On December 6, 1833, Virginia McLaurine Mosby, wife of Alfred Daniel Mosby, gave birth to a son and named him John Singleton, after his paternal grandfather. Mosby lived in Nelson County, Va. until the age of six when his father moved to adjoining Albemarle County, four miles from Charlottesville and within viewing distance of Thomas Jefferson's Monticello. After showing proficiency in Greek during grade school, he enrolled at the University of Virginia on October 3, 1850. But after shooting a fellow student after a dispute, Mosby was expelled from the University, and took up several months of study in a local law office. He soon passed the bar and set up his own practice in nearby Howardsville, also in Albemarle County.A town visitor, Pauline Clarke, captured Mosby's affection. After courting her, he moved to her hometown of Bristol, on the Tennessee border. On December 30, 1857 they were married. Their first child, a daughter named May, was born on May 10, 1859. When Virginia followed other Southern states and voted to secede from the Union following Abraham Lincoln's election to the presidency in 1860, Mosby decided to enlist in the Confederate army.
At first Mosby followed a local company of infantry, but quickly transfered to the cavalry corps of Gen. J.E.B. Stuart, and became acquainted with the duties of a scout. Before too long, however, Mosby became anxious to form his own command, that would not be bound by traditional army conventions. In January 1863, Stuart approved Mosby's plan and gave him a few men to begin his operation. Mosby and his partisan rangers were later incorporated into the regular Confederate army. Their primary objective consisted of destroying railroad supply lines between Washington and Northern Virginia, as well as intercepting dispatches and horses and capturing Union soldiers. Mosby's numbers rose from one dozen to a few hundred by the end of the war. Mosby's rank likewise rose steadily; his final promotion to colonel came in January 1865. Gen. Robert E. Lee cited Mosby for meritorious service more often than any other Confederate officer during the course of the war.
Mosby retreated into a self-imposed exile after the war until he acquired his parole from General U.S. Grant (see full text). He settled down in Warrenton, Va. in Fauquier County to re-establish his law practice. Politics, however, called to him. When Grant became president in 1869, Mosby visited him in the White House and offered his support. Mosby publicly backed the Republican in his 1872 re-election bid, and Grant carried Virginia. Under Hayes, Grant's successor, Mosby became a consul to Hong Kong (1878-1885). After returning to the United States, he became active on the lecture circuit and penned his war reminiscences and several other works for magazines and newspapers, spreading his account of his exploits during the war. After a series of physical debilitations, Mosby died on May 30, 1916 at the age of 82.
Who gave John Mosby the moniker,"Gray Ghost"? The answer is at the bottom of the page.
The Gray Ghost-Colonel John Singleton Mosby
Mosby and the Scout Toward Aldie
Mosby Biography from Confederate Military History
Reports by Colonel Mosby in the Official Records
Tours and tour guides in Mosby's Confederacy Col.
John Mosby and the Southern code of honor Reports of
Capt. John S. Mosby, Virginia Cavalry
Mosby Monuments At Prospect Hill Cemetery in Front Royal
History of Mosby's Artillery
Company The Scout to
Adlie by Herman Melville Mosby's Rangers Killed In
Action Memoirs of
John S. Mosby (On-line) Company D of the 43rd Battalion
Virginia Cavalry Back to the War in the
Shenandoah Valley
Mosby's Haunts
Village
of Paris & Old Ashby Gap Turnpike Brentmoor - Spilman/Mosby
House John Singleton Mosby
Heritage Area Roster of
the 43rd Battalion Virginia CAVALRY Back to the War in the Shenandoah
Valley A
tour of 'Mosby's Confederacy' gives a taste of the famed cavalryman's
hair-raising exploits. Partisan Rangers
CONFEDERATE IRREGULAR WARFARE 1861 -
1865 Back to the War in the
Shenandoah Valley
Want to learn more? Click Here
Answer to the question: It was Lincoln himself who named Mosby "The Gray Ghost." The Union Army's biggest fear in Washington was that Mosby would kidnap Lincoln from right beneath their nose. Lincoln, upon hearing several of his generals discussing Mosby and their fears, loudly announced, "Listen to you men, you speak of Mosby as though he is a ghost, a gray ghost." It wasn't until after the war that Mosby learned of this and that the nickname stuck.
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