Mosby and McVeigh

Mike Serpa

Major
Joined
Jan 24, 2013
JOHN S. MOSBY AND LT. RICHARD NEWLAND McVEIGH, MARYLAND LINE. Israel & Co., Baltimore, Maryland backmark. Virginia's diminutive partisan chieftain looks especially small posing here with the robust McVeigh. Mosby wears a double-breasted jacket with three colonel's stars on his collar while McVeigh wears a frock coat more befitting a Confederate officer. Both men hold the plumed hats of a Virginia cavalier. An excellent and crisp photograph. Richard N. McVeigh, a veteran of Virginia's Black Horse Troop, served in Company "B" of Mosby's 43rd Virginia Cavalry Battalion. He was captured and wounded during an Appomattox skirmish while operating behind the lines at Fairfax Station on April 10, 1865, and finished his war in Washington's Old Capitol Prison. McVeigh is buried among members of the Maryland Line in Baltimore.
M&M.jpg

Text and photo courtesy of Heritage Auctions.
 
Gosh, it sure doesn't help that Mosby is wearing somebody else's pants! His britches have a foot deep hem and are considerably too big for him. :wub: Still, what a good picture of both these fellows.
 
Neat photo. Don't often see a posture like McVeigh's in period portraits, but then he doesn't look like a man built for dainty parlor chairs.

McVeigh's CSR shows he was captured after a skirmish at Fairfax Station on April 10, 1865, after being wounded by a carbine ball in the chest. It's described as a "flesh wound," so presumably didn't strike bone. Lucky man.
 
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JOHN S. MOSBY AND LT. RICHARD NEWLAND McVEIGH, MARYLAND LINE. Israel & Co., Baltimore, Maryland backmark. Virginia's diminutive partisan chieftain looks especially small posing here with the robust McVeigh. Mosby wears a double-breasted jacket with three colonel's stars on his collar while McVeigh wears a frock coat more befitting a Confederate officer. Both men hold the plumed hats of a Virginia cavalier. An excellent and crisp photograph. Richard N. McVeigh, a veteran of Virginia's Black Horse Troop, served in Company "B" of Mosby's 43rd Virginia Cavalry Battalion. He was captured and wounded during an Appomattox skirmish while operating behind the lines at Fairfax Station on April 10, 1865, and finished his war in Washington's Old Capitol Prison. McVeigh is buried among members of the Maryland Line in Baltimore.
View attachment 29136
Text and photo courtesy of Heritage Auctions.
Mike, Do you know how tall Mosby was ? My guess is 5ft 5", the same height as Sheridan !
 
Also in the photo, Mosby's chair seat is 3-4 inches shorter. The top of his is level with the bottom of the other.
 
Still, McVeigh is a big fellow. He has an overall larger structure and a lot more weight. Mosby is small even though his height is about average. But never underestimate a little guy! :D
 
Gosh, it sure doesn't help that Mosby is wearing somebody else's pants! His britches have a foot deep hem and are considerably too big for him. :wub: Still, what a good picture of both these fellows.

One size fits all. Pants and shirts.
 
The photo was in a book on Mosby and the caption placed it as being taken in Old Capitol Prison. That made me think Mosby had been put in prison at the end of the war. I emailed a website dedicated to Mosby and got the answer that they didn't think he was ever imprisoned. So he would be "just visiting?" Anybody know for sure?
 
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The photo was in a book on Mosby and the caption placed it as being taken in Old Capitol Prison. That made me think Mosby had been put in prison at the end of the war. I emailed a website dedicated to Mosby and got the answer that they didn't think he was ever imprisoned. So he would be "just visiting?" Anybody know for sure?

According to the site in my above post, Mosby got arrested just about every time he walked out the door of his house. Presently Grant put an end to this type of harassment and he went on about his lawyering.
 
Mosby was never in Prison at the end of the war. However in July, 1862, he was briefly a Union prisoner at the Old Capitol Prison. He was held 10 days before he was exchanged.

At the end of war, he been negotiating his parole. It was first denied. He got it at Lynchburg on June 17, 1865.
 
According to the site in my above post, Mosby got arrested just about every time he walked out the door of his house. Presently Grant put an end to this type of harassment and he went on about his lawyering.
I remember Grant intervened.
 
Mosby was never in Prison at the end of the war. However in July, 1862, he was briefly a Union prisoner at the Old Capitol Prison. He was held 10 days before he was exchanged.

At the end of war, he been negotiating his parole. It was first denied. He got it at Lynchburg on June 17, 1865.
"Just visiting" works for me. Nice to see not everyone ended the war in rags and tatters.
 
The photographer, S. Israel, was based in Baltimore from about 1860 on. I have a picture he took and hand-tinted. I date it to around 1860.
 
An excellent book on Mosby is "Gray Ghost: The Life of Col. John Singleton Mosby" by James A. Ramage.

Another interesting fact for me is that Pauline Clarke Mosby, John's wife, was born on March 30, 1837 in Kentucky. Her father was Beverly J. Clarke, an attorney and former US Congressman and diplomat from Franklin, Kentucky.

Another informative site on Mosby is:

http://civilwarwomenblog.com/pauline-mosby/

Pauline and John were married on December 30, 1857 in a Nashville Hotel. The couple had eight children, four boys and four girls.
 
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