This last quotation brings to our story one of the most picturesque figures in either army and one whose numerous exploits in Loudoun and her adjoining counties were truly of that inherent nature from which popular legend and folklore evolve. John Singleton Mosby was born at Edgemont in Powhattan County, Virginia, on the 6th December, 1833. He was educated at the University of Virginia, was admitted to the Bar and when the war broke out was practicing his profession in Bristol. Promptly volunteering for service, he became a cavalry private in the Washington Mounted Rifles and when that became a part of the 1st Virginia Cavalry, Mosby was promoted to be its adjutant. Subsequently he served as an independent scout for General J. E. B. Stuart until captured by the Federals and imprisoned in Washington. After his exchange he was made a captain in the Provisional Army of the Confederate States by General Lee,[170] later a major and then colonel, serving on detached service under General Lee's orders. During the winter of 1862-'63 he built up his command known as Mosby's Partisan Rangers (which had more formal status as the 43rd Battalion, Virginia Cavalry) in the territory between the Rappahannock and the Potomac, where, for the remainder of the war, he continued to operate; but the heart of his domain was thus described
"From Snickersville along the Blue Ridge Mountains to Linden; thence to Salem (now called Marshall); to the Plains; thence along the Bull Run Mountains to Aldie and from thence along the turnpike to the place of beginning, Snickersville."[171]
This was the true "Mosby's Confederacy," as it became known, and Mosby's Confederacy in very fact it was, albeit a precarious and but loosely held realm. By Mosby's orders, no member of his command was to leave these bounds without permission.
Mosby's purpose, always governing his operations, is thus described by him:
"To weaken the armies invading Virginia by harassing their rear—to destroy supply trains, to break up the means of conveying intelligence, and thus isolating an army from its base, as well as its different corps from each other, to confuse their plans by capturing despatches, are the objects of partisan war. I endeavoured, so far as I was able, to diminish this aggressive power of the army of the Potomac, by compelling it to keep a large force on the defensive."[172]
He was amazingly successful. His men had no camps. To have had definite headquarters would have been to invite certain destruction or capture. When too hotly pursued, they scattered over the friendly countryside, hiding in the hills, the woods, farmhouses or barns and often, if discovered, appearing as working farmers. "They would scatter for safety" says Mosby, "and gather at my call, like the Children of the Mist." Their attacks frequently were made at night; but whether by day or night so unexpectedly as always to utterly confuse their foes and keep them in such nervous anticipation of attack at unknown and unpredictable points that Mosby became to them a major scourge. Branded as "guerilla," "bushwhacker," and "freebooter," Mosby stoutly and logically maintained that his method of fighting was wholly within the rules of war and when General Custer took some of his men prisoners and hanged them as thieves and murderers, Mosby, acting on Lee's instructions, promptly retaliated by hanging an equal number of Custer's men as soon as he was able to capture them. That appears to have ended the execution of captured Mosby men, save for rare individual and heinous offences.
One of the most spectacular and, upon the local imagination, lastingly impressive forays made by him was the so-called "Greenback Raid" in which, on the 14th October, 1864, his men wrecked a Baltimore and Ohio train near Brown's Crossing. Among the passengers were two Federal paymasters, carrying $168,000 in United States currency. This was seized by Mosby's men, carried to Bloomfield in Loudoun, and divided among the raiders, each receiving about $2,000. It is related that thenceforth, until the end of the war, there was ample Federal currency circulating in Loudoun.
His men were volunteers, many having served in other Confederate commands and thence attracted to Mosby by his romantic reputation and his greater freedom of operation. Numerous Loudoun men were in the organization[173] but they made up a much smaller proportion than in White's Battalion or in the 8th Virginia Regiment. Many of his men were very young. One of these youths who survived the constant perils which surrounded the band was John H. Alexander, born in Clarke County. After peace was declared, he completed his interrupted education, was admitted to the Bar and, eventually taking up his permanent residence in Loudoun, very successfully practiced his profession there until his death in February, 1909. He wrote an interesting book, Mosby's Men, covering his experience with that leader, which was published in 1907. His only son, the Hon. John H. R. Alexander, one of the most esteemed and efficient judges Loudoun has contributed to the Virginia Bench, now presides over the Circuit Court for Loudoun and adjacent counties. Two more of Mosby's youths, these both of Loudoun, were Henry C. Gibson and J. West Aldridge. After the war Mr. Gibson married Mr. Aldridge's sister. Dr. John Aldridge Gibson and Dr. Harry P. Gibson, prominent Leesburg physicians, are the sons of this marriage. Did space permit many others Loudoun members of the command could be mentioned. The instances given go to show how the sons of Mosby's Rangers still carry on in Loudoun.
On the 17th June, 1863, Lee's Army was on its way north for its second invasion of Maryland and toward the fateful field of Gettysburg. General J. E. B. Stuart, in command of the Confederate Cavalry, had established his temporary headquarters at Middleburg. Early that morning Colonel Munford, with the 2nd and 3rd Virginia Cavalry, acting as advance guard of General Fitzhugh Lee, was foraging in the neighborhood of Aldie with Colonel Williams C. Wickham, who had with him the 1st, 4th, and 5th Virginia Cavalry. While Colonel Thomas L. Rosser was carrying out Colonel Wickham's orders to select a camp near Aldie, he came in contact with General G. M. Griggs' 2nd Cavalry Division of Federals made up of General Kilpatrick's Brigade (2nd and 4th New York, 1st Massachusetts and 6th Ohio Regiments) the 1st Maine Cavalry and Randol's Battery. These forces attacked each other with the greatest determination and courage. Charges were followed by counter-charges and desperately contending every foot of ground the adversaries surged up and down the Little River Turnpike and the Snickerville Road, where two squadrons of sharpshooters from the 2nd and 3rd Virginia Cavalry were holding back Kilpatrick's men. Says Colonel Munford in his report of the fight:
"As the enemy came up again the sharpshooters opened upon him with terrible effect from the stone wall, which they had regained, and checked him completely. I do not hesitate to say that I have never seen so many Yankees killed in the same space of ground in any fight I have seen on any battle field in Virginia that I have been over. We held our ground until ordered by the major-general commanding to retire, and the Yankees had been so severely punished that they did not follow. The sharpshooters of the 5th were mostly captured, this regiment suffering more than any other."[174]