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from the original painting "Welcome to Mosby's Confederacy" ©1986
Dale Gallon
Born
December 6, 1833 at 'Edgemont', Powhatan County, Virginia, John Singleton Mosby was
the son of Alfred Daniel and Virginia Jackson (McLaurine) Mosby. Daughter
of James Wren and Katherine Winston (Stegar) McLaurine, Virginia was born May
15, 1815 at 'Edgemont'.
While a student at the University of Virginia,
he was expelled for shooting the son of a tavern keeper. During the
trial, Mosby convinced the jury he had shot in self-defense and was
sentenced to a $500 fine as well as one year in jail. He was so
impressed with the prosecutor that Mosby borrowed his law books while he served
his sentence. Upon his release from prison seven months later, he
passed the Virginia bar and opened a practice at Bristol, Virginia. Mosby married Pauline Mariah Clark on December 30,
1857 at Nashville, Tennessee. The daughter of Beverly Leondus and Mariah
Louisa (Clarke) Clark, Pauline was born March 30, 1837 in Kentucky.
Although having voted against secession, Mosby
became an ardent Confederate warrior. Originally joining the
Washington Mounted Rifles, which later became the First
Virginia Cavalry, he became one of General J.E.B. Stuart's best scouts.
On December 29, 1862, Stuart and Mosby spent the night at 'Oakham', home of
Colonel Hamilton Rogers, just outside of Middleburg, Loudon County, and on the following morning, Stuart gave
Mosby nine men and left him behind to conduct partisan activities. While Stuart was settling into winter quarters near Fredericksburg in
January 1863, Mosby was in Northern Virginia beginning operations against
Union troops, generally stealing in and out of the dark of night. Over the next few
years, commanding the 43rd Battalion of Virginia Cavalry, he would command about
2,000 men although at most, 800 at any given time. Becoming the bane
of the Union, his activities in Northern Virginia resulted in General
Ulysses S. Grant ordering him and his followers, when captured, hanged
without trial. Seriously wounded three times, Mosby was praised highly by Stuart
and mentioned more often than any other Southern officer in General Robert
E. Lee's orders and reports.
Twelve days after General Lee surrendered at
Appomattox Court House, Virginia, Colonel Mosby disbanded the 43rd Battalion
and returned to his family in Virginia. His wife, Pauline, managed to get
from General Grant a handwritten exemption from arrest for her husband.
They moved to
Warrenton in September of 1865. Returning to the
practice of law, Mosby formed a partnership with James Keith. In March of
1876, Pauline gave birth to their eighth child. Never recovering, she died
in May and was followed into death by their infant son. Heartbroken, Mosby
left Warrenton and did not return until after his death. He was appointed U.S.
consul to
Hong Kong by President Rutherford B. Hayes on the recommendation of Ulysses
S. Grant. On May 15, 1916 at Garfield Hospital, Washington DC, Mosby
died and on June 1, 1916, he was buried at Warrenton
beside his beloved Pauline.
From Southern Cavalry
Review
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