Replies

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

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. "

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.

Dixie Ping!

Today's classic warship, USS Montgomery (C-9)

Montgomery class cruiser
Displacement: 2,094 t.
Length: 269’6”
Beam: 37’
Draft: 14’7”
Speed: 17 k.
Complement: 274
Armament: 9 5”; 6 6-pdrs.; 2 1-pdrs.; 3 18” torpedo tubes

The USS MONTGOMERY (C-9), named for Montgomery, Ala., was launched 5 December 1891 by Columbia Iron Works, Baltimore, Md.; sponsored by Miss Sophia Smith and commissioned at Norfolk Navy Yard 21 June 1894, Comdr. Charles W. Davis is command.

Assigned to the North Atlantic Squadron, the new cruiser operated along the eastern seaboard and in the Caribbean. During the Spanish-American War, she cruised near Cuba and Haiti in April 1898 and in May joined the blockade of Havana. She took two prizes, LORENZO and FRASQUITO, 5 May, and shelled the Spanish forts a week later.

In April 1899, MONTGOMERY transferred to the South Atlantic Squadron and operated along the Atlantic coast of South America until returning to the United States and decommissioning at New York 15 September 1900. Recommissioned 15 May 1902, she was assigned to the Caribbean Division, North Atlantic Squadron, and operated in the West Indies until decommissioning at Philadelphia 15 September 1904.

MONTGOMERY recommissioned 2 January 1908 and operated in the 5th Naval District as a torpedo experimental ship. From 1914 to 1918, she served with the Maryland Naval Militia. Renamed ANNISTON 14 March 1918, she was assigned to Division 2, American Patrol Detachment, for patrol and escort duty along the Atlantic coast and in the Caribbean. Decommissioning at Charleston, S.C., 16 May 1918, ANNISTON was struck from the Navy list 25 August 1919 and sold 14 November 1919.

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.

My great great grandfather's Union Cavalry Regiment (the 8th Illinois) was detached from the Army of the Potomac in the Spring of 1864 for the specific purpose of targeting Mosby's Partisan Rangers, and they were so successful in suppressing Mosby's activities that several of his men charcterized the 8th Illinois as the best Union cavalry regiment they had ever encountered.

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.

This quote reveales the essential ethical problem with pursuing guerilla warfare: it exposes the local residents to suspicion and the (fully justified) harassment/collateral damage that goes with it. I give R.E. Lee great credit for realizing this when he opted to surrender at Appomattox rather than to run to the hills to transform his army into a guerilla band.