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
Good morning everyone.
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.
