Who is John Singleton Mosby?
Informative Speech
North Cooper
Depending on whether or not you hail from North or South of the Mason-Dixon Line you may see John Singleton Mosby as either the bright penny of American independence or conversely, you may view him as a representative of the uncultured and uneducated realm of the Confederacy. But he was not a man defined by his time, instead he was a man who defined his time. Mosby was a man who sought to change the world around him and will be forever remembered as a man who stood resilient despite the many challenges that his childhood, the war, and his post-war politics lobbed at him.
Born on December 6, 1833, Mosby’s early life was one defined by sickness and local doctors believed that he would die before the age of six. Yet, he used the time to study Francis Marion, despite his poor health, exploring the life of the Revolutionary War guerrilla who would go on to be a role model for Mosby (Goetz 159). At the age of fifteen, Mosby enrolled at the University of Virginia and although he studied Latin and Greek with extreme passion, he was not studious. While attending the University of Virginia, he became engaged in a dispute with a bully, George Turpin and as a result, shot him, subsequently leading to his expulsion from UVA (“John S. Mosby”). Despite this, in James Ramage’s book Gray Ghost, Mosby reportedly later replied when being asked about the incident, “I have never done anything that I so cordially approved as shooting Turpin.”
In the year 1860, the United States would plunge into the most gruesome war it has ever known and Mosby would leave the battlefield a living legend. Despite this, Mosby was considered to be an unimpressive soldier by most (Siepel 11). This all changed however at the First Battle of Bull Run where Mosby proved to Stonewall Jackson that he was quite battle-worthy and rather adept at commanding men from the front. By the time of the Second Battle of Bull Run, Mosby had climbed the ranks to become one of Jackson’s personal scouts and by the end of the battle had proved himself to be capable of operating and commanding his own detachment of guerilla fighters and scouts (Ramage 55). The 43rd Virginia Cavalry Battalion (i.e., Mosby’s Rangers) was formed in February 1863, and Mosby immediately began his career of guerilla warfare with only nine other men. He raided union posts and rear-guard units with a sort of invincibility and invisibility. He earned the nickname the “Gray Ghost” from his daring ride through enemy lines in which he was able to capture a general and 30 or so other Union soldiers without raising alarm. As Steve Balestrieri best put it in his article “Mosby’s Rangers,” “Mosby’s men conducted nearly 30 raids in 1863-64 and were very successful at putting a thorn in the enemy’s backside as well as scouting and foraging for the army.” Mosby and his men continued to operate behind enemy lines until the end of the war when he subsequently chose not to surrender but instead simply to disband his rangers and go home (“John S. Mosby”).
Mosby was at the time, and still is to this day, often criticized for his politics. Though he fought for the Confederacy, he was a Republican and had always been a staunch critic of slavery. Steve Balestrieri responds in his article “Mosby’s Rangers” that Mosby reportedly said “I am not ashamed of having fought on the side of slavery…The South was my country.” For this belief, he was criticized, yet this criticism was far less punishing than that of which was dealt by his relationship with his former enemy, President Ulysses S. Grant. Although the two fought on different sides during the war, they became good friends afterward. To many of his old comrades in arms, the Grant-Mosby relationship was one of unloyal intent, however; Mosby was unfazed and served as the U.S. Consul to Hong Kong during the Grant administration. Upon his return from Hong Kong, he worked as a lawyer for the Southern Pacific Railroad in San Francisco until returning home to live out the remainder of his life bouncing between Virginia and D.C. until his death on May 30, 1916 (“John S. Mosby”).
In conclusion, no matter which side of the line you fall, North or South, it is impossible to ignore the impactful life that John Singleton Mosby lived, and even more difficult to label him the killer that he is often made out to be. Mosby was not a man of war but of honor and with this came the responsibility to fight for his family and state. The world did not change Mosby, Mosby changed the world. For this, he will be forever remembered as a man who stood resilient despite the many challenges that his childhood, his war, and his politics lobbed at him. It is for this reason that I am proud to be his grandson.
Bibliography
Balestrieri, Steve. "Mosby’s Rangers: The Civil War Guerrilla Fighters That Were A Thorn In The Union’s Side." SOFREP, 1 Dec. 2019, Accessed 20 Sept. 2022. Beller, Susan. Mosby and his Rangers: Adventures of the Gray Ghost. Betterway Books, 1992. Clarke, Covington. Mosby’s Night Hawk. The Reilly & Lee Co., 1931.
Goetz, David. “Hell is Being a Republican in Virginia”: The Post-War Relationship between John Singleton Mosby and Ulysses S. Grant. Xlibris Corporation, 2012.
"John S. Mosby." ProQuest. ABC-CLIO Interactive American Military Leaders, Jan. 1, 2001.
Ramage, A. James. Gray Ghost: The Life of Col. John Singleton Mosby. The University Press of Kentucky, 1999.
Siepel, H. Kevin. Rebel: The Life and Times of John Singleton Mosby. St. Martin’s Press, 1983.