Partisan Rangers

Woods-walker

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Introduction: Although we traditionally associate horse soldiers with the cavalry, there were several other categories of soldiers who fought on horseback that were not classified as cavalry. Partisan Rangers were one of those groups. This will be the first of three series I intend to post this coming year on non-cavalry soldiers who fought on horseback. The next two will be on the Mounted Artillery followed by The Dragoons (aka Mounted Infantry).

Partisan Rangers

“…with the exception of John Mosby, these rangers are "a nuisance and an evil to the service and ought to be disbanded”

Possibly the formation of the Partisan Rangers came about on March 27, 1861 when the Virginia Legislature passed the Virginia Ranger Act, twenty days before it voted to succeed from the Union. The legislation called for the formation of ten Companies of Rangers. Following suite, on April 8th​, a bill was introduced in the 1st​Confederate States Congress to permit forming a force of partisan rangers with a five-dollar bounty for each Union soldier killed. The Confederate Senate Congressional Military Committee replaced the bounty with providing rangers the same pay as regular soldiers and included the stipulation that they become subjects to nearly all Confederate States Army regulation. The Confederate Congress passed the Partisan Ranger Act on April 21, 1861 with the intent to increase recruitment of irregulars for service. The bill also allowed Partisan Rangers to sell captured goods and arms to the Confederate Quartermaster General Department in one instance. But the overriding purposes were to take control over guerilla warfare for the betterment of the Government and yet promote guerilla warfare in places out of reach of the Confederate army.

Initially, President Davis did not approve of irregular warfare since the guerillas were too difficult to control and because it reduced the number of able men eligible to serve in the regular army. However, in the fall of 1861, when southern regulars were driven out of western Virginia, irregulars remined to fight. That led Virginia Governor John Letcher to issue a proclamation calling to “raise such a force as would enable General John Floyd to recover western Virginia from the dominion of the invader.”

From that legislation and proclamation came a variety of irregular soldiers composed mostly into two groups - guerrillas and the more conservative units known as Partisan Rangers or Raiders. Their activities ranged from out-right criminal acts to support of the regular army through reconnaissance, intelligence, and disruption of Union supplies.
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William Quantrill - Library of Congress
The more independent and loosely organized of the two groups were the guerrillas, such as William Quantrill’s Raiders out of Missouri. This group adhered to their own laws and reported to no one outside of their own command. For the most part those men were of questionable background. One had murdered his father, another his brother. Many were outright thieves. William (aka Bloody Bill) Anderson was a member of Quantrill’s Raiders, but later started his own, and perhaps more feared, band of guerrillas in Missouri.
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John H. Morgan - Library of Congress
The raiders who joined John Hunt Morgan (Morgan’s Thunderbolt Raiders) in Kentucky at the beginning of the war belonged to the aristocracy. They were mostly from wealthy families who originally settled in Virginia and North Carolina and had migrated west to Kentucky. Four years before the war they formed the Lexington Rifles. At the start of the civil war, they were sworn into the Confederate army as the First Kentucky Cavalry. Morgan worked in perhaps the widest range of operation, to include parts of Tennessee, Kentucky and his famous ride into Ohio and Indiana.
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John S. Mosby - Library of Congress
Further east in Virginia a more organized group, Mosby’s Rangers, emerged to become the ultimate example of partisan rangers. John Singleton Mosby (aka The Grey Ghost) first appeared as a subordinate to General William “Grumble” Jones’ cavalry in the Shenandoah Valley in 1861. Jones’ fierce-disciplinarian traits may have molded the young Mosby. By January 1863, Mosby had gained permission to organize a group of Partisan Rangers, reporting to Cavalry Commander J.E.B. Stuart. Stuart recommended that Mosby call his group Mosby’s Regulars, since the term Ranger had gained a bad reputation. The men of Mosby’s Regulars were anything but “regulars” however, consisting of a hodgepodge of deserters, men home on furlough, wounded, too old or too young for regular service, and a few with questionable character.

Although the Partisan Rangers were able to distract the enemy, play important roles with independent raids and collect intelligence. It proved an overall failure compared to its original intent of moving unrestricted and unconventional warfare outside of government control, to advance the Confederacy’s war goals.

By late 1863, The Partisan Ranger Act of 1861 had begun to fall apart due to unlawful and violent guerilla activity. General Thomas Rosser, cavalry commander in the Shenandoah Valley, wrote to Robert E. Lee that, with the exception of John Mosby, these rangers were "a nuisance and an evil to the service and ought to be disbanded, and the men placed in the regular ranks.” Similar characterizations by other Confederate generals caused Lee to lobby the Confederate government to repeal the Partisan Ranger Act. On February 17th​, 1864 all except Mosby’s Rangers and (John) McNeill’s Rangers both operating in northern and western counties of Virginia, were repealed. Those two groups had consistently demonstrated military discipline and operated until the end of the war.
 
I don't think its entirely fair to say Mosby's men were under a good military discipline. Jeb Stuart said outside of Mosby and I think it was around a dozen others the whole command was motivated by the desire to plunder and loot. But they get the fame, along with people like Quantrill, McNeill's Rangers are forgotten.

The entire concept of Partisan Rangers was a good one in my estimation. Partisan Rangers units didn't always fulfill it though, but a lot of regular and volunteer cavalry units did, and did it a lot more effectively.
 
Ed Bearss gave the date of May 1863 as the tipping point where the regular & irregular cavalry in the West began to consume more men & horses than it was worth. The Army of Tennessee was literally starved, both men & animals, for lack of draft animals. The tens of thousands of Partisan Rangers scattered all over the Western Theater deprived the army of vital resources at a time when every man or horse counted.

The various “banditti” as they were often referred as did make for good headlines. In reality, however, their successes were the dictionary definition of tactical success without strategic accomplishment.
 
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I had been researching Alexander G. McCormick of the 5th Texas Partisan Rangers. As I understand it, these fellows spent much of their time in Oklahoma and were attached to Stand Watie's Cherokees. Motley looking bunch from descriptions. McCormick was born in Canada. He would later serve as Mayor of Liberty Tx. He owned a cotton press a livery and a hotel. I am not related to him; he borrowed money from my great grandfather and his step-father in the 1870's. He put up 320 acres in Chambers County as collateral but defaulted in 1879. Been trying to find out more about him and the rangers. Just takes time and patience.
 
Great Thread. Alabama had several PR units. The 53rd was assigned to Gen Roddy's command and was with Gen Joe Wheeler in the last 2 years of the war.
 
For supplemental info, here's another thread some may find helpful:
 
The 53rd was assigned to Gen Roddy's command and was with Gen Joe Wheeler in the last 2 years of the war.
I think one could consider Wheeler's command pretty much a partisan ranger outfit. Even reading some Southern accounts, locals were none too pleased when Wheeler's men came swinging through.
 
I don't think its entirely fair to say Mosby's men were under a good military discipline. Jeb Stuart said outside of Mosby and I think it was around a dozen others the whole command was motivated by the desire to plunder and loot. But they get the fame, along with people like Quantrill, McNeill's Rangers are forgotten.

The entire concept of Partisan Rangers was a good one in my estimation. Partisan Rangers units didn't always fulfill it though, but a lot of regular and volunteer cavalry units did, and did it a lot more effectively.
Sorry if I portrayed Mosby’s men were under good discipline. I agree Mosby probably was but certainly not his entire group. Thanks for stopping by with your critique. Much appreciated
 
Great Thread. Alabama had several PR units. The 53rd was assigned to Gen Roddy's command and was with Gen Joe Wheeler in the last 2 years of the war.
Thanks for stopping by @ucvrelics . I did find several Alabama PR groups when researching this but tried to make the post short & sweet. Perhaps I left out too much of the sweet
 


Possibly the formation of the Partisan Rangers came about on March 27, 1861 when the Virginia Legislature passed the Virginia Ranger Act, twenty days before it voted to succeed from the Union. The legislation called for the formation of ten Companies of Rangers. Following suite, on April 8th​, a bill was introduced in the 1st​Confederate States Congress to permit forming a force of partisan rangers with a five-dollar bounty for each Union soldier killed. The Confederate Senate Congressional Military Committee replaced the bounty with providing rangers the same pay as regular soldiers and included the stipulation that they become subjects to nearly all Confederate States Army regulation. The Confederate Congress passed the Partisan Ranger Act on April 21, 1861 with the intent to increase recruitment of irregulars for service.
So a Partisan Ranger bill that included a bounty on slayed Union soldiers was introduced in the CSA Congress 4 days prior to firing on Ft. Sumter. Hmmm!
 
I think one could consider Wheeler's command pretty much a partisan ranger outfit. Even reading some Southern accounts, locals were none too pleased when Wheeler's men came swinging through.
Gen Joe Wheeler's command was NOT a PR group but a Bona Fide CS military cavalry command.
 
I guess they only let great Southern Generals back into the US Army after the war.
 
What an interesting thread that will create a bit of buzz. The word Partisans generates such a visceral reaction as the term brings so many to mind. Partisans was an approved term during WW II as they opposed the Axis Powers, yet during the ACW it depended on which side you were on.

I think of various groups or individuals, Jayhawkers, Border Ruffians, Bloody Bill Anderson, the James Brothers, Champ Ferguson and Archie Clement to name a few.

@archieclement is very knowledgeable about this topic and would have a good bit to add.
Regards
David
 
I guess they only let great Southern Generals back into the US Army after the war.
Wheeler comes to mind.

I recently watched the 1997 Spanish American War miniseries "The Rough Riders".
The 1898 uniforms and weapons were spot-on accurate.

And then they cast Gary Busey as Wheeler.

However, I will admit . . . Busey as Wheeler was very entertaining.
 
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