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- Feb 23, 2013
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- East Texas
Part I - Entering Mosby's Confederacy
Don Troiani's Ranger Mosby depicts the Confederate cavalry leader interrogating two Union prisoners.
The following is a brief tour through the heart of what became popularly known during the last half of the Civil War as Mosby's Confederacy: the counties called Lower Loudon and Upper Fauquier in Northern Virginia. Numbers on the map above correspond to locations pictured, in the order visited; the yellow line generally follows, from the north on U.S. 15 from the Potomac River to Aldie; west on U.S. 50 (the John S. Mosby Highway) to Paris; and again southeast on U. S. 17 to Warrenton.
John Singleton Mosby, seen as a full colonel in two late-war studio portraits probably taken in Richmond while he was recuperating from a serious gunshot wound during the winter of 1864-65.
1. Point of Rocks as seen from the Maryland side of the Potomac River; this ford was only one of the crossing places used by Mosby and his command during several raids into nearby Maryland and it also figured in other campaigns in the region.
2. Leesburg Court House, the seat of Loudon County, often visited by Mosby's Rangers and occupied by their pursuers.
3. Oatlands, one of many manors or estates used by both sides at various times during the war. In 1861, it was headquarters for Brig. Gen. Nathan "Shanks" Evans at the time of the nearby Battle of Ball's Bluff. The owner of Oatlands presented Mosby with what became his favorite mount. For more about the estate and the Battle at Ball's Bluff, please see: https://civilwartalk.com/threads/the-battle-of-balls-bluff-and-oatlands-sites.91173/
4. Mount Zion Primitive Baptist Church was the initial meeting place in January, 1863, for the fifteen troopers who originally made up Mosby's command; the following year it was the scene of one of their largest battles when Mosby and around 150 rangers intercepted a Union raiding party returning from Leesbburg here. For additional photos and information, please see: https://civilwartalk.com/threads/mount-zion-church-near-aldie-loudon-county-virginia.139567/
Mosby's operations were originally combated by the trio of Federal officers above; left-to-right, Col. Charles Russell Lowell originally commanded the 2nd Massachusetts Cavalry and later a brigade in search of the elusive Rebels; Hungarian-born Brig. Gen. Julius Stahel commanded the cavalry brigade that originally protected the environs of Washington, D. C.; another foreign-born soldier-of-fortune, Col. Sir Percy Wyndham, drew Mosby's ire when he called the raiders horse thieves and caused Mosby to come looking for him at his headquarters in Fairfax Court House.
5. Aldie Mill in the town of the same name witnessed many comings-and-goings during the war of both Union and Confederate forces. I what became known as the Aldie Races, Mosby and his men pursued Union cavalry through here on the Little River Turnpike, now U.S. 50; in the action Mosby was thrown by his horse into Little River but emerged covered with mud in time to seize several Federals who were hiding inside the mill. Later, during the opening moves of the Gettysburg Campaign Union troopers of Brig. Gen. Hugh Judson Kilpatrick's division charged through the village chasing Fitzhugh Lee's Confederates, only to then be chased themselves back out of town. Below, the mill seen from the back side.
Roadside historical markers west of Aldie detail various cavalry battles fought in the area; south of this point along U.S. 50 (out-of-frame to the left of the photo) is what became known as Mosby's Hill, an observation point that allowed him to study traffic here on the turnpike.
6. Middleburg is a small town boasting several locations associated with Mosby and his men. Above, the Lorman Chancellor House, home of Middleburg's mayor, hosted Mosby before his most famous raid to Fairfax looking for Percy Wyndham; Mosby missed Wyndham who was away but instead captured his superior, Brig. Gen. Edwin Stoughton. Wyndham soon returned the visit, almost capturing Mosby and one of his men here.
Also on Middleburg's main street is the Red Fox Inn, then known as Beveridge's Hotel; here in June, 1863, Mosby met with his superior, Maj. Gen. J. E. B. Stuart, who was using Beveridge's as his headquarters. The two men supposedly met in the room below, now the Jeb Stuart Room of the Inn's restaurant, where Mosby provided what proved to be outdated information that influenced Stuart's decision on the route he would take into Pennsylvania during the Gettysburg Campaign.
Below, cavalrymen like these formed the units that ranged throughout Mosby's Confederacy alternately as both hunter and hunted.
Next, Part II - From Middleburg to Ashby's Gap in the Blue Ridge
Don Troiani's Ranger Mosby depicts the Confederate cavalry leader interrogating two Union prisoners.
The following is a brief tour through the heart of what became popularly known during the last half of the Civil War as Mosby's Confederacy: the counties called Lower Loudon and Upper Fauquier in Northern Virginia. Numbers on the map above correspond to locations pictured, in the order visited; the yellow line generally follows, from the north on U.S. 15 from the Potomac River to Aldie; west on U.S. 50 (the John S. Mosby Highway) to Paris; and again southeast on U. S. 17 to Warrenton.
3. Oatlands, one of many manors or estates used by both sides at various times during the war. In 1861, it was headquarters for Brig. Gen. Nathan "Shanks" Evans at the time of the nearby Battle of Ball's Bluff. The owner of Oatlands presented Mosby with what became his favorite mount. For more about the estate and the Battle at Ball's Bluff, please see: https://civilwartalk.com/threads/the-battle-of-balls-bluff-and-oatlands-sites.91173/
4. Mount Zion Primitive Baptist Church was the initial meeting place in January, 1863, for the fifteen troopers who originally made up Mosby's command; the following year it was the scene of one of their largest battles when Mosby and around 150 rangers intercepted a Union raiding party returning from Leesbburg here. For additional photos and information, please see: https://civilwartalk.com/threads/mount-zion-church-near-aldie-loudon-county-virginia.139567/
Mosby's operations were originally combated by the trio of Federal officers above; left-to-right, Col. Charles Russell Lowell originally commanded the 2nd Massachusetts Cavalry and later a brigade in search of the elusive Rebels; Hungarian-born Brig. Gen. Julius Stahel commanded the cavalry brigade that originally protected the environs of Washington, D. C.; another foreign-born soldier-of-fortune, Col. Sir Percy Wyndham, drew Mosby's ire when he called the raiders horse thieves and caused Mosby to come looking for him at his headquarters in Fairfax Court House.
Roadside historical markers west of Aldie detail various cavalry battles fought in the area; south of this point along U.S. 50 (out-of-frame to the left of the photo) is what became known as Mosby's Hill, an observation point that allowed him to study traffic here on the turnpike.
6. Middleburg is a small town boasting several locations associated with Mosby and his men. Above, the Lorman Chancellor House, home of Middleburg's mayor, hosted Mosby before his most famous raid to Fairfax looking for Percy Wyndham; Mosby missed Wyndham who was away but instead captured his superior, Brig. Gen. Edwin Stoughton. Wyndham soon returned the visit, almost capturing Mosby and one of his men here.
Also on Middleburg's main street is the Red Fox Inn, then known as Beveridge's Hotel; here in June, 1863, Mosby met with his superior, Maj. Gen. J. E. B. Stuart, who was using Beveridge's as his headquarters. The two men supposedly met in the room below, now the Jeb Stuart Room of the Inn's restaurant, where Mosby provided what proved to be outdated information that influenced Stuart's decision on the route he would take into Pennsylvania during the Gettysburg Campaign.
Below, cavalrymen like these formed the units that ranged throughout Mosby's Confederacy alternately as both hunter and hunted.
Next, Part II - From Middleburg to Ashby's Gap in the Blue Ridge
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brings back some memories...visited most of those places this Spring..
Bringing the