Transcripts For CSPAN3 Leadership Of Confederate Colonel John S. Mosby 20170605

And took command of his own ranger battalion. In the unit gained notoriety for its raids behind union lines. This talk was part of a daylong seminar on civil war leadership posted by Longwood University in farmville, virginia, at Appomattox Court House National historical park. It is just under one hour. The first speaker today is mr. Eric buckland, the author of five books about the men who rode with john mosby during the civil war, his first one is mosbys rangers, which deal with the men from bmi who served with mosby, and who has subsequently done four more books, which tell the story of 110 more men who served with mosby and i am told there is a fifth volume at press right now with will probably be the final volume in that series. Hes received the Jefferson Davis historical gold medal. Mr. Buckland is a graduate of the university of kansas and had a 22 year career in the u. S. Army in which he rose to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel, slightly higher than i got to when i was in the army. And he has many awards and served much of his career in special forces. If youve seen some of the awards he received her in that time, we certainly thank him for his service. He currently works for the United States government and lives with his wife, maureen, in centreville, virginia with three sons in the title of his presentation today is john s. Mosby, the perfect man in the Perfect Place. Please help me welcome mr. Eric buckland. [applause] mr. Buckland good morning. In keeping with the theme on leadership, patrick and asked me to talk about john mosby so we could address a leader at the unit level, the tactical and operational level. There is no doubt that john mosby was a singularly outstanding combat commander, i think he is one of the few, if not the only commander during the civil war to actually put together a unit and commanded it all the way until the very end of the war when he disbanded the unit. I cant think of another regiment was formed where that commander, if you lived, continue to command. In many cases, they would have been promoted out of the job. He was a remarkable man, but i will make the case, its with my title, i believe of the perfect man in the Perfect Place at the stars aligned for John Singleton mosby. He had some luck in his success, a great deal of it had to do with his abilities. But i also think that the stars aligned to a certain extent in what he was able to do and you might say get away with over 26 months. To understand john mosby and who he became, i think you have to understand or know a little bit about his youth. He was a sickly child born december 6, 1833 and the family did not expect him to live far into adulthood. He, in fact, when he was fullgrown, was perhaps 57, probably closer to 56, 125 pounds, not a big man. Because of his illness, and because he was frail, he was doted on at home by his mother. He didnt have to do chores around the house, he spent a great deal of his time reading. He became a highly educated and very intelligent young man who would become a very intelligent older gentleman as well. That opened his world, but again, he was doted on at home. And once he began to go to school, i think he had a certain amount of selfconfidence that bubbled over into a little but of arrogance and probably rubbed a lot of his schoolmates the wrong way. Plus, he was a smaller boy and he tended to be picked on. And he himself said he had a fight almost every day when he was in public school. And he lost every fight. But he would go back the next day and get right back at it. He would not back down. You see that later on in his partisan ranger career, that this was not a man who backed down from a fight. He was courageous. I often claim that he had ice water in his veins. I know thats a cliche, but this was a man who was about as close to fearless as i have ever seen or read about. I think he exhibited that even as a youth. I think he was ambitious to a certain extent. Im not certain if he always knew what direction he wanted that to take that with being so much spoiled home and being told he was the apple of his mothers eye and that he was very intelligent, again, he was bubbling with selfconfidence. When you read his memoirs and other things he writes, hes very selfdeprecating to a certain point. Then you realize that maybe just attend a tad disingenuous. I think from the very start of mosbys life, and later as you grow older, it was John Singleton mosbys way, or it was the highway. He did not broker people disputing with him, especially as a commander later, as an older man, he challenged people at least 2, 3, 4 times to duels after the war. This was an ornery man, and had great selfconfidence, that translated well into his ranger career. But not someone, even though johnson John Singleton mosby did not drink, he was not someone i would have wanted to sit down and have a bourbon with. Most of the stories would have been about him, and any on i have told about him, probably would have been wrong and he would have corrected be. I think one of the things that encapsulates his personality is an incident that occurred at the university of virginia when he was a student there. He wanted to have a party, he had invited to young two young gentleman to come to his party, they were known as musicians. There doesnt seem to be any thought that there was subterfuge in mosbys inviting them. They were friends of his. But they were musicians. George sterman, who was the town bully, a big brutish kind of man. He caved in students heading with a rock or a brick, not someone you would go in and just for fun poke in the eye. He wanted to have a party as well any he wanted these two musicians to come to his party. He began a rumor or stories that mosby had only invited these two men to come to play music, as sort of an insult to the two men. Mosby heard about it and in the way they did things back then, he sent a note saying what do you mean about these comments . His response for all practical purposes was, i will eat you blood raw. Mosby took that seriously, this was a dangerous, violent man. So he armed himself with a pepper box pistol. I think you can say at that time, mosby realized that even at 56 or 57, your size or weight didnt much matter if you had a pistol in your hand. The armed himself so he armed himself with a pepper box pistol and eventually, George Turpin came to the boardinghouse where mosby was staying. Some movement was made after turpin came to the front door, whether or not he lurched at mosby, whether or not he began to move up the stairs, mosby was a few stairs up in the stairs by the front door. Once he moved, he found himself shot in the neck and lying on the floor in a pool of blood. I think it that point, mosby did two things he would later make almost Standard Operating Procedure for himself, and that was one, to be armed with a pistol, something you control for a close and very personal work and the second thing was once an enemy once an enemy attacks, you dont sit back and wait for the attack to hit you, you go into the attack mode itself. And he did that with his command later when he began his partisan ranger career. As well as the fact that he was fearless. He was not intimidated by turpin. He took care of business, he would do that later on. I think at that point, it shows that bridge between the young boy who had to fight every day and lost in school to the young man who armed himself and was not going to back down when he got into a confrontation that possibly required some sort of violence. He was arrested for shooting turpin, he was tried and convicted and put in jail. And it was while he was in jail that he began to study the law. In fact, his prosecutors the man who lent him his law books and mosby would eventually become a lawyer. There were some twists and turns with his case, in the end, he was exonerated. The record expunged and he was released from jail. He would become a lawyer in the bristol, virginia area. And then, of course, war clouds again to loom in virginia. Up until the time of virginias secession, mosby was a unionist. He did not believe that the country should be torn apart. But when virginia seceded, he made the comments that he had to go with his mother. Meaning the state of virginia, and he enlisted in the unit called the First Washington mounted rifles. That was a Calvary Company formed out of southwestern virginia that would eventually be rolled into the first virginia calvary. His Company Commander was william e grumble jones. Jones took mosby under his wing and it was there that mosby discovered that he hated camp life. He did not like the regimen of the army. He found he would much rather be out on ticket duty or out on outpost duty, but he did like to be in camp. That would show up later in his partisan career. After the battle bull run or manassas, the federal Confederate Army began to go through some transformation. Jones had become the Regimental Commander of the first virginia and he would make john mosby his adjutant. Jones took mosby under his wing, and mosby said a great deal of time with him learning about training and how to take care of the men. Jones as you might imagine by his nickname, grumble, was not the most affable man, but he took good care of the men. He looked out for their welfare as mosby would you later on. Secondincommand was fitzhugh lee, and mosby and lee did not like each other at all. And when elections were held in 1862, once the confederate soldiers were given the right or the privilege of electing their commanders, fitzhugh lee was voted in. Mosby did not want to work for lee and he knew that lee would not want him as his accident so mosby resigned his position. At that point, he had been a First Lieutenant. Luckily for him, he had done some errands, some small missions for jeb stuart prior to that alastair knew of him and thought he was intelligent and trusted him and stuart, hearing of mosbys plight now back from the ranks from First Lieutenant to a private at best and stuart asked mosby to, on his staff as a scout. The stars began to align for mosby, and that he had opportunities to truly prove his worth to jeb stuart. One was the ride around mcclellan, it was mosby who founded the collins mcclellans flank was in the air and mosby was one of the men who led stewarts ride around mcclellan during the peninsula campaign. He did a couple of other things for stuart the game to stewarts trust in mosby. He knew that mosby reported something, it was accurate and true. He could count on him to get the job done. And somewhere along this time is mosby, a scout for stuart began to prove his worth, mosby began to espouse this idea of going behind union lines with a small group of men and annoying the union forces. Disrupting their lines of communication. Stuart would continually stiff arm of mosby saying i dont have the people, i cant give you any men to go off and do this. But eventually, very late december 1862 after what was known as the christmas raid, when stewart was up in northern loudoun county, mosby with him as a scout, stuart told mosby im going to leave you behind. The quote here for mosby says six, but it was actually nine men and stuart left with mosby. He told mosby you can go ahead and try this idea that you have. Lets see how it works out. The area of operation was to be in loudoun county. Now, mosby almost immediately began to display his ability to pick targets and be successful in what he was doing. So about two weeks after stuart had left with the remainder of the confederate Calvary England and gone down to fredericksburg to the winter enchantments, about two weeks later, mosby rode down to report to stuart and bring these nine men back who had been on loan. But with them were about 30 captured union horses, all the tack that in men with the Union Troopers who were captured, and all the Union Troopers have been paroled. He had 30 complete sets of greatness. Without thats pretty good. And going to give you 15 men now, not for a total of 24, but 15 or set of nine, you go back and see if you can continue to do what you were doing. Mosby expresses these ideas later on in what he wanted to do as far as his mission as a partisan ranger. A great deal is made by some that wanted to do as far as his mosby studied Francis Marion as a child. He did in fact even refers to it in his memoirs about reading about Francis Marion, the swamp fox, and whooping with delight when he would hear these wonderful tales of him tricking the british soldiers. Mosby took his tactics and his ideas directly from Francis Marion. Ive read some of the books. To equate mosby becoming a partisan ranger he was, from reading those books about Francis Marion would be like many of us taking the owner manual of our car and disassembling the engine, and then putting it back together. There just wasnt that much information in the books. Mosby just understood Unconventional Warfare. He understood what needed to be done. And how he should be operating while he was out with his men. You see this very clearly, i believe, and these two comments that he made. I told stuart that i would, by incessant attacks, compelled the enemy either greatly the contract these lines were to reinforce them. Either of which would be a great advantage to the southern cause. It was an economy of force mission. Never, never did mosby envisioned taking his force en masse and attacking a Union Calvary unit in the conventional manner. It was hit and run, continue to cause trouble, disrupt them, make them concerned, make them worried, make them pull forces back to protect areas. Mosby said he thought the greatest thing he had accomplished as a partisan ranger was to deprive Union Soldiers of sleep. Anybody who has been in the military knows how precious sleep is. If for no other reason just to escape the drudgery that you are involved in. But often times, if youve been out on operation, you have been out on patrol, sleep is wonderful. Mosby really felt that by his operating at night and coming into places where he was least expected, he caused worry and angst amongst the Union Troopers, the calvary especially. Again, another statement of what he wanted to do. His idea more than anything else was twofold, that was two to either push back the Union Pickets or outposts that rained washington city, to push them back so he could have a little more room to maneuver, or, to force those outposts to be reinforced. And at to have them be reinforced, they would have to draw from the main battle area, down where the main union army was confronting robert e. Lee. When all was said and done, he was successful on both levels. He pushed the outposts back tighter into washington city, and they were reinforced. He tied up a good number of union forces, because you worry about problems within washington city. I dont believe anyone ever felt that mosby would go in and capture washington, but he certainly would get close enough that he began to worry them as far as what things he might do. And so he was actually successful on both levels. But from start to finish, i truly believe that mosby did things his way. Initially, his chain of command, he would report to jon jeb stewart. He had a direct shot to stuart. Once stuart was mortally wounded at yellow tavern, he reported directly to robert e. Lee. Its the only instance i can think of where a colonel reported directly without anybody in between. To robert e. Lee, as far as his operations. But mosby did it his way. What do i mean by that . When mosby had enough men to go from being what he called mosbys conglomerates, that would have in january 1863 to the ninth of june, 1863, when he operated not as a formal unit with no other blessing from anyone other than the fact that he was in charge of this group of people until the 10th of june, 1863, when he formalized his command my forming company a, the 43rd battalion virginia calvary. And when he was about to form that unit, jeb stuart told him dont call them partisan rangers, dont call yourself rangers. Thats a word that is kind of fallen into the repute at this point. Call yourself mosbys regulars. Mosby did not listen to that guidance. Stuart also told him you will have elections. You form your new companies, you will have elections. Mosby would have elections, but he did it his way, which i will talk about in a few moments. Also from robert e. Lee, as audacious as he was, i think when all is said and done, robert e lee never fully understood what it was that john mosby was doing. I dont think it is any different than a number of conventional officers. In todays military. They dont understand conventional warfare, they just dont get it or they dont want to get it. Lee was audacious, absolutely. Did he push the envelope . Absolutely. But i believe when all was said and done, he was a conventional officer and he was also i think to a certain extent a gentleman of the old school, who really mosby didnt fight fair. A lot of Union Officers complained. He doesnt fight fair. He fought to win. Did he fight dirty . I dont know, i guess that depends on what side of the cold colt. 45 you were on. When all was said and done, lee didnt understand what mosley was about. A couple of different times, generally complained to stuart that mosby was fighting with too many small groups. This decentralized way that he operated didnt make sense. He needed to mass his forces. And pick one big target. That went completely against everything that mosby was doing. His effectiveness was the fact that he could have 3, 4, 5, 6 different combat patrols out on any given night, especially as the unit increased in size. 10, 15, 20, 30 miles apart and disrupt the union lines of communication at several different points at the same time. If he were to mass his unit, and only once, remedy remember he started with nine men at the end of the war, 800 men were officially mustered into the 43rd battalion virginia cavalry, and almost 2000 men had ridden with him at one time or another. The Largest Group of men he ever had from operation was about 350 at the wagon train raid in the late summer of 1864. Generally he operated in groups of 50 or 100, maybe 150. Lee emphasized to stuart that he thought mosby was wasting his time fitting these wagon trains, he needed to bring all of his people together and hit bridges or hit more trains, when in fact it would have really diluted mosbys effectiveness. Mosby continued to do what he believed was the right way to go about operating in the way that he believed was the right way to operate. His area of operations, northern virginia, worn in clark countys was known as the debatable land. This was a great area for an Unconventional Warfare unit to operate. It was compartmented as far as the draws, the hollows, the valleys, the thick woods, the people in the area were essentially prosouthern. There were some small quaker settlements or communities in northern loudon county. There were a few towns that had voted against the session, but by large, the people in the area were in support of southern activities. It was a tremendous area in which mosby was able to operate as far as having a great freedom of movement. In fact, from the time he started operations in january of his up until the very end of the war, there were only really two times that mosby didnt have almost complete freedom of movement. That was during the gettysburg campaign, when the union forces began to move down what today is route 50. As they were chasing lee, who was going down the shandong valley. Mosby essentially told his men get out of the way, just find somewhere and hunker down. Because he knew those odds were just too great. The only other time he lost his freedom of movement would be in the fall of 1864, when the loud on burning. Two brigades of Union Cavalry came into the valley and began to burn it. Again, mosby new his men were outnumbered and they moved to the flanks and stayed out of the way. Other than that, mosby had great freedom of movement and that enabled him to be successful. He was never chased where the odds were so stacked against him that he didnt have a chance. You can see the quote here is them ride through green dark, that was written by herman melville, and it was about a Union Cavalry patrol that went into mosbys confederacy. Written by herman melville, was essentially a true account of the union patrol and throughout that at the column, there is this feeling of mosby and his men lurking off just on the flanks up on that ridgeline in the shadow. That was a feeling the Union Cavalry had when they would go through heading west from Fairfax County when they would go through all the gap and plunge into lowden county, but they knew they have now gotten into oz. It was a nervous thing for them, the rangers would be up on the ridgelines watching them and mosby, it was truly in many ways mosbys confederacy, and again, he was never truly challenged except on two occasions for ownership. He was the only unit northern or southern, that stayed in that area for any great extent of time. Another tool that he brought to the table and he used was a partisan ranger act. When this is distilled down to its very basics, it says that partisan ranger units can be formed in a calvary or infantry, they will be an official part of the Confederate Army, officers will be duly commissioned, the men will be paid the same as regular confederate soldiers. The big difference is that anyone in a partisan ranger unit was allowed to keep anything he captured on or during the fight. Weapons, ammunition, horses, tack, whatever it might be. If they didnt keep that, if they did not want that piece of equipment or that horse, they could sell it back to the government. He also knew once they got into the unit, they would want to stay, especially after they came home with their second or third horse and they had pockets full of greenbacks. That they were able to take off some union soldier. He used it both as a recruiting tool and a disciplinary tool because of people got out of line, did not do what they were supposed to life in the rangers was fairly easy. Be where you are supposed to be when you are supposed to be there and do what you are told when you get there. Other than that, it was fairly easy, but people who would go against the grain somewhere along that line would find themselves gone. Mosby had that power. Youre out. There were a good number of men cast out of the unit because of bad behavior. But again, that partisan major act really broke down in many cases to bands of thugs and brigands. It really became a problem for the confederate government and Confederate Army, and eventually, the partisan ranger act was rescinded, but as a demonstration of the effectiveness and discipline of the unit, two units were allowed to continue on. Mosbys rangers and mcneils rangers in the valley. All others were shut down and the men were told they would find the nearest confederate unit and muster in as regulars. On the personal side of john mosby, not a loud man, not an exuberant man, not a big talker. Mentioned time and time and time again, however, and you wonder how did this man held sway over this group of pretty dashing, innovative, adventurous young men as this unit began to grow, and it was remarked upon time after time after time that mosby had a set of eyes that would lock you in place. If you did something wrong and he turned and looked at you, you knew it. If you had done something well and he turned and looked at you, you knew it. I dont believe mosby was loved or beloved by his men. Im not certain a lot of them liked him, but i believe they respected him. I believe anyone who rode with him for any period of time trusted him. He was not going to put them in a position they could not get through, and i think to a certain extent, they feared him. They saw by his actions in combat that this was a tough, tough, small man, possibly, but a dangerous man. Again, one of the things commented upon time and time again that left quite an impression on a number of those rangers was his eyes, the fact that he was in charge, period. Another thing that mosby and his leadership and his skills made a great effort to use was intelligence. Mosby was known to go out on scouts many, many times himself. And john munson, who wrote one of the books about the rangers, said he was the fastest scouter he had ever seen. He wanted to know where the enemy was and what they were doing. He also had a tremendous knack for picking men who knew the area, who had scouting skills. And you see on this slide some of the men he picked as his scouts who could leave him in many cases is rangers needed to get from point a to point b, and their only known way was on a main road, one of these men would likely know another route, where they could leave point a and b, and it helped mosby tremendously from start to finish. Rarely was he surprised by union activity, but quite often was the union surprised by his activity. John munson also talks about mosbys correct estimate of men. Many men again remarked on the fact that mosby could meet a man, maybe not even talk to him, simply look at him, and when this man wanted to join the unit, mosby would say, no, i dont want you, or you are in. A great example, a man who showed up in february 1863, early on in mosbys career as a ranger. But others said they did not trust him, that it was a trick, and mosby spoke to him and said he would be fine. He allowed him into the unit, and when all was said and done, ames would become a lieutenant under mosby and one of the most trusted and liked and respected men in the command, liked and respected and trusted by the other rangers. A great deal was made about mosby not accepting deserters, but in the case of richard paul montjoy, theres no doubt in my mind that he was a deserter from another unit, but again, mosby saw something in him. He rose to the rank of captain and commander under mosby. I told you that stewart had told mosby that he would have elections. When a company was formed all the way until h company, and mosby did have elections, but as i said, he did it his way. When mosby knew a new company was to be formed, beginning with company a, he would watch the man who would be in that unit and start to figure out who was intelligent, who was trusted by the other men, who was respected by the other men, who was brave, and who understood how he, mosby, wanted to fight, and he would write the names down. Captain, First Lieutenant, second lieutenant, third lieutenant. He would then call the men in an open the floor to nominations for the chain of command. As soon as the floor was opened, mosby would read his list of nominees and close the floor to nominations and ask for a vote. It was only the first time that the vote was not unanimous. The first time, there was a little bit of pushback from some of the men who felt maybe somebody else should have been considered, and mosby said, this is my slate. These are your officers. If you dont like it, you can leave the unit. Thats the last time he had a problem. That is a lot of power for a man to have in picking his subordinate officers, but one of the things i respect about mosby is the fact that he did not play favorites. You became an officer especially Company Commander or higher rank based on merit and merit alone. Good examples the chapman brothers. Sam chapman was two of years older than his younger brother. William. Mosby was much closer to sam and would remain much closer to him after the war. They would exchange letters up into the time of mosby plus death in 1916. Nonetheless, it would be william who would become second in command or Lieutenant Colonel under mosby. Dolly richards and tom richards. Dolly was 10 years younger than his big brother tom. Tom actually put his head and shoulders in between a blade strike between the second massachusetts who was about to hit mosby with that saber strike, and richards got in between and took the saber strike himself. It did not kill him, but he received a nasty wound. Nonetheless, it would be dolly richards, 10 years younger, not bearing a scar of a saber strike he had taken for his boss he would be the one who would become major, and tom would become captain or Company Commander, but again, mosby did not play favorites. Lieutenant frank williams, who was with commander, but again, mosby did mosby very early on and would be promoted to lieutenant, but as Company Commands open up, williams would never be promoted to captain, never given a company command. Quality of that man was such that later in life, he would become director of the board of supervisors in Fairfax County. Mosby just saw people he felt were better qualified. Mosby took care of his men. They stayed in private homes. Theres an old saying, if you have nothing to do, dont do it here, and mosby felt that way. As far as when men were not on operations, they would go back to what they called safehouses and stayed in private homes. All the men had money, or most of them. Either money they would take from Union Prisoners after they would be captured, or from his they had sold back to the confederate government. It was a fairly lucrative business. Again, if you conducted yourself as a gentleman, did what you were told, you could stay in that unit. Other than that, mosby allowed his men great freedom of movement. Mosby led from the front. That is something that any warrior respects. He wants his boss maybe not necessarily to always be up there with him, but to know that he will be there if need be. And mosby was in the thick of just about every fight the rangers had that people have ever heard of. As a result, he was wounded three different times. The first two woundings, he was, in fact, in the middle of small fights. The third wounding, he had come back from a scout and was actually in the house when he was shot, but the most impressive thing about that, the third wounding, probably the worst that he received, he was back in the saddle in february of 1865, and it was a wound he probably should have died from. His men trusted him. They respected him. As i said, i believe they feared him to a certain extent, and he set the example of when they were in combat of leading from the front and going through every danger those men went through as well. They talk about special operations today being specially selected, specially trained, specially equipped. The rangers lived and died by two things the colt. 44 pistol that was the weapon of choice, anywhere from two 26 pistols of peace amongst the men and their horses. A good horse would go a long way in the middle of a fight. That was their special equipment. Based on mosbys concept of fighting, his use of intelligence, what really set the rangers apart and afforded them the ability to be so successful was surprised because of the speed, because of those horses, knowing how to get from a to b on some route that was little known, or some shortcut. No columns of force for the rangers in the attack. This was a swarm of angry wasps. When they would decide to hit a union unit, here they came. Every ranger, pistol out, taking a target. I come in with my first, im done, going to my second, i may go into my third. Those things are what made them so effective and so effective so often and for such a long time over two years up and around mosbys confederacy. The rangers most of my research has been done on the men who rode with mosby. And it was a Remarkable Group of men. The average age i would opine is a little bit younger than the average confederate regiment of infantry and cavalry. He had at least three or four men who were 14 years of age. A good number of 16, 17, 18yearolds in the ranks. After the war, a good number of those men would go on to become men would go on to become doctors, lawyers, ministers. Three or four, millionaires. Successful businessmen, lawmen, people who would go back to society and contribute at a very high level. And i think above and beyond anything else, possibly without the qualities and skills mosby had, may have been close to as successful as he was simply because of the quality of men who rode with him during that twoyear period. Again, he understood it. He got it. The military value of a partisans work is not measured by the amount of property destroyed or the number of men killed or captured but by the number he keeps watching. That means how many people could he tie up . And he was extremely effective in doing that almost from the second he began operations up until the very end of the war. One thing you may not know is that John Singleton mosby, colonel, Confederate States army, was inducted into the United States Army Ranger Hall of fame in 1992, the first class inducted into the ranger hall of fame. He was inducted with a group of noteworthy individuals from Ranger Special forces and airborne history. John mosby was one of those men, and as ive said oftentimes, john mosby being inducted into the United States Army Ranger Hall of fame is not unlike troy aikman from the Dallas Cowboys being inducted into the Washington Redskins hall of fame. On a little more serious note, but nonetheless, his abilities and skills are accepted and still to this day remain part of special forces and ranger lineage in the United States army. That completes my talk. Are there any questions . [applause] thanks, eric. As a reminder, im sure we have a couple of questions. You need to come down to the microphones, state your name and ask your question, because this is on cspan, so you need to come to the microphone please. Please come to the microphone and ask the question. State your name, where you are from, and ask the question. Excuse me, sir, what happened to mosby what happened to his career after the war . Mr. Buckland mosby was a lawyer by trade. Postwar, there were a few fits and starts because there was some question as to if he would ever be paroled. There was actually a question of if he would be arrested, charged, and possibly executed for a few things. When all was said and done, he would be paroled. He would go back to his law business, but then he began to stump for ulysses s. Grant when he ran, helped him a little bit when he ran for president in 1868 and very much so in 1872. Because of that, he was vilified in virginia, and he lost a great deal of his law business, because many people saw him as a traitor. Mosby thought grant was best for the south, and thats why he tried to get him in as president , and he was successful. Because of possibly the fact that he had become a republican, also because of the fact that John Singleton mosby was not the most affable man in the world John Singleton mosby was not the most affable man in the world, not everyone loved john mosby, someone took a shot at him in 1876. By the time grant found out about it, grant was no longer president. Rutherford b. Hayes had become president , but grant heard about mosby being shot at, went to hayes, said they are going to kill him, can you help him, and hayes did. Mosby would become the u. S. Consul of hong kong for seven years. Once he finished with that, when he got back to the west coast, when his ship came to port in california, he was offered a job by leland stanford, working for the Union Pacific or southern pacific railroad, and he stayed on the west coast for 15 years. He would eventually make his way back to washington city, where he would work for the department of interior and then for the department of justice. Before i believe he was essentially forcibly retired. About 1914. He would pass away in 1916. What kind of role did mosby play in the advance to gettysburg, if any . Mr. Buckland the only part if you read his one of his books talks about the gettysburg campaign, and my feelings are that mosby is almost shrill in his defense of stuart. Mosby met stuart a couple of times during that movement, when all those things were going on, as the union army came through, as the cavalry was fighting, and mosby had made the recommendation with stewart on what route he should take based on an operation mosby had been on. Things change over the course of a couple of days, and when stewart actually tried to take that route, he found that it was blocked by union forces. Not that they were set up defensively, simply that they were moving through the area. It wasnt Bad Information for mosby. It was just no longer timely, and i felt mosby always felt some guilt for that. That is about the only role he played. Because as i said, as the union army came through, mosby told his union men to get out of the way. This was bigger than we can address. Once everyone had passed through, mosby did ride they crossed the potomac and got a short distance into gettysburg, into pennsylvania, in hopes of finding stewart, but he could not find him, and he turned around and came back. In this case, there was no question. Command Sergeant Major joe payne, u. S. Army retired. What kind of casualties occurred during the war . Mr. Buckland mosbys casualties were light if you compare them to other units, but those are men who wrote maybe only one time with the rangers. About 2000 men. Probably closer to 200 were killed in action, mortally wounded, executed, or died in prisoner of war camp. Several hundred were wounded. The numbers are not as accurate on the wounded because i would contend that being wounded as a ranger was simply the price of doing business. Charlie deer, one of my favorite rangers left to join mosby and was shot 12 times. He lived to be 82. I have to throw this because i love this quote, but charlie deer was hard as woodpecker lips. Another ranger was wounded seven times. In a fight, has a finger shot away, and he gets back into the fight. Where they probably lost more people than anything were p. O. W. s. Early on, they would be exchanged, they would be paroled, but at the end of the year or at the end of the war, with those 800 men officially mustered into the unit, a little over 200 were sitting at fort warren in Boston Harbor as prisoners of war, so almost 25 of his strength would appear ws not to be released until june 15, 1865. More questions . There are a few more here. Did lieutenant aims face any repercussions for deserting in new york . Mr. Buckland no, he was dead. No, as i said, he wasnt trusted. He would be killed in essentially a oneonone little fight along todays route 17, so, no. What would have happened, i dont know. Thats a good question, but unfortunately, he was killed. And one of the neat stories about that is he was buried very close to where he fell in an unmarked grave. Later on, another ranger named alexander g babcock, who was welltodo in richmond, had the body disinterred and moved to Hollywood Cemetery and actually put a stone up over his grave. More than likely, babcock and ames did not even know each other. I dont think babcock was in the unit when ames was in it, and then babcock would be captured. But i think one of the main reasons babcock did it was he was born and raised in princeton, new jersey, and came south just before the war because he was in sympathy with the southern cause. I think he did all that for aims , to honor a man who had the same view that he did. Good question, but, no, he did not make it. 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