The FReeper Foxhole Profiles Colonel John Singleton Mosby

Between 1863 and 1865, a 125 square mile triangle of northern Virginia encompassing parts of Fauquier and Loudoun counties was so firmly under the control of Col. John S. Mosby's 43rd Virginia Cavalry that it became known simply as "Mosby's Confederacy." Mosby's guerrilla fighters were known as the "Partisan Rangers" or "Mosby's Rangers."

STUART AND MOSBY

Supported by a fiercely loyal civilian population, Mosby and his guerrilla fighters blew up trains and bridges and harrassed General Philip Sheridan's supply lines so effectively that significant numbers of Union troops had to be diverted to guard against them. Captured weapons were sold to the Confederate army, and all too often Union stragglers were found hanging by the side of the road. Although Union penalities for sympathizers could be severe, civilians did all they could to help the Rangers melt invisibly into the landscape, providing food, lodging, and guidance through the web of country roads and paths.

Northern forces tried to retaliate against the nearly invisible Rangers. When Sheridan dispatched a force of 200 to hunt Mosby down, the Rangers killed or wounded all but two of Sheridan's men, and kept their guns. In March 1863, when a Ranger raid on Fairfax County Court House netted 33 men (including a sleeping General Edwin Stoughton) and 58 horses, Lincoln remarked, "I am sorry, for I can make brigadier generals, but I can't make horses."

Intelligence about the Union "Black Devils" movements was gathered by seemingly guileless young women and communicated through an elaborate system of lights in windows and letters under rocks. Many of the homes of the gentry functioned as safe houses, complete with secret rooms and escape tunnels. "Every farmhouse in this section was a refuge for guerrillas and every farmer was an ally of Mosby, and every farmer's son was with him or in the Confederate Army," said one Union observer of life in Mosby's Confederacy.

In turn, Mosby's Rangers helped with the planting and shared the spoils from their raids, allowing the "confederacy" to escape much of the hardships experienced by the rest of the South. Mosby also functioned as the principal enforcer of civil law, pursuing horse thieves, deserters, and destroying mountain stills (he felt they used up scarce grain). One resident wrote, "Old Fauquier County was now under the reign of a king, and had never during the memory of man been so cheaply and ably governed." Warfare was not the only thing on the Rangers' minds. They also provided many a dashing escort at plantation dances.

Mosby's actions in the "confederacy" prevented the Union army from blocking Southern access to supplies from the Shenandoah Valley. They were also one reason Grant restricted his 1864 campaign to Tidewater, avoiding the Shenandoah Valley.

THE FAIRFAX RAID
Lt. John Mosby takes a Federal general prisoner on one of his famous raids, Mar. 9, 1863.

Dubbed the "Gray Ghost" by his Northern opponents, Mosby kept his unit intact until the end of the war. Said Grant, "There were probably but few men in the South who could have commanded successfully a separate detachment in the rear of an opposing army and so near the border of hostilities as long as he did without losing his entire command."

Mosby surrendered his command in April 1865. Grant, a great admirer and later friend, engineered his parole, and Mosby returned the compliment by joining the Republican party and holding several government positions.

Most historians agree that a tendency toward physical violence could be more associated with antebellum Southern society than any other region at the time. Notions of honor certainly influenced people's perceptions of justice. A public support of Mosby, for instance, upon his shooting of fellow U.Va. student Robert Turpin in 1852, helped clear the young man's name. In fact, it can be asserted that the incidence of conviction and harsh penalty for crimes in the antebellum South was less than other regions "simply because of indifference toward violence itself".

Mosby's inclination toward physical action was tempered by his intellectual abilities, but certainly not subordinated. If the Turpin incident taught Mosby anything, it was that the Southern code of honor supported his naturally hot temperament. When the Civil War broke out, he rushed to defend Virginia, and in so doing perpetuated the code of honor -- in hibernation during peacetime, yet in full bloom during war. War banded men together in a common cause. "The necessity for discipline strengthened character. ... War was a way to put aside luxuries and idleness, vices that weakened resolve".

The elements of war were in themselves ennobling, to be sure, but Mosby's manner of fighting caused him to stand out. Operating with small numbers, swiftly attacking larger forces, carrying off as many horses and men as possible, and retreating into the woods offered an even more dangerous -- and therefore appealing -- notion of fighting that instilled greater honor upon the men willing to undertake such courageous missions. A Baltimore Sun article in 1898 upon the occasion of a reunion of Mosby's men described the scene: "Thrilling tales of charges made on dark nights; of comrades left dead on the field; of signal victories and reverses, went around. The men who told them, though all touched heavily by the hand of time, still retained the fighting eye of the soldier that even time failed to dim" (10/25/1898). Years later, one Mosby obituary noted that the partisan ranger and his men "had no regard for death. If they saw a body of Union troops they would charge pellmell into them regardless of numbers." This kind of reckless courage and ultimate dedication provided Mosby the approbation of Southern society.

In the Southern code of honor, violence in the name of self-defense was clearly justified. Deliberate and pre-meditated murder of prisoners of war, however, stepped beyond these bounds. On Sept. 22, 1864, frustrated Union soldiers hanged or shot six of Mosby's men they recently captured. Mosby included a Richmond Times-Dispatch account of the incident in his Memoirs: "Two of their prisoners the Yankees immediately hung to a neighboring tree, ... The other four were tied to stakes and mercilessly shot through the skull, each one individually".

Such murders were outside the bounds of the Southern notion of honor. Revenge killings, however, were not. Within two months, Mosby executed the same number of Union soldiers in retaliation. In a Nov. 11, 1864 letter to Major Gen. P.H. Sheridan, the commanding Union officer in the Shenandoah Valley, Mosby wrote: "Hereafter any prisoners falling into my hands will be treated with the kindness due to their condition, unless some new act of barbarity shall compel me, reluctantly, to adopt a line of policy repugnant to humanity".

A particular code of wartime ethics seemed to be at work in order to uphold the notions of Southern honor. Killing one's enemies on the battlefield was justified through a larger perspective of self-defense. Cold-blooded executions were cowardly, and therefore dishonorable. Revenge killings, on the other hand, were an unfortunate but necessary evil in order to maintain one's own sense of honor. Mosby made it clear he did not wish to execute the Union prisoners, but he likewise could not abide leaving his dead men unavenged.

Wyatt-Brown offers a telling example of how to live and die honorably, through the words of the ancient Norse hero Beowolf in a speech to King Hrothgar: "Better is it for each one of us that he should avenge his friend, than greatly mourn. Each of us must expect an end of living in this world; let him who may win glory before death, for that is best at last for the departed warrior". Is it any surprise, then, that Mosby became irascible later in life at his failure to die on the battlefield? His eventual death in 1916, at the age of 81, was not a traditional heroic ending. "From the standpoint of fame, far better would it have been for Corporal Kane's revolver to have cast its bullet a shade higher that night in the Lake home [in which Mosby barely survived]. Then, perhaps, Mosby's name would have stood with such heros as his beloved Stuart, with [Gen. Nathan Bedford] Forrest, ... and others". Mosby himself found such little satisfaction with his later years he once remarked: "I wish that life's descending shadows had fallen upon me in the midst of friends and scenes I loved best". Such a death, in his view, would have maintained both his heroic and honorable status at their peak.

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.

Additional Sources:

www.civilwarhome.com
www.wtv-zone.com/civilwar
xroads.virginia.edu
www.framery.com
www.pattonsgallery.com
www.visitloudoun.org
www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk
www.mosbymuseum.org
docsouth.unc.edu
www.mosbysrangers.com

'The military value of the species of warfare I have waged is not measured by the number of prisoners and material of war captured from the enemy, but by the heavy detail it has compelled him to make, and which I hope to make him increase, in order to guard his communications, and to that extent diminishing his aggressive strength. '

-- John Mosby
in a report to J.E.B. Stuart

'There were Federal Calvarymen who made the pursuit of John Singleton Mosby a full-time occupation'

-- Unknown

The Federals were determined to put an end to Mosby's maraudering, yet they were frustrated in every attempt. "Mosby is an old rat," Colonel Charles Russell Lowell of the 2nd Massachusetts Cavalry wrote, "and has a great many holes."

"The whole country is full of guerillas," reflected Colonel Henry S. Gansevoort of the 13th New York Cavalry. Gansevoort "wearied of the thankless task of fighting guerillas," noting that "Mosby is continually around us."

Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant was so distressed by Mosby's successes that he ordered the partisan commander and his men hanged without trial when captured. Major General Philip Sheridan organized a special task force of 100 men armed with Spencer carbines to hunt down and destroy Mosby's command. On November 18, 1864, Mosby killed or captured all but two of this force.

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On This Day In History

Birthdates which occurred on May 03:
1446 Margaretha English princess/duchess of Bourgondie
1455 Joâo II the perfect, King of Portugal (1481-95)/took in Spanish Jews
1469 Niccolò Machiavelli Italy, politician/writer (The Prince)
1514 Bartholomaeus a Martyribus [Fernandez], primate of Portugal
1535 Alessandro "Agnolo" Allori Italian painter/carpet designer
1647 John A "Joannes" Antonides van der Goes poet (Bellone aen bant)
1649 Johann Valentin Meder composer
1691 Carolus van der Abeele Flemish jesuit/author (Introduction à l'amour)
1692 Jan J Mauricius Dutch Governor-General of Suriname (1742-51)
1708 Johann Adolph Scheibe German music theroist/composer
1729 Florian Leopold Gassmann composer
1737 Friedrich Schwindl composer
1742 Jean-Baptiste Krumphultz composer
1744 Freidrich Wilhelm Weis composer
1752 Braz Francisco de Lima composer
1764 Elisabeth PMH princess of France/son of king Louis XVI
1773 Giuseppe Acerbi Italian traveller/nature investigator/diplomat
1815 Hermanus W Witteveen Dutch theologist
1816 Montgomery Cunningham Meigs Brevet Major General (Union Army), died in 1892
1819 Nicola De Giosa composer
1826 Charles XV Louis E King of Sweden/Norway (1859-72)/poet
1844 Edouard A Drumont French anti-semitic journalist
1844 Richard D'Oyly Carte England, opera impresario (Ivanhoe)
1849 Jacob Riis Denmark, reporter (New York Tribune, New York Evening Sun)
1859 Andy Adams US writer (Log of a Cowboy)
1867 Jack Hearne cricketer (cousin of George & Alec 12 Tests for England)
1867 Valère-Gille Belgian playwright (La Corbeille d'Octobre)
1873 [Nicoline] Magdalene Anchor-Roll Norwegian author (Kvinnen og Denmark)
1873 Nikolay N Tcherepnin St Petersburg, composer of ballets, songs
1874 François Coty Corsica, Corsican senator/perfume maker
1876 Bert Hopkins cricketer (Australian pace bowler of the 1900's)
1876 John Elicius Benedict B P Quick Carrington Dwyer cricketer (Sussex)
1886 Marcel Dupré French organist/composer
1890 B Traven writer
1892 Beulah Bondi Chicago IL, actress (It's a Wonderful Life)
1892 Sir George Thomson demonstrated electron diffraction (Nobel 1937)
1893 Hope Landin Minneapolis MN
1895 Earnest Kantorowicz German/US historian (Laudes regiae)
1895 Gabriel Chevallier French author (Le petit général)
1895 Zoltan Korda Hungarian/British director (Jungle Book, 4 Feathers)
1897 V K Krishna Menon India, nationalist/statesman
1898 Golda Meir [Meyerson] Kiev Ukraine, 4th Israeli PM (1969-74)
1898 Septima Poinsette Clark civil rights activist/educator
1899 Aline MacMahon McKeesport PA, actress (Backdoor to Heaven)
19-- Bobby "Blitz" Ellsworth rocker (Overkill-Hello From the Gutter)
19-- Mark Thomas Miller Louisville KY, actor (Johnny-Misfits of Science)
1901 Gino Cervi Bologna Italy, actor (Les Miserables, Naked Maja)
1902 Hugo Friedhofer composer
1902 Jack Larue New York NY, actor (Lights Out, Mouthpiece, My Favorite Brunette)
1902 Seton I Miller Chehalis WA, writer (Pete's Dragon, Istanbul)
1902 Walter Slezak Vienna, actor (Bedtime for Bonzo, Inspector General)
1903 Bing Crosby (Harry Lillis Crosby) Tacoma WA, crooner/actor (White Christmas, Going My Way)
1904 Charles "Red" Ruffing New York Yankee pitcher, hitter (1930-46)
1904 John Breeden San Fransisco CA, actor (Salute, Madame Racketeer, Joy Street)
1905 Albrecht Luitpold G Ferdinand Michael Wittelsbach duke of Bavaria
1905 Sebastian Lewis Shaw actor (High Season, Ace of Spades, Caste)
1906 Mary Astor Quincy IL, actress (Maltese Falcon, Dinky, Across the Pacific)
1907 Earl Wilson Rockford OH, columnist (Midnight Earl)
1910 Alceo Galliera composer
1911 John Rhea "Yank" Lawson trumpeter
1913 Earl Blackwell Atlanta GA, author (Celebrity Register)
1913 William M Inge US playwright (Picnic-Pulitzer 1953)
1915 Evencio Castellanos composer
1916 Henry Barbosa Gonzalez San Antonio TX, (Representative-D-TX, 1961- )
1916 Pierre Emmanuel French poet (Sodome)
1917 James Penberthy composer
1919 Betty Comden Brooklyn NY, song writer (Comden & Green-Bells are Ringing)
1919 Pete Seeger New York NY, folk singer (Weaver, Goodnight Irene)
1920 Sugar Ray Robinson [Walter Smith] middleweight/welterweight boxer (champion)
1921 Vasco dos Santos Gonçalves Portuguese leftist colonel
1922 Marina Svetlova ballerina/choreographer (Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo)
1923 Ralph M Hall (Representative-D-TX, 1981- )
1924 Mary Carver Los Angeles CA, actress (Cecilia-Simon & Simon)
1925 Nina Bara Buenos Aires Argentina, actress (Tonga-Space Patrol)
1928 James Brown Augusta GA, singer/jail bird, soul brother #1 (Hot Pants)
1928 Jeanne Bal Santa Monica CA, actress (Pat-Love & Marriage)
1929 Hendrik L van Beek Dutch Vice-Admiral
1929 Jaharna Imam Bangladeshi writer/political activist
1930 David Evatt Tunley composer
1931 Alex Cord actor (The Dead are Alive)
1931 Joseph Lichtman Layton dancer
1933 Collie Smith cricketer (exciting West Indies all-rounder all too briefly)
1934 Georg Kroll composer
1935 Donald P Hodel Portland OR, US Secretary of Interior (1985-89)
1936 Engelbert Humperdinck [Arnold George Dorsey] Madras India, singer (After The Lovin', Release Me, Quando Quando Quando)
1937 Frankie Valli [Castelluccio] Newark NJ, singer (Four Seasons-Sherry)
1939 Jonathan David Harvey English composer (Bhakti, Music of Stockhausen)
1939 José Torres US, boxer (Olympics)
1939 Samantha Eggar London England, actress (Anna and the King, Collector)
1941 Nona Gaprindasvili USSR, world women's chess champion (1962-78)
1942 Lynn Farleigh Bristol England, actress (Lovers of Their Time)
1942 Vera Càslavskà-Odlozilova Czechoslovakia, gymnast (Olympics-gold-1964, 68)
1943 John Costello historian
1944 Ian Peter Leslie Smith journalist
1944 Peter Staples rocker (Troggs-Wild Thing)
1945 Sadiq Mohammad cricketer (attacking Pakistan opening batsman 1969-81)
1946 Greg Gumbel sportscaster (CBS TV, WFAN)
1947 Doug Henning Fort Garry Manitoba, magician (Broadway play-Magic)
1949 Albert Sacco Jr Boston MA, PhD/astronaut (STS 73)
1949 Ron Wyden (Representative-D-OR, 1981- )
1950 Mary Hopkin South Wales, singer (Those Were the Days)
1951 Christopher Cross [Geppert] San Antonio TX, singer (Sailing, Arthur's Theme)
1952 Allen Wells England, 100 meter dash (Olympics-gold-1980)
1953 Bruce Hall Champaign IL, rock bassist (Reo Speedwagon)
1953 Van McLain rocker (Shooting Star)
1955 David Hookes cricketer (dashing Australian LHB, S Aussie stalwart)
1955 Steve Jones English pop guitarist (Sex Pistols-Mercy)
1957 Cactus Moser Montrose CO, country singer (Highway 101-Cry Cry Cry)
1957 Rod Langway Formosa, NHL defenseman (Montréal Canadiens, Washington Capitals)
1959 Ben Elton London UK, actor (Stark, Friday Night Live)
1959 David Ball Blackpool, rock keyboardist (Soft Cell)
1962 Anthony Gilligan Penrith New South Wales, Australasia golfer
1963 Jeff Hornacek NBA guard (Utah Jazz)
1964 Ron Hextall Winnipeg, NHL goalie (Philadelphia Flyers, New York Islanders)
1966 Paul Stevenson Victoria Australia, badminton player (Olympics-96)
1968 Deborah Caprioglio Miestre Italy, actress (Big Game Hunter)
1968 Jay Darlington London England, keyboardist (Kula Shaker)
1969 Karen Kraft San Mateo CA, rower (Olympics-silver-96)
1970 Alexia Dechaume-Ballert La Rochelle France, tennis star (1992 Australia)
1970 Ted Crowley Concord MA, US hockey defenseman (Olympics-1994)
1971 James Roberson defensive end (Tennessee Oilers)
1972 Brett Hayman Australian rower (Olympics-96)
1972 Josh Taves defensive end (New England Patriots)
1972 Vyacheslav Kozlov Voskresensk Russia, NHL forward (Detroit Red Wings)
1973 Dominique Monami Verviers Belgium, tennis star
1973 Michel Traveller soccer player (Ajax)

Deaths which occurred on May 03:
1010 Ansfried 9th bishop of Utrecht (995-1010)/saint, dies at about 69
1294 Jan I duke of Brabant/Limburg/poet, dies
1410 Alexander V [Petros Philargi], Kreta's Pope (1409-10), dies
1442 Engelbert I Earl of Nassau-Dillenburg, dies
1481 Mohammed II [Fâtih], sultan of Turkey (1451-81), dies
1567 Leonhard Paminger composer, dies at 72
1614 Sasbout Vosmeer Roman Catholic theologist/apostole vicar, dies at 66
1654 François van Kinschot treasurer-general/chancellor of Brabant, dies at 77
1703 Eglon van de Down still-life painter, dies
1704 Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber Austrian violist/composer, dies at 59
1707 Michiel de Swaen South Netherlands physician/poet, dies at 53
1737 Abraham Patras Governor-General of East-Indies (1735-37), dies at 65
1758 Benedict XIV [Prospero L Lambertini] Pope (1740-58), dies at 83
1764 Francesco Algarotti Italian earl/encyclopedist, dies at 53
1774 Heinrich A Fouqué Prussian general (7 year war), dies at 76
1783 Pieter Valck(x) South Netherlands sculptor, dies at 49
1792 Carlo Zuccari composer, dies at 87
1839 Ferdinando Paer composer, dies at 67
1841 Cornelis T Elout Dutch minister of Finance/Navy/Colonies, dies at 74
1854 William Beale composer, dies at 70
1856 Adolfo Fumagalli composer, dies at 27
1856 Adolphe Charles Adam French composer/critic (Giselle), dies at 52
1861 Anthony Philip Heinrich composer, dies at 80
1863 Elisha Franklin "Bull" Paxton US Confederate Brigadier-General, dies at 35
1868 Olof Wilhelm Udden composer, dies at 68
1881 Josip Jurcic Slovic writer (Schone Vida), dies
1893 Josef Rudolf Zavrtal composer, dies at 73
1902 David R Capriles Curaçaos director of psychiatric, dies at 64
1916 Pádraic Pearse Irish nationalist, executed by British firing squad
1917 Norman Callaway New South Wales bat, cricketer (207 in only FC innings), dies
1925 Clément Ader French engineer (steam engine airplane), dies at 84
1926 Napoleon V Bonaparte French pretender to the throne, dies at 63
1931 Frank Hoyt Losey composer, dies at 59
1931 Otto Winter-Hjelm composer, dies at 93
1932 Anton Wildgans Austrian writer (Dies Irae)/director Burgtheater, dies at 51
1939 [Karl Eduard] Wilhelm Groener German general, dies at 71
1942 Johan H Westerveld Lieutenant-Colonel/leader Order Service, executed
1943 Leslie Heward composer, dies at 45
1945 Louis L H de Visser Dutch MP (CPN), dies at 66
1955 Philips C Visser explorer/ambassador to Moscow, dies
1958 Frank Foster cricketer (England all-rounder, 11 Tests 1911-12), dies
1961 Maurice [Jean Jacques] Merleau-Ponty French philosopher, dies at 53
1964 Diana Wynyard dies at 58
1965 Howard Spring British author (Heaven Lies About Us), dies at 76
1965 Otto Forst de Battaglia Austrian diplomat/genealogist, dies at 75
1966 Wylie Watson dies at 77
1968 Leonid Leonidovich Sabaneyev composer, dies at 86
1969 Imre Vincze composer, dies at 42
1970 Candelario Huizar composer, dies at 82
1972 Bruce Cabot actor (Diamonds are Forever), dies at 68
1972 Dan Blocker actor (Hoss-Bonanza), dies at 43
1972 Les Harvey rocker, dies
1975 Samuel Gonard chairman (International Red Cross), dies at 78
1976 David Bruce dies at 62
1976 Ernie Nevers college fullback (Stanford), dies at 72
1978 Wim van Doorne Dutch auto manufacturer (DAF), dies at 71
1979 Erin O'Brien-Moore actress (Nurse Choate-Peyton Place), dies at 76
1982 Helmut Dantine actor (Shadow of the Cloak), dies at 64
1982 Hugh Beaumont actor (Ward-Leave it to Beaver), dies at 73
1983 Vaughn Taylor actor (Jailhouse Rock), dies of cerebral hemorrhage at 72
1986 Robert Alda actor (Dan Lewis-Supertrain), dies at 72
1987 Dicky Fuller cricketer (one Test for West Indies 1935, one run, 0-12), dies
1987 Yolande Christina Dalida dies at 54
1989 Christine Jorgensen 1st transsexual, dies at 62
1989 Muriel Ostriche dies
1990 Pimen [Sergei Irzyekov] patriarch of Russian-orthodox church, dies at 79
1991 Gerrit Mik child psychiatrist/Dutch MP (D66), dies
1991 Jersy Kosinski author (Being There), dies at 57
1991 Margaret Tallichet actress (Stranger on the 3rd Floor), dies
1992 Elizabeth Lennox radio singer, dies of heart seizure at 98
1992 George Murphy (Senator-R-CA, 1965-71)/actor, dies of Leukemia at 89
1992 Peter Bruni dies of heart failure at 60
1994 Gustaaf baron van Hemert Dingshof mayor of Maarn, dies at 78
1994 Haty Tegelaar-Boonacker Dutch MP (CDA), dies at 63
1994 Milford Dolliole pioneer jazz drummer, dies at 90
1994 Richard Scarry author/illustrator of children's books, dies at 74
1996 Jack Weston actor (Ishtar, Rad, Cuba), dies of lymphoma at 71
1996 Timothy Gullikson tennis player/coach, dies at 45

Reported: MISSING in ACTION
1967 MOORE RALPH E. INDIANAPOLIS IN.

1968 AVERY ROBERT DOUGLAS MORGANTOWN NC.
DID NOT RETURN FROM MISSION

1968 CLEM THOMAS D. NEW PARIS IN.

1968 CHANEY ARTHUR F. VIENNA VA.

1968 CLARK STEPHEN W. PLYMOUTH CA.

1968 MC KAIN BOBBY L. GARDEN CITY KS.

1968 TERRY ORAL R. MASCOUTAH IL.

1970 CHURCHILL CARL R. BETHEL ME.

1970 CONAWAY LAWRENCE Y. COLUMBUS OH.

1972 AYRES TIMOTHY R. HOUSTON TX.
03/28/73 RELEASED BY DRV, ALIVE AND WELL 98

1972 BRACY LESTER JR.
08/17/72 REMAINS RECOVERED ID 06/12/74, NOT ON WALL SP BRACEY

1972 HOPPER JOSEPH CLIFFORD MEMPHIS TN.
08/72 REMAINS RECOVERED

1972 MC DONALD JOSEPH W. WAPPINGER FALLS NY.
POSSIBLY CAPTURED

1972 MC IVER ALEXANDER SANTA MONICA CA.
08/72 REMAINS RECOVERED

1972 SIENICKI THEODORE S. IRVINGTON NJ.
03/28/73 RELEASED BY DRV, ALIVE AND WELL 98

1972 SLATER FREDDIE LEON BALTIMORE MD.
08/72 REMAINS RECOVERED

1972 UNGER DON LEE LAKE WORTH FL.
08/72 REMAINS RECOVERED

1972 WILLIAMS DAVID B. LAFAYETTE LA.
REMAINS RETURNED 10/26/89

1972 WIDERQUIST THOMAS CARL MORTON GROVE IL.
08/72 REMAINS RECOVERED

1973 MOREAU RON
05/73 RELEASED

POW / MIA Data & Bios supplied by
the P.O.W. NETWORK. Skidmore, MO. USA.

On this day...
1294 John II becomes duke of Brabant/Limburg
1342 Count Hartmann II becomes ruler of Vaduz (Liechtenstein)
1382 Battle on Beverhoutsfield near Brugge
1455 Jews flee Spain
1494 Jamaica discovered by Christopher Columbus; he names it "St Iago"
1512 Pope Julius II opens 5th Council of Lateranen (18th ecumenical council) in Rome
1515 Persian Gulf: Portugese fleet occupies Ormuz
1616 Treaty of Loudun kills French civil war
1621 Francis Bacon accused of bribery
1624 Spanish silver fleet sails to Panamá
1629 French huguenot leader duke De Rohan signs accord with Spain
1640 English Upper house accept Act of Attainder
1654 Bridge at Rowley MA begins charging tolls for animals
1660 Sweden, Poland, Brandenburg & Austria sign Peace of Oliva
1661 Johannes Hevelius observes 3rd transit of Mercury ever to be seen
1662 Royal charter granted Connecticut
1678 French conquering fleet at Curaçao, 1200 die
1715 Edmund Halley observes total eclipse phenomenon "Baily's Beads"
1722 Pierre de Marivaux' "La Double Inconstance" premieres in Paris France
1747 Willem IV appointed viceroy of Holland/Utrecht
1765 1st US medical college opens in Philadelphia; founded by John Morgan, the School of Medicine belonged to the College of Philadelphia (now the University of Pennsylvania).
1802 Washington DC incorporates as a city
1808 Goya's "Executions of the 3rd of May"
1810 Lord Byron swims the Hellespont
1815 Battle at Tolentino: Austria beats king Joachim of Naples
1822 Society for the Propagation of the Faith starts (Lyon, France)
1830 1st regular steam train passenger service starts
1845 1st black lawyer (Macon B Allen) admitted to the bar (Massachusetts)
1845 Fire kills 1,600 in popular theater in Canton China
1846 Mexican army surrounds fort in Texas
1851 Most of San Fransisco destroyed by fire; 30 die
1855 Antwerp-Rotterdam railway opens
1861 General Winfield Scott presents his Anaconda Plan
1861 Lincoln asks for 42,000 Army Volunteers & another 18,000 seamen
1863 Battle of Fredricksburg VA (Marye's Heights)
1863 Battle of Battle of Chancellorsville-Beaten Union army withdraws
1863 Battle of Salem Church VA
1864 3rd day in Battle at Alexandria LA: Confederate assault
1886 M A Maclean elected 1st mayor of Vancouver British Columbia
1898 Camp Merriman established at Presidio (San Fransisco)
1900 26th Kentucky Derby: Jimmy Boland aboard Lieut Gibson wins in 2:06¼
1901 Fire destroyed 1,700 buildings in Jacksonville FL
1902 28th Kentucky Derby: Jimmy Winkfield on Alan-a-Dale wins in 2:08.75
1903 AVC Heracles (SC Heracles '74) soccer team forms in Almelo
1906 British-controlled Egypt takes Sinai peninsula from Turkey
1909 35th Kentucky Derby: Vincent Powers on Wintergreen wins in 2:08.2
1917 1st performance of Ernest Bloch's symphony "Israel"
1919 Afghánistán Emir Amanoellah begins war against Great Britain
1919 America's 1st passenger flight (New York-Atlantic City)
1921 West Virginia imposes 1st state sales tax
1922 Mayor Hylan closes streets for building of Yankee Stadium
1922 Salt layer find at Winterswijk
1923 1st nonstop transcontinental flight (New York-San Diego) completed
1926 British general strike-3 million workers support miners
1926 Pulitzer prize awarded to Sinclair Lewis (Arrowsmith)
1926 US marines land in Nicaragua (9-months after leaving), stay until 1933
1929 Prussia bans anti-fascists
1932 24 tourists begin 1st air-charter holiday (London-Basle, Switzerland)
1933 1st female director (Nellie T Ross) of US Mint takes office
1934 Bradman scores 206 Australia vs Worcestershire, 210 minutes, 27 fours
1936 French People's Front wins elections
1936 New York Yankee Joe DiMaggio makes his major-league debut, gets 3 hits
1937 Margaret Mitchell wins Pulitzer Prize for "Gone With the Wind"
1938 Concentration camp at Flossenbürg goes into use
1938 Lefty Grove defeats Tigers 4-3 for 1st of record 20 consecutive wins at his home field Fenway Park; he doesn't lose there until May 12 1941
1938 Vatican recognizes Franco-Spain
1941 67th Kentucky Derby: Eddie Arcaro aboard Whirlaway wins in 2:01.4
1941 German air raid on Liverpool
1942 Japanese troop attack Tulagi, Gavutu & Tanambogo, Solomon Islands
1942 Luftwaffe bombs Exeter
1942 Nazis execute 72 OD'ers in reprisial in Sachsenhausen, Netherlands
1942 Nazis require Dutch Jews to wear a Jewish star
1943 Pulitzer prize awarded to Upton Sinclair (Dragon's Teeth)
1943 Strike against obligatory labor camps ends, after 200 killed
1943 US 1st armour division occupies Mateur Tunisia
1944 "Meet Me in St Louis" opens on Broadway
1944 Meat rationing ends in US
1945 1st Polish armour brigade occupies Wilhelmshafen
1945 Allies arrests German nuclear physics Werner Heisenberg
1945 British troop join in Rangoon
1945 German ship "Cap Arcona" sinks in East Sea, 5,800 killed
1946 International military tribunal in Tokyo begins
1947 73rd Kentucky Derby: Eric Guerin aboard Jet Pilot wins in 2:06.8
1947 Japan forms a constitutional democracy
1948 Pulitzer prize awarded to James Michener & Tennessee Williams
1949 1st firing of a US Viking rocket; reached 80 km
1951 New York Yankee Gil McDougald is 5th to get 6 RBIs in an inning (9th)
1952 "Call Me Madam" closes at Imperial Theater NYC after 644 performances
1952 1st landing by an airplane at geographic North Pole
1952 78th Kentucky Derby: Eddie Arcaro aboard Hill Gail wins in 2:01.6
1953 Westchester conference of American Library Association proclaims "Freedom to Read"
1953 WTVO TV channel 17 in Rockford IL (NBC) begins broadcasting
1954 KTEN TV channel 10 in Ada-Ardmore OK (ABC) begins broadcasting
1954 Pulitzer prize awarded to Charles A Lindbergh & John Patrick
1954 WHA TV channel 21 in Madison WI (PBS) begins broadcasting
1956 A new range of mountains discovered in Antarctica (2 over 13,000')
1956 Frank Loesser's musical "Most Happy Fella" opens at Imperial Theater NYC for 678 performances
1958 84th Kentucky Derby: Ismael Valenzuela aboard Tim Tam wins in 2:05
1958 WINS suspends Alan Freed for causing a riot in Boston, he quits
1959 Betsy Rawls wins LPGA Land of the Sky Golf Tournament
1959 Tiger's Charlie Maxwell hits 4 consecutive homeruns in a doubleheader
1960 Harvey Schmidt/Tom Jones' musical "Fantasticks" premieres in NYC
1961 Warren Spahn pitches a 2 hitter after pitching a no hitter
1962 Express train crashed into wreckage of a commuter train and a freight, killing 163, injuring 400 (Tokyo, Japan)
1963 Leslie Narum is the only Baltimore Oriole to homer on his 1st at bat
1963 Martin Luther King Jr delivers his "I have a dream" speech
1964 Mickey Wright wins LPGA Clifford Ann Creed Golf Invitational
1965 1st use of satellite TV, Today Show on the Early Bird Satellite
1965 3rd Mayor's Trophy Game, Mets beat Yankees 2-1 in 10
1965 Cambodia drops diplomatic relations with the US
1965 Don Steele, begins a 40+ year radio career at KRTH (Los Angeles CA)
1965 KTCI TV channel 17 in St Paul-Minneapolis MN (PBS) 1st broadcast
1965 Pulitzer prize awarded to Irwin Unger (Greenback Era)
1966 WDHO (now WNWO) TV channel 24 in Toledo OH (ABC) begins broadcasting
1967 Black students seize finance building at Northwestern University
1968 Holland Pirate Radio Station VRON becomes Radio Veronica International
1969 "Trumpets of the Lord" closes at Brooks Atkinson NYC after 7 performances
1969 95th Kentucky Derby: Bill Hartack on Majestic Prince wins in 2:01.8
1970 24th NBA Championship: New York Knicks beat Los Angeles Lakers, 4 games to 3
1970 Sandra Haynie wins LPGA Shreveport Kiwanis Golf Invitational
1971 Erich Honecker succeeds Walter Ulbricht as East German party leader
1971 National Public Radio begins programming; 112 NPR stations premiere "All Things Considered"
1971 Nixon administration arrests 13,000 anti-war protesters in 3 days
1971 Pulitzer prize awarded to John Toland (Rising Sun)
1973 Chicago's Sears Tower, world's tallest building (443 meters), topped out
1973 Kansas City Royals' George Brett gets his 1st major league hit
1975 101st Kentucky Derby: Jacinto Vasquez on Foolish Pleasure wins 2:02
1975 Christa Vahlensieck runs female world record marathon (2:40:15.8)
1976 Panamá 747SP lands after record flight around world (46:26)
1976 Pulitzer prize awarded to Saul Bellow (Humboldt's Gift)
1978 "Sun Day" - solar energy events are held in US
1978 Anderlecht wins 18th Europe Cup II
1978 Last cricket test match appearance for Bobby Simpson, at Kingston
1978 West Indies all set to lose cricket test vs Australia at Kingston till riots end game
1979 Bobby Bonds hits his 300th homerun (2nd to have 300 homeruns & 300 stolen bases)
1979 Martin Sherman's "Bent" premieres in London
1980 106th Kentucky Derby: Jacinto Vasquez on Genuine Risk wins in 2:02
1980 Giants 1st baseman Willie McCovey hits his 521st & final homerun
1980 Texas Ranger Ferguson Jenkins becomes 4th to win 100 games in American League & National League
1981 "Can-Can" closes at Minskoff Theater NYC after 5 performances
1981 "Moony, Shapiro Songbook" opens & closes at Morosco Theater NYC
1981 Sally Little wins LPGA CPC Women's Golf International
1982 ABC's All Talk network begins on radio (2 west coast stations)
1982 New York Times reports that military will get 25% of NASA's budget
1982 President Reagan begins 5 minute weekly radio broadcasts
1983 Bruins 3-Isles 8-Wales Conference Championship-Isles hold 3-1 lead
1983 Soviet leader Andropov decreases nuclear weapons in Europe
1983 US bishops condemn nuclear weapons
1985 Date of $5 million check in "View to a Kill"
1986 112th Kentucky Derby: Bill Shoemaker aboard Ferdinand wins in 2:02.8
1986 Air Lanka crashes, killing 22
1986 Cubs 3rd baseman Ron Cey hits his 300th & 301st homerun
1986 NASA launches Goes-G, it failed to achieve orbit
1986 New York Yankee Don Mattingly is 6th to hit 3 sacrifice flies in a game
1987 "Mikado" closes at Virginia Theater NYC after 46 performances
1987 Cindy Hill wins LPGA S&H Golf Classic
1987 Miami Herald reports a woman spent Friday & Saturday with Gary Hart
1988 4,200 kg Colombian cocaine in seized at Tarpon Springs FL
1988 Jasper Johns' "Diver" sold for $4,200,000
1991 356th & final episode of CBS 2nd longest running series Dallas, 2nd only to Gunsmoke
1991 Andy Williams weds Debbie Hass
1992 Baltimore's Gregg Olson, 25, is youngest to record 100 saves
1992 Beverly Hills 90210's Gabrielle Carteris marries Charles Isaacs
1992 Danielle Ammaccapane wins LPGA Centel Golf Classic
1992 New York Met Eddie Murray is 24th to hit 400 homeruns
1992 Ohio Glory wins 1st WLAF game (after 6 loses), beat Frankfurt 20-17
1992 Sandra Palmer wins LPGA Centel Senior Golf Challenge
1993 "Kiss of the Spider Woman" opens at Broadhurst NYC for 906 performances
1994 29th Academy of Country Music Awards: Garth Brooks wins
1994 D66/Dutch Liberal Party win Dutch 2nd Parliamentary election
1994 US space probe Clementine launched
1995 "My Thing of Love" opens at Beck Theater NYC for 16 performances
1995 Australia beat West Indies to regain the Frank Worrell Cricket Trophy
1995 David Bell debuts for the Indians (3rd generation player, Gus & Buddy)
1996 Martin Moxon & Michael Vaughan make 362 1st wkt Yorks vs Glam
1997 123rd Kentucky Derby: Gary Stevens aboard Silver Charm wins in 2:02.3
1997 ABC Bud Light Masters Bowling Tournament won by Jason Queen
1997 Garry Kasparov begins chess match with IBM supercomputer Deep Blue

Holidays
Note: Some Holidays are only applicable on a given "day of the week"

Japan-1947, Poland-1791 : Constitution Day
Lesotho : King's Birthday
Northern Ireland : Bank Holiday
Zambia : Labour Day - - - - - ( Monday )
New Orleans : McDonogh Day (1850) - - - - - ( Friday )

Religious Observances
Christian-Poland : Feast of Our Lady of Czestochowa
Roman Catholic : Commemoration of SS Alexander, Eventius & Theodulus, martyrs
Roman Catholic : Commemoration of the Finding of the Cross
Roman Catholic : Feast of SS Philip & James, apostles
Roman Catholic : Commemoration of St Juvenal, bishop/confessor

Religious History
1512 The Fifth Lateran Council opened under Pope Julius II. Its twelve sessions lasting through 1517, the council continued under Leo X, following Julius' death in 1513.
1675 A Massachusetts law was enacted requiring church doors to be locked during the worship service. (Too many people were leaving before the long sermons were completed.)
1738 English revivalist George Whitefield, 23, first arrived in America. In all, Whitefield crossed the Atlantic thirteen times, and died in Massachusetts in 1770, during his seventh visit.
1850 Sixteen year old Charles H. Spurgeon made his public profession of faith in Jesus Christ in a Primitive Methodist Chapel, in Colchester, England. Spurgeon began a preaching career the following year which did not end until his death in 1892.
1878 Death of William Whiting, 53, Anglican poet and music instructor. He is known to have written only one hymn during his life, but its popularity has endured: "Eternal Father, Strong to Save."

Thought for the day :
" Creditors have much better memories than debtors. "

1936 Engelbert Humperdinck [Arnold George Dorsey] Madras India, singer (After The Lovin', Release Me, Quando Quando Quando)

Wonder why he thought Engelbert Humperdinck was an improvement over Arnold Dorsey.

Good morning everyone.

Good Morning Feather.

"In fact, it can be asserted that the incidence of conviction and harsh penalty for crimes in the antebellum South was less than other regions "simply because of indifference toward violence itself".

Hence lending credence to the perfectly legal defense used in courtrooms throughout the South:

"So you see, yo' Honah, he desehved killin'!"

Great work on the thread Sam.

Last year when we were in Virginia and we took a side trip to Manassas, did a combination driving and walking trip of many battlegrounds. The south has done a good job in preserving their history. Virginia country is very beautiful. The history just comes alive.

The south has done a good job in preserving their history.

Yes it has, it's so disheartening to see it under assault by the PC crowd.

FALL IN to the FReeper Foxhole!

To be removed from this list, please send me a blank private reply with "REMOVE" in the subject line! Thanks! Jen

Great Post!

BTTT!!!!!!

A public support of Mosby, for instance, upon his shooting of fellow U.Va. student
Robert Turpin in 1852, helped clear the young man's name.
In fact, it can be asserted that the incidence of conviction and harsh penalty
for crimes in the antebellum South was less than other regions "simply because of
indifference toward violence itself".

Actually, it was more likely because the dead guy "needed kilt".

What is funny is that I (a cultural Oklahoma-Texan) will occassionally let slip
that some criminal in the news "had it coming" when executed or shot by police or
citizens.
What is funny is that one of my co-workers (an immigrant from one of the
Baltic States) says my little rants remind her of her husband (from Kiev, Ukrania)
as he will occassionally rant at the TV during prolonged police car chases with
a "why the h-ll won't the cops just blast the hood of the car with a couple
of machine gun rounds?".

We do have a North-South divide on self-defense/punishment in the USA...but the
divide occurs throuought the world.

As singer/actor Jerry Reed said when portraying a contract killer in a film
"I put a high value on human life".
And so do Southerners who want that right to protect their lives and others.

OK...sorry for the rant...

Thanks for all you do!

I'm in.
But I got's nuthin' to say!
And ya can't make me talk neither!
/ joke.

SAM, love the tagline.
Just as long as there isn't a night of the living floppy disk coming soon..
That happens, I'll know that I'm being a bad influence and that wackyness rubs off.

Umm.. wait.
AntiJen, didn't the wackyness already rub off?

Additional color and smoke to todays thread. : )

With The Souths mobility in Campaigns..coupled with teams of raiders like Nathan Bedford Forrest and Col J.S. Moseby...the Union countered with its version of rapid reaction accompanied by recon.

Many of the mustered units from States like Iowa,Kansa,Missouri,Wisconsin were Calvary with Light artillery.

Their engagements are recongnized in some major camapigns 1863 forward..but principly..they were like 3 I.D. in Iraq of recent days...out there..and hitting hard.

The South had its mobile Cav/arty units too...both groups clashing in the Shenandoah ..the Virginia Pennisula .

John Haskell Calef

His service with the 2nd Artillery would bring him deeply into the Gettysburg Campaign in the summer of 1863. Attached to Colonel William Gamble's First Cavalry Brigade of General John Buford's Division, Calef's men, horses, and guns made the hard march with the horsemen on their advance into Pennsylvania, dogging Lee's Confederate Army. On the morning of July 1, 1863, and throughout the afternoon, Calef and his men would see some of their hardest fighting in the war. Ordered by Buford to spread out his six guns along McPherson Ridge west of Gettysburg, Calef's battery was an important element in Buford's defense-in-depth plan. The division of his battery would allow Calef to appear to have more guns to play upon the Confederates advancing on the town. Confederate Major General Henry Heth's artillery soon outnumbered Calef, but the young Lieutenant kept up a dogged fire, keeping his tubes smoking until red-hot. Calef's gunners would be ordered to take up several positions throughout the first day of the battle, defending both the Union Cavalry's opening fight and the subsequent lines taken by the Union infantry upon their arrival to the field. For his and his cannoneers' services that day, Buford would highly praise the young officer in his official report, saying that Calef "...fought on this occasion as is seldom witnessed" and that he "...held his own gloriously." Calef was thereafter ever proud of Buford's laudatory words for his battery's deadly work that day.

Lieutenant Richard Blazer, formerly of 91st Ohio Infantry and later commander of Blazer's Scouts, the mounted Union outfit that took Moseby on at his own game and beat him at it.

On November 18, 1864, a unit of Union Army scouts commanded by Captain Richard Blazer was attacked and defeated by at least two companies of John Mosby's command near Kabletown, West Virginia. That defeat, the myths that have arisen because of it, and the egotistical intrigues of General Philip Sheridan have obscured the true history of what may have been arguably the most unique unit of the American Civil War.

On the 5th of September, 1863, Col. George Crook of the 36th Ohio Infantry issued the following order:

Three (3) Lieutenants, eight (8) Sergeants, eight (8) corporals and one-hundred (100) privates will be received as volunteers to form an independent Scouting Company for this brigade...The company will be relieved from guard, fatigue and other camp duties during the continuance of its organization. At least one half of the company will be expected to be on the scout all the time. Its headquarters will be in the woods. None but experienced woodsmen and good shots will be accepted. Commanders of regiments are directed to receive and report the names of suitable men volunteering for this service.

Captain John White Spencer of the 9th WVA was chosen to command the scouts and Lieutenants Harrison Gray Otis of the 12th Ohio and Richard Blazer of the 91st Ohio were also assigned as well. There was no shortage of volunteers for the unit. Harrison Otis spoke not only for himself but many of the other men when he wrote, " I suffered nothing from the lethargy of garrison life, but had free play to indulge my penchant for doing audacious things in war." Assertions in the Mosby accounts that these men took on the designation "Legion of Honor" almost certainly have no basis in fact. Not one of the men assigned ever used this term in an article, pension record or had it attributed to them in their obituaries. They were proud to be "Independent Scouts" or call themselves "Blazer's Scouts" after the man who would command them in 1864.

Richard Blazer in particular had a knack for scouting. He seems an unlikely choice. Before the war Blazer was a coal boatman and at his time of enlistment was driving a "hack" between Gallipolis and Portland, the first station on the Cincinnati, Washington, and Baltimore branch of the B&O. Accounts that he was a "hardened Indian fighter" seem to have no basis in fact and have become part of the mythology of Mosby's command. Richard Blazer was 32 years old when the war began. Hostile Indians had been long vanquished from the Ohio Valley and there is no record that Richard ever went further west to encounter Indians.

His physical characteristics and habits were also less than impressive:
He surely impressed no one with a martial bearing. He had a far away look in one eye, and a nearly sleepy look in the other. His vest was not always buttoned straight, nor his coat collar always turned down. If his boots were not made to shine as the picture on the blacking box is represented, he made no racket with his servant, for as like as any way he had no servant, or blacking either. If he undertook to drill his company he would give the wrong command, and at dress parade he rarely placed himself in the exact position required by the adjutant.

If Lieutenant Blazer lacked the trappings of martial excellence, he possessed the qualities of a good intelligence officer. He questioned every local woman and child he saw. He kept the information obtained to himself, as well as his conclusions. He was developing the information to attack when the guerillas would not expect it.

The scouts were always aggressive--"to light down upon 'em like a hawk on a chicken or like a clap of thunder out of a clear sky." They had become a "besom [broom] of destruction" surprising the Confederates behind their lines time after time and keeping rebel commanders "constantly confused and perplexed." After scouting one such guerilla camp one of Blazer's men noted the result. Blazer "made quick work of it and first sending a volley into their camp, he charged them with a yell, and capturing many prisoners, several horses and all their camp outfit, with which he returned to Fayetteville, and once more entering into his own camp not having lost a man or sustained a scratch." The men returned to their units and "told the marvelous tales that caused all to wonder, and to invest Blazer with a character hitherto unsuspected."

Besides attacking the guerrillas directly, Blazer's men participated as the advance guard in expeditions against Lewisburg in November and December 1863. Initially disbanded after the first Lewisburg raid in November, the scouts were hastily reassembled in December under Lt. Blazer. Carr White was pleased with their actions:

The company of detached men acting as scouts under command of Lieutenants Blazer and Otis having accomplished the ends for which it was formed is hereby disbanded . . . the Col. Commanding desires to return his thanks to the Officers and men . . . for the very efficient service they have rendered in keeping the country in our immediate front clear of rebel guerillas and in furnishing the commanding officer with much valuable information regarding the movements and intentions of the enemy.

With bad weather finally making military operations nearly impossible and men signing up as veterans, the scouts were disbanded. However, a new Division Commander was coming on the scene who would make the scouts one of the most formidable fighting forces man-for-man in the Civil War. After taking command of the 3rd Division, George Crook went about planning for Grant's Spring campaign of 1864. Probably taking a cue from Carr White, Crook went a step further. The foot scouts of the fall of 1863 would now be mounted under the command of Lieutenant Blazer, who would soon be promoted to Captain. General order No. 2 sets forth Crook's ideas: General Orders No. 2
The regimental commanders of this division will select one man from each company of their . . . regiments to be organized into a body of Scouts . . . Officers will be particular to select such persons only as are possessed of strong moral courage, personal bravery, and particularly adept for this kind of service . . . The men selected who are not already mounted will mount themselves in the country by taking animals from disloyal persons in the proper manner. The regimental quartermaster giving conditional vouchers for the animals thus taken, provided however, that sufficient stock is left these people to attend their crops with. Commanders may send out expeditions for the purpose of obtaining these animals.

Now the scouts were selected from among the best men in the 5th, 9th, 13th and 14th West Virginia Infantries, the 12th, 23rd, 34th and 36th Ohio infantries and the 2nd West Virginia Cavalry. Despite protestations from some of the "disloyal persons" the scouts were soon mounted and prepared to aid in the Spring campaign. Crook had an especially shrewd plan for the scouts on the Virginia and Tennessee Railroad raid in May 1864. To divert Confederate forces from his main objective, the scouts, as well as the 5th WVA Infantry and his field music, were sent a different direction, setting fires at night and creating enough noise to make the Confederates think that Lewisburg was again the target. The Confederates bought the bait-- hook, line, and sinker. Lewisburg was thrown into panic, Confederate columns were diverted in the wrong direction and Crook's main column met almost no opposition till it reached Cloyd's Mountain, just outside of Dublin Depot, Virginia where a bloody pitched battle ensued. Union forces drove the Confederates from the field after heavy losses on both sides and next day Crook's men began the destruction of the railroad after capturing the New River Bridge.

With barely time to rest from a grueling campaign, the scouts were on the march again in June. This time they were to participate in Hunter's Raid against Lynchburg. The scouts acted as the advance and rear guard of the army, always at the point of extreme danger. For the first time, there is evidence that Blazer dressed some of his men in Confederate uniform to obtain information and surprise the enemy.

At Covington in Southwest Virginia, the eighty scouts took on the brigade of William "Mudwall" Jackson, according to Asbe Montgomery, a scout Sergeant from the 9th West Virginia Infantry. The eighty scouts dismounted, waded Jackson River and pushed the rebels through the town. Fighting for two hours and running low on ammunition, they were forced back through Covington, where two scouts were cut off and captured. Another scout, Joseph Frith of the 34th Ohio was mortally wounded in an unfortunate friendly fire incident. Jackson reported he had a fight with Crook's army, but Montgomery said proudly, "it was only Crook's scouts. If his army [Crook's] had got hold of him not a grease spot would have been left of Jackson."

Outside Lexington, Virginia, the scouts captured canal boats loaded with arms and provisions, an act which made many of the national papers and probably contributed to their fame as "the celebrated Blazer Scouts." Hunter failed to take Lynchburg and his retreat left the Shenandoah wide open for the Confederates to use as an avenue to attack Washington under General Jubal Early. Finally, Grant had had enough and he called for General Phil Sheridan to clean out the Valley once and for all. George Crook was put in field command of the Army of West Virginia, much to the delight of scouts such as Asbe Montgomery. The scouts would soon have a new adversary--Mosby and his celebrated guerrillas.

The scouts soon came into action in the Shenandoah. At Snicker's Gap on the 17th of July the scouts "served as sharpshooters and got highly complimented." However, Captain Blazer's men would soon be engaged in a more independent fashion. Mosby was harassing Sheridan's supply lines and "Little Phil" was irritated. The Berryville wagon train raid on August 13th was an embarrassment to Sheridan. Although exaggerated in importance, the raid made all the papers and once again made the Union Army look foolish against an outnumbered but cunning foe.

Sheridan was reluctant to commit large numbers of cavalry to chase down Mosby. He knew that Mosby's men would just hide their guns and horses and disappear, leaving regiments of cavalry strung out along roads and railroads and not available for combat. Sheridan wanted his cavalry intact to use as a hammer against the anvil of his infantry to smash Early's army. But Richard Blazer's scouts were perfect to keep Mosby off guard. Hearing about them from Crook, Sheridan had the men equipped with Spencer repeating rifles. Some of Blazer's men, such as the 34th Ohio Infantry and possibly the 2nd West Virginia cavalry boys already had Spencers by this time. Also, at this time, fresh men were detailed from the different regiments to make up for losses over the spring campaign.

Blazer soon went to work. Mosby was now faced with a foe whose men were as familiar with mountain passes and river fords as his own. In fact, much of the Blue Ridge country probably appeared positively pastoral compared to the convoluted mountains of the Kanawha and New Rivers. At Myer's Ford on September 4th, Blazer "got the bulge" on the 1st Squadron of Mosby's command and drove them from the field. "Without knowing their number we were all in a heap in a moment shooting them off and dashing among them." Asbe Montgomery saw William Sloan receive a fatal wound to the cheek. Rushing his horse among the rebels, he saw the man who had just shot Sloan now direct his revolver at Asbe's face from about two feet away. Not having time to cock his own pistol, Asbe struck a blow at the man's hand, spinning the revolver over his head. Now Asbe had time to cock his revolver and sent the reb spinning from his horse.

"Being in the thickest ranks of the rebs I had a chance to do all the work I wished for a short time. Having a seven-shooter and two navy revolvers, you may guess how I used them . . . " Unfortunately, Asbe Montgomery received a wound that was nearly fatal. The ball struck him in the back, passed under the spine and lodged under his right shoulder blade. It was never removed. Montgomery was out of the fight and out of the war. Richard Blazer had lost a bold, daring sergeant. He also lost Sergeant William Leaf that day to a severe wound.

Besides combat casualties Blazer was losing men to attrition through the chaotic personnel system of the Union Army. Some men such as Jesse Middaugh, an experienced scout of the 5th WVA Infantry who called himself a "Southern Yankee" did not reenlist. Units such as the 5th and 9th West Virginia and 12th and 23rd Ohio Infantries were being consolidated due to thinning ranks and expiration of terms of service. By November 1864 Blazer was down to about 65 men. It is unlikely he ever took the field with the full complement of 100 allotted to him.

Blazer's men bested Mosby again at "The Vinyard" on 14 November. Despite a couple of setbacks at Summit Point on September 23rd and on the Berryville Pike, Blazer was now a thorn in Mosby's side. Mosby sent out Aldolphus (Dolly) Richards with the 1st Squadron and probably many other men now absent from Early's army and riding with Mosby, to hunt Blazer down. A fatal confrontation was in the making.

Henry Pancake was an affable grocer in Ironton, Ohio, when he was interviewed for a series of articles called "Close Escapes" for the Ironton Register in 1886. Henry's story is the only known complete account of the final fight between Mosby and Blazer at Kabletown from one of Blazer's own men. He was being interviewed for a local audience and the only exaggeration may be Henry's own involvement in the action. The matter of fact account of the capture of Capt. Blazer and the killing of Lieutenant Coles differ markedly from the dramatized Mosby accounts of these incidents.

The scouts had been in the saddle two days and nights and were returning toward Winchester from the Luray Valley. They crossed the Shenandoah River at Jackson's Ford about daylight and rode into Kabletown, about a mile from the ford and back on the Harper's Ferry road, where they stopped to cook breakfast. Henry was within earshot of Capt. Blazer and Lt. Coles when a little colored boy came up and reported that 300 of Mosby's men had crossed the ford and taken up a position about halfway between the ford and Kabletown and were watching the scouts.

The opposing forces were only about a half mile or so apart. The colored boy had been sent by a Union woman near the ford to let the scouts know about their danger. Henry recalled that Capt. Blazer sent Lt. Coles and himself forward to a little hill to ascertain the situation. This differs from accounts that it was Captain Blazer himself who made the scout and it may be Henry's exaggeration of his own part in the affair.

"We proceeded up the hill and got a good view of the rebs, and confirmed all the intelligence given by the colored boy." Capt. Blazer had mounted his command and proceeded some distance when Lt. Coles and Henry rejoined him. "We told him there were 300 of them, that they were in a good position and it wouldn't do to attack them with our little force, amounting to 65 men all told."

Capt. Blazer, however, told them to fall in "and the way we went." In order to attack Mosby's force "who were across the road" (probably the Myer's Ford road), Henry reported that they had to let down two big rail fences. They then filed into the field which was skirted by woods where the rebels were "and in plain view of them." Henry remembers it as a "desperately daring thing to do." Blazer's men hurried as much as possible "coming around into line like whip cracker." They were barely in line when the Confederate force was upon them with a yell. The scouts got off one good volley at what must have been very close range "and then they were on us blazing away."

"To get through the gap in the fence and out of that scrape, and into the road, was the aim of all." However, the two sides were now completely intermingled with "the rebs shooting our boys down and hacking our ranks to pieces. Every fellow was for himself, and when those got into the road who could get out, they flew in all directions." Some of the scouts fled back toward Kabletown and some toward the ford. "Oh, it was a nasty fight! We stood no show at all."

Henry was among the last to get through the gap and into the road with rebels all around him and after him. He credits his escape to having on a rebel uniform "and that's what saved my head, just there." Henry took off down the road toward Kabletown, with Lt. Coles ahead of him and Capt. Blazer ahead of the Lieutenant. One of the scouts following Henry was soon captured. "The balls whizzed all around me. Near the crossroads at Kabletown, Lieutenant Coles fell from his horse wounded, and he lay with his head resting on his arm as Henry passed by. "After I had passed him, I looked back and the foremost reb, whom I recognized as one of the prisoners we had when we made the attack, stopped right over him, aimed his carbine and shot Lieut. Coles dead." This account of the death of Lieutenant Coles differs markedly from the dramatized Mosby accounts, but still documents a wound received after the Lieutenant had ceased being a combatant.

At this point Henry reports that only he and Capt. Blazer were left on the road with 30 to 40 of Mosby's men in pursuit. "I gained on Blazer and soon caught up with him. The Captain asked, 'Where's the boys?' I replied, 'All I know is one just behind and I guess they've got him by this time.' 'I am going to surrender,' said he and I said 'I'm going to get out of this.'" The Captain halted and gave himself up. Pancake had to flee because his rebel uniform would have meant sure death for him "The rebs were not over 30 yards from us and peppering away. The surrender of the Captain stopped them a moment and I gained a little, but on came the rebs mighty soon again and chased me for two miles further. The pursuing party was reduced to about ten, and those finally gave up the chase by sending a volley that whizzed all around me. When I looked back and saw they were not pursuing me, I never felt so happy in my life."

The rest of the scouts were fighting for their very lives. Tobias Haught of the 13th West Virginia was surrounded on all sides by Mosby's men. He fought desperately until he was mortally wounded. Tobias died that same night of his wounds. He was remembered to have often said, "I never will surrender to them." It was recorded in the company's descriptive book that, "He was loved by all who knew him."

When everything was over, orderly sergeants pieced together the casualty reports and sent them to headquarters. Wild reports from survivors drifting into Union camps that they were the only ones who survived led eventually to claims that all of Blazer's command were either killed or captured. In fact, 19 were killed. Henry Pancake, who visited the scene the next day and Confederate cavalryman John Opie, who came upon the scene after the fight, claim there were 22 graves at the Blacksmith Shop. Just who these additional casualties are is not known. They could have been Confederates not directly under Mosby's command who were not taken from the field. They could also have been other loyal Union people from the vicinity, who may have been helping Blazer and suffered the same fate. Eighteen men were taken prisoner and six were badly wounded. Sheridan, in a report to General Halleck noted that 29 men had come in. Rutherford B. Hayes noted in his diary on November 20th that 32 men had been accounted for. Blazer's scouts were disbanded on January 2, 1865. However, his command could have been reconstituted under other officers in Crook's Army, but Crook notes bitterly in his autobiography that he was "relieved from any further service of that nature."

Richard Blazer's methods in conducting irregular warfare were far ahead of his time. George Crook went on to become the best Indian fighter in American history and his use of organized units of Indian scouts probably was influenced substantially by his experience in West Virgnia during the Civil War. It can be appropriately said that George Crook learned to fight Indians in West Virginia during the Civil War.

Most of Blazer's men returned to their families, farms and businesses and did not glorify their part in the war. In 1865, Asbe Montgomery wrote R.R. Blazer and His Scouts . . . the only complete account of the unit's history. Harrison Gray Otis became the celebrated publisher of the Los Angeles Times and served as a brigadier general in the Spanish-American War. Richard Blazer died of kidney failure, a complication of a severe cold or flu in 1878. His death has often been attributed to Yellow Fever, but this is probably the final myth perpetrated on him in the Mosby accounts. The kidney condition was acquired while a prisoner of war in Libby Prison and it was more palatable for Mosby's men to attribute the death to an impersonal disease rather than his harsh treatment in prison.