to the Fairfax Courthouse raid, Mosby
told Ames if he wanted to ride with him had to steal some horses from Union
forces. Ames stole the horses but also returned with vital intelligence. In another
test, Mosby had Ames accompany him unarmed on the 26 February raid against
Thompson's Corner in Fairfax. Ames would show his unswerving loyalty to his new
commander, when he rushed in to save Mosby from seven Union cavalry that had
surrounded him in April 1863. In this melee, Mosby killed three and Ames killed
two before the other two took off39
For a deserter, Ames had a quirk, though, and he refused to fight on a ride
into Pennsylvania saying he deserted to defend the South but wouldn't fight
on northern soil. This shows that some deserters or sources can have specific
motivations and limits to their cooperation. Mosby had a small number of men
who deserted from his command and sold information for gold to the Union Army.
Mosby and his men also used deception on the raid when Union sentries
challenged them as they entered Fairfax. Mosby also said, "The safety of the
enterprise lay in its novelty: nothing of the kind had been done before."" Not a
shot was fired on the raid.
After the raid, Mosby attempted to deceive the Union as to his route of
withdrawal. This follows the standing order of Rogers' Rangers, "Don't ever march
home the same way. Take a different route so you won't be ambushed." Mosby
often moved his force off of the main roads and traveled through the woods or by
smaller local trails to approach a target. As Ranger.l. Marshall Crawford noted in
his postwar book, "Mosby always avoided the highways and confined his marches
to by-paths and through woods and fields." This is the same way US Army Rangers
are taught to move tactically today. While Mosby had men who knew most of
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the area, they sometimes had to use local guides to show them a back way.
Although not a best practice, in a few cases where Mosby could not get the willing
assistance of the local population, his Rangers were known to have threatened
the locals to guide and help them.
Mosby also had al few. British, Irish, and German professional soldiers of fortune who
joined the 43rd Battalion. Some were prompted to travel and join Mosby, to learn from
him, upon hearing of his exploits. English-born Captain Bradford Smith Hoskins was
killed in action with the Rangers in May 1863. John Robinson, a former British Army
captain, fell in th Loudoun Heights raid from friendly fire.41 John Atkins was a young
Irishman who sailed from Ireland to join Mosby and was killed in October 1864. The
young Prussian baron and uhlan lieutenant, Robert von Massow, served with Mosby
and often wore his Prussian steel grey uniform. He was severely wounded, shot in the
back during SugTiand Run fight in February 1864. He returned to Prussia to recover
and served in the Prussian Army and later in the German Imperial Army where he was
promoted to genIral of cavalry. He served as a corps commander, and president of the
Imperial Army Military Court, before retiring just before World War I.
Mosby (standing center) with a group of his Rangers. Undated image.
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Aftermath
After the raid, on 14 March 1863, the Washington Evening Star reported the follow-
ing: "Moseby's (sic) guerilla (sic) thieves stole Brigadier General Stoughton at mid-
night from his warm couch without giving him special notice and carried him to Dixie,
where he cannot listen to the dulcet.sound of his famous Vermont band:' In all likeli-
hood, Mosby would have read those lines, as he made sure to read newspapers to see
what the Union was saying about him.
Striking behind the lines was indeed a novel tactic and not everyone in the Confederate
Army approved of Mosby's unconventional warfare. When Mosby brought Stoughton
to Gen. Fitzhugh Lee, who found the action so disturbing that he told Mosby his com-
mand was disbanded. Stuart on the other hand and, ultimately, Robert E. Lee were
pleased and Mosby weathered the minor storm. After the raid, Robert E. Lee wrote a
letter to Stuart stating, "Mosby has covered himself with honors!" Mosby was promot-
ed to major shortly after the raid with the support of General Lee. In November 1863
he tried to repeat his Fairfax success by capturing the Union provisional (unelected)
governor of Virginia, Francis Pierpont, in Alexandria. Mosby and a few Rangers rode
into the city but Pierpont had just left for Washington. Mosby did capture Col. Daniel
Dulany (also Dulaney), Pierpont's military aide de camp; Dulany's son French, a pri-
vate in Company A, Mosby's Rangers, accompanied the raid and took great delight in
capturing his own father. Mosby tried to capture Pierpont again in June 1864 but failed
when federal forces in Alexandria were alerted to his approach.
"Big Yankee" Ames was eventually promoted to the rank of second lieutenant in the
Confederate Army. As a Union Army deserter he had sworn to never be taken alive, for
the penalty was a firing squad. He was shot and killed by a Union soldier on 9 October
1864 near Delaplane. The Union soldier was in turn shot by Ranger Ludwell Lake Jr.
of Lakeland. There is a marker near the spot on Route 17 and a headstone for Ames in
Richmond's Hollywood Cemetery.
Psychological Effect of Mosby's Operations
Mosby's unconventional operations behind the Union lines, often at night and in bad
weather, utilized surprise and violence of action. They had an unnerving effect on the
Union forces in the area, including the author Herman Melville, who had the oppor-
tunity to ride along as an observer with Union cavalry from Vienna as they hunted for
Mosby in April 1864. He wrote a poem about Mosby titled "The Scout toward Aldie,"
published in 1866. This poem may be the first documented mention of the Rangers
being described as ghosts.
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From the first star of "The Scout toward Aldie":
The cavalry-camp lies on the slope
Of what was late a vernal hill,
But now like a pavement bare�
An outpost in he perilous wilds
Which ever are lone and still;
But Mosby's men are there�
Of Mosby best Ilyeware.
And given Melvillie's nautical bent, he also sees Mosby as something swift, silent, and
fearful:
As glides in seas the shark,
Rides Mosby through green dark.
Distant Notes on Mosby's Legacy and Influence
In the 1880s, after serving as US consul in Hong Kong, Mosby worked as a lawyer for
the Southern Pacific Railroad in San Francisco. While there he met the son of one of
his neighbors andl had an influential effect on the young man's military interest and
upbringing. Mosby' and this boy often went horse riding together and reenacted battles.
The boy later weriit on to attend the Virginia Military Institute, then West Point. He
served in World War I before becoming the most aggressive, and famous, US Army
tank commander cb World War II. It seems no accident that Gen. George S. Patton wore
two ivory-handled Colt revolvers, as did his boyhood mentor Colonel Mosby.42
In October 1898, a young Lt. Winston S. Churchill of the 21st Lancers took part in
one of the last laige British cavalry charges during the Battle of Omdurman in the
Anglo-Egyptian Sudan. As he closed on the Dervish enemy, Churchill conducted the
charge firing a German-made Mauser Model 1896 "Broom Handle" semiautomatic pis-
tol. Churchill had la shoulder injury that plagued him and limited his ability to use a
saber. In his book The River War, Churchill said he was also influenced by the accounts
of Mosby and his Rangers and their success with pistols.43
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End notes
1. Thomas J. Evans and James M. Moyer, Mosby's Confederacy: A Guide to the Roads and Sites of Confed-
erate Colonel John Singleton Mosby (White Main Publishing Company, Inc., 1991), 63.
2. Robert Johnstone, report dated March 23 1863 from Fairfax Court House. Quoted in James Joseph
Williamson, Mosby's Rangers: A Record of the Operations of the Forty-third Battalion of Virginia Cavalry
from its Organization to the Surrender (Sturgis and Walton, 1909), 50-51.
3. J. Marshall Crawford, Mosby and His Men: A Record of the Adventures of that Renowned Partisan Ranger
John S. Mosby (London: G.W. Carlton and Co, 1867; reprint, Old South Books, 2015), 153.
4. http://www.myhenrycounty.com/frank-stringfellow
5. Crawford, Mosby and His Men, 206.
6. Donald C. Hackenson and Charles V. Mauro, A Tour Guide and History of Colonel John S. Mosby's Combat
Operations in Fairfax County (HMS Productions, Inc., 2013), 23.
7. The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies,"
Series I, Volume 25, Part I, 66. (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1885; reprint, Harrisburg, PA:
Historical Times Inc., 1985) 66, cited in Michael D. Pyott, The Gray Ghost and his Featherbed Guerril-
las: A Leadership Analysis of John S. Mosby and the 43rd Virginia Cavalry," (Master of Military Art and
Science thesis, US Army CGSC, Ft. Leavenworth, KS, 2000).
8. Crawford, Mosby and His Men, 185.
9. James Joseph Williamson, Mosby's Rangers: A Record of the Operations of the Forty-third Battalion of
Virginia Cavalry from its organization to the Surrender (Sturgis and Walton, 1909), 496.
10. William S. Connery, Mosby's Raids in Civil War Northern Virginia (The History Press, 2013), 94-95.
11. Crawford, Mosby and His Men, 299-301.
12. Connery, Mosby's Raids, 98.
13. Hugh Keen and Horace Mewborn, "43rd Battalion Virginia Cavalry Mosby's Command," The Virginia
Regimental Series, 2nd Edition (H. E. Howard Inc., 1993), 261.
14. Williamson, Mosby's Rangers, 406-7.
15. Ibid., 141-47.
16. Keen and mewborn, "Mosby's Command," 22.
17. Kevin H. Siepel, Rebel, The Life and Times of John Singleton Mosby (St. Martin's Press, 1983), 101.
18. "Compiled Service Records of Confederate Soldiers, Mosby's Regiment (Partisan Rangers), John S. Mos-
by," Rocco and Cordelia Sansone Collection, Virginia Room, Fairfax County Library, microcopy no. 324,
roll 204.
19. Ibid.
20. Siepel, Rebel, 104-6.
21. Arnold M. Pavlovsky, In Pursuit of a Phantom: John Singleton Mosby's Civil War (printed by author, 2008),
135-37. Connery, Mosby's Raids, 98.
22. The Memoirs of Colonel John Singleton Mosby. Foreword by J. 0. Tate. (1917; reprint, Barnes and Nobel,
2006), 214.
23. Crawford, Mosby and his Men, 333-41.
24. Connery, Mosby's Raids, 106.
25. Crawford, Mosby and his Men, 179.
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26. Ibid., 145
27. Ibid., 294-95
28.
29.
"General Order No 100: The Lieber Code," 24 April 1863. www.avalon.law.yale.edu/19th_century/lieber.
asp.
Clay Mountcastle, Punitive War: Confederate Guerrillas and Union Reprisals (University Press of Kansas,
2009), 145.
30. Robert R. Mackey, The Uncivil War, Irregular War in the Upper South, University of Oklahoma Press,
2014,120
31. Crawford, Mosby and his Men, 286.
32. "FM 3-24, Counterinsurgency" (Headquarters Department of the Army, December 2006), x.
33. Connery, Mosby's Raids, 111.
34. Siepel, Rebel, 153. Quoted from Mosby's Farewell Address, 21 April 1865, J. Henley Smith Papers,
Library of Congress, Washington, DC.
35. Mosby, Memoirs, 173.
36. National Park Service article on Antonia Ford, www.nps.gov/resources..
37. A.M. Whitehead, article on Antonia Ford in Encyclopedia Virginia, www.encycolpediavirginia.org.
38. "The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies,"
Series I, Volume 25, Part I, pp.1121-22 (Government Printing Office, 1885 reprint, Historical Times Inc.
1985.
39. Crawford, Mosby and his Men, 80.
40. Mosby, Memoirs, 104.
41. Crawford, Mosby and his Men, 160.
42. Connery, Mosby' Raids, 127.
43. !bid, 130-31.
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Image credits
p. 2 Colonel John S. Mosby, CSA (Library of Congress).
p. 6 Major General J.E.B. Stuart, CSA (Library of Congress).
p. 7 Major John S. Mosby, CSA 1863 (Library of Congress).
p.8 Mosby troops in ambush awaiting to capture a bearer of dispatches (Virginia Room,
Fairfax County Library).
p. 10-11 Confederate Map detail showing parts of Fairfax, Fauquier, and Loudon Coun-
ties (Library of Congress).
p. 13 Mosby's Oak, (photograph by author).
p. 14 Camp of 2nd Massachusetts Cavalry, Vienna, Virginia (Library of Congress).
p. 16 Selection of Mosby Rangers Weapons (National Museum of American History,
Smithsonian Institution photo or Springfield Armory National Historical Site, National
Park Service).
p. 21 Frying Pan Meeting House (author).
p. 24 Herndon Station (author); Civil War period Herndon Station (Virginia Room,
Fairfax County Library).
p. 26 Harper's Weekly, September 1863 showing Mosby's Guerillas capturing/destroying
Union supplies (Library of Congress).
p. 32 Mt. Zion Baptist Church (author).
p. 34 Map of Rector's Crossroads, Rectortown, Middleburg, Upperville, Aldie, Dover
(Library of Congress).
p. 34 Aldie Mill (author).
p. 35 Percy Windham (Library of Congress).
p. 38 Red Fox Inn (author).
p. 39 Caleb-Rector House, Site of Civil War Store in Atoka, and spring house (author).
p. 42 Lakeland and Lake Field School (author).
p. 43 Major Adolphus "Dolly!' E. Richards, CSA. (Engraving reproduced from Major
John Scott, "Partisan Life with Col. John S. Mosby;' 1867).
p. 46 Private Lucien Love, Company D, Mosby's Rangers (Library of Congress).
p. 48 Maj. Gen. Henry Halleck, US Army (Library of Congress photo).
p. 53 Mosby Rangers disbandment marker (author).
p. 55 Brentmoor (author).
p.56 Dr. William Gunnell House (Virginia Room, Fairfax County Library).
p. 57 Antonia Willard Ford (Library of Congress).
p. 60 Colonel John S. Mosby and some Rangers (Library of Congress).
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Readings
Central Intelligence Agency, Office of Public Affairs. Intelligence in the Civil War.
Connery, William S. Mosby's Raids in Civil War Northern Virginia. The History Press,
2013.
Crawford, J. Marshall. Mosby and His Men: A Record of the Adventures of that Renowned
Partisan Ranger John S. Mosby. Old South Books, 2015. First published 1867 by G.W.
Canton and Co.
Evans, Thomas J., and James M. Moyer. Mosby's Confederacy: A Guide to the Roads and
Sites of Confederate Colonel John Singleton Mosby. White Main Publishing Company,
Inc., 1991.
Gallagher, Gary W The Union War. Harvard University Press, 2012.
Hakenson, Donald C., and Charles V. Mauro. A Tour Guide and History of Col. John
S. Mosby's Combat Operations in Fairfax County, Virginia. HMS Productions, Inc.,
2013.
Jones, Virgil Carrington. Ranger Mosby. University of North Carolina Press, 1944.
Keen, Hugh and Horace Mewborn. "43rd Battalion Virginia Cavalry Mosby's Com-
mand." The Virginia Regimental Series, 2nd Edition. H. E. Howard Inc., 1993.
Mackey, Robert R. The Uncivil War: Irregular War in the Upper South. University of
Oklahoma Press, 2014.
McPherson, James M. Battle Cry of Freedom. Oxford History of the United States. Oxford
University Press, 2003.
Mauro, Charles V. The Civil War in Fairfax County: Civilians and Soldiers, History
Press, 2006.
Mosby Heritage; Area Association, "Hunting the Gray Ghost in Northern Virginia's
Mosby Heritage Area." Mosby Heritage Area Association, 2013.
Mosby, John S. The Memoirs of Colonel John Singleton Mosby. Foreword by J.O. Tate.
Barnes and Noble, 2006. First published in 1917 by Little, Brown and Company.
Mountcastle, Cly. Punitive War: Confederate Guerrillas and Union Reprisals. Universi-
ty Press of Kin, sas, 2009.
Munson, John W. Reminiscences of a Mosby Guerrilla. CSIPP, 2012. First published in
1906 by Moffat, Yard & Company.
O'Neill, Robert E Chasing JEB Stuart and John Mosby: The Union Cavalry in Northern
Virginia from Second Manassas to Gettysburg. McFarland, 2012.
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Pyott, Michael D. "The Gray Ghost and his Featherbed Guerrillas: A Leadership Anal-
ysis of John S. Mosby and the 43rd Virginia Cavalry" Master's thesis, U.S. Army
Command and General Staff College, 2000.
Ramage, James. Gray Ghost: The Life of Colonel John Singleton Mosby. University of
Kentucky Press, 2009.
Scott, John (Major). Partisan Life with Col. John S. Mosby. University of Michigan re-
print series, 2005. First published in 1867 by Harper and Brothers.
Siepel, Kevin H. Rebel, The Life and Times of John Singleton Mosby. St. Martin's Press,
1983.
Wert, Jeffrey D. Mosby's Rangers: From the High Tide of the Confederacy to the Last Days
of Appomattox, the Story of the Most Famous Command of the Civil War and Its Leg-
endary Leader, John S. Mosby. Simon and Schuster, 1991.
Williamson, James Joseph. Mosby's Rangers: A Record of the Operations of the For-
ty-third Battalion of Virginia Cavalry from its Organization to the Surrender. Sturgis
and Walton, 1909.
Websites
www.civilwaralbum.com
Mosby Heritage Area Foundation: www.mosbyheritagearea.org
John Singleton Mosby Museum Foundation: www.mosbymuseum.org
Friends of Laura Ratcliffe: www.flotinfo
Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of American History: www.amhistory.
si.edu
Springfield Armory National Historical Site, National Park Service: www.nps.gov/
spar/index.htm
+ + +
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