John singleton mosby was born in 1833 new richmond, virginia. He grew to be of medium height and flight of weight. His spare complexion and delicate features revealed nothing unusual about him. He was frail as a child and spend his time reading and studying books, but rode his horse daily to school. His small stature led to him being picked on by the other kids. Mosby never backs down from a fight. At the age of 17, he entered the university of virginia. All studying greek and mathematics, he encountered an incident that would affect him for the rest of his life. In his third year, he encountered a fellow student by the name of george turpin, who had a habit of bullying others and set his sights on young mosby. When mosby heard turpin was looking to eat him up raw mosby pick of a pistol in his defense. When turpin came after mosby, turbine charged, mosby shot him and in and nearly killed him. He asked the prosecutor for his law books, which he leant tom mosby, who spent his time in jail reading them. He received a pardon and later passed the bar becoming a lawyer. And he again learned never to back down from a fight. In 1855 at the age of 22, he opened a law practice in the town of bristol in southwestern virginia near the tennessee border near his girlfriend pauline, whom he married in 1857. The omens of war, however had begun to pervade talk in a small town of bristol as it had many of the small towns in the south. Most of the favorite mosby favored state rights, but he was not in favor of secession. He noticed militia units were mobilizing for protection should it come to that, but he himself was not interested. Focusing on building his practice to support his young family, mosby rode to the nearby town of abingdon on a weekly basis to handle court cases bear. It was there that a friend from his college days asked him if he would consider joining the cavalry unit for the towns defense. Mosby replied, you can put my name on the role, although he thought no further of it and skip the meeting for the organization of the company. He did borrow a horse and attend the first drill, as it coincided with a court date in january of 1861. His friend told him he was not impressed, telling mosby that he made a slouchy rider and did not seem to take any interest in his military duties and made a rather indifferent soldier. Mosby said he was correct as he felt no concern about the imminence of war. The election of president lincoln in 1860, however, had served to inflate long simmering tensions of distrust between north and the south. Mosby also could not help but notice the evergrowing racial divide in those around him as well. While his father was a slaveholder, mosby himself was never in favor of the institution. He did have a servant named aaron, who would service them throughout the war, but after the war, mosby took care of him for the rest of his life. Following the surrender at fort sumter in a call to arms from president lincoln, virginias vote to secession finally confirmed mosbys mind on the issue of states rights especially his own state was the rights. States rights. He wrote a letter to a friend after the war saying, i am not ashamed of having fought on the side of slavery. A soldier fights for his country, right or wrong. He is not responsible for the political merits of the court he fights in. The south is my country. After mosby joined the Confederate Army, he eventually came under the command of jobs toeb stewart as a member of the first confederate calvary. He spent the fall and winter of that year for trolling Northern Virginia on the front lines under stewart, reading all he could about military tactics and strategy. As the Confederate Army was pulling out of Northern Virginia stewaruart rode up to mosby and asked if the union army was following them. Mosby left at the opportunity, finding scouting much more favorable. The union army in this case was not following them as the Confederate Army moved south. Later in june, as the confederate and union armies fought on the outskirts of richmond and what became known as the sevenday campaign, stuart called on mosby once again to scout out the location of the union army. Mosby relished the order, and after mosby successfully conducted his scouts, stuart himself decided to ride out and discover the exact position of the entire union armys of that general robert e lee would find an advantage in attacking them. Stuart and 1200 cavalry men then rode over 100 miles, completely around the union army in three days. Stuart became a hero and famous throughout the south for his ride around the con around mcclellan. It would not be long until mosby became famous as well. In late december of 1862, the Confederate Army was camped along the river south of fredericksburg. Mosbys rating has been reduced to two scouring the countryside for chickens, turkeys, ham sweet potatoes, water, and eggs for Christmas Eve festivities. On christmas morning, however, stuart and outsource for 1800 men to saddle up and write to the city of washington to disrupt the armys communications and i supply lines. Despite the snow and icy wind, mosby was glad to relieve the monotony. He had started to ask his commander to form a small independent guerrilla command, but he was unsuccessful in gaining stuarts approval. The raiders took into dumfries and into brooke station in Northern Virginia where stuart commandeered and sent a telegraph to washington, complaining about the fourth the poor quality of the mules that he had captured. Stating interferes seriously with the movement of captured wagons. Stuart traveled as far north of what is now fairfax, and in traveling farther west to the Little Village of herndon to call in some old friends, where he stop at the house of the reckless family, of whom laura wright clip was one of the daughters who had nurse to some of his wounded men after the nearby battle of drains really previous year. Now, colonel stuart was known to stay in the p and the houses of those that the prettiest daughters as he traveled, and laura fit the bill. As they are getting ready to leave, laura spoke up saying, it is a shame you cannot stay longer, general, it is hard on us living in conquered territory under enemy rule. Stuart thought for a while and replied, you are such good southern people throughout this section, i think you deserve some protection. I shall leave cap in mosby with a few men to take care of you until we can return with victory. I want you to do all you can for him. He is a great favorite of mine and a brave soldier and we shall soon hear something surprising from him. Mosby realized for the first time that he is about to begin the opportunity to do something he really wanted, to lead an independent command and conquer territory in conquered territory in enemy rule. Stuart left mosby behind with nine men. Much of the area in Northern Virginia, to the west of washington in alexandria, would become known as mosbys confederacy. Close to 2000 men would become known as mosbys rangers and mosby himself would become known as the gray ghost. Now to talk about some of mosbys men i would like to introduce mr. Eric buckland. [applause] eric thank you chuck. There is no doubt that mosby was an exceptional leader. Intelligence fearless, imaginative, innovative in all that he did, but i am firmly convinced that there would not be the mosby that we know today had it not been for the men that rode with him, so i would like to talk briefly about two of those men this evening. The first is William Benjamin ben palmer. Ben was 19 years old when he left the military institute in 1863 to join mosby. John alexander in his book mosbys men said that ben palmer was so polite that he was apologized that he apologize for his rudeness when he was shooting one of the enemies. He showed something to mosby because within a year, mosby handpicked him to become one of his subordinate officers. He became a lieutenant under mosby. Palmer is the kind of officer i respect your he would not ask is meant to do something that he himself would not do. In the september 1864 fight gold farm in the valley, palmer had a small detachment of rangers. The rangers as a group are engaged with the calvary, and palmer took a small detachment to get around the flank of the Union Calvary, to try to attack them from the side. They came to the gate as they were making the movement or a fence. That fence had a gate, and palmer pointed to one of the other rangers and said get the gate. He got off his horse, was immediately shot and killed. Palmer turn to another ranger and said get the gate. He dismounted, began to move to the gate, he was shot and killed. Palmer then himself does not do moved to the gate, opened it the rangers were able to go through, hit the union in the flank, and when the day win the day. Norman Vincent Randolph was 15 years old when he joined the 24th battalion of partisan rangers commanded by major john scott, the gentleman who wrote the partisan ranger act for the confederate government. That was in 1862 when randolph joined that unit. He would eventually join mosby. He would be badly wounded and return to mosbys command and be with him until the end of the war. Now on 21, april, 1865, mosby disbanded rather than surrender his men in salem, todays marshall, virginia. The majority of the rangers at that expanding with the next day to winchester seeking their roles, but a small group of rangers remained with mosby. Mosbys intent was to travel to North Carolina and link up with joseph johnston, who at that time was still fighting. In that small group of rangers seeking to continue, were both ben palmer and norman Vincent Randolph. The picture you see at the bottom of the page with the group of men, you see ben palmer on your left, norman Vincent Randolph on your right, that photo was taken probably august of 1865 in richmond after the men had truly ended the war. I spent the majority of my military career in the army in special forces, and as most of you know, the United States army and especially special forces takes great pride in their deep knowledge and understanding of victorian etiquette, and i would like that is a joke. [laughter] there were too many bemused looks on your faces. I would like to use that outstanding expertise that i gained to explain the slide. In 1867, many of the rangers returned to warmington virginia. It was a place they knew well during the war. They returned to conduct a dance. This dance card belongs to a young woman from warrington named janet weaver. Etiquette at the time called for a young lady to have her dance card. A young gentleman what, and request a dance, and the young lady would write their names down. Now, etiquette had it that the special man, the boyfriend, the fiance, at least the man who brought you to that dance, would have the first dance, and then the young woman was expected to circulate with the other gentleman at the dance. You will see on this dance card, the first name is w. B. Palmer, William Benjamin palmer. Weaver Family Tradition has this, that ben palmer and janet weaver were engaged to be married, but they did not marry. In 1880, janet weaver married norman Vincent Randolph, who was a widower at the time. But the two of them made a remarkable match. They were dedicated to helping confederate veterans who had fallen on hard times and their widows or their wives. They played a great role in the robert e lee camp for old confederate soldiers. Janet weaver became very involved in the United Artists united daughters of the confederacy. She was known throughout the south for her efforts with the udc and the robert ely cap. You can see the robert e lee camp. You can see with the streamer, a mrs. Norman Vincent Randolph relief fund, obviously given in her name. You see the horse in that slide and that is little sorrel, stonewall jacksons horse, and it was norman Vincent Randolph who was responsible for reaching out to a taxidermist in new york city to have little sorrel preserved. And he stands in all his grandeur to this day at the Virginia Military institute, so the two of them together have a wonderful legacy. Even after norman Vincent Randolphs death janet weaver randolph continued her work. She became known as mother richmond and fran what you could consider today a united way type of as mother richmond and ran what you would consider today a type of united way, and helped retired veterans and their wives. As lives would progress for both ben palmer and norman Vincent Randolph, they were both very successful. Ben palmer ran a shipping company in richmond and was extremely successful and quite wealthy. Norman Vincent Randolph took over his fathers Paper Box Company and again was very successful. They both would eventually join the robert e lee camp of the united confederate veterans, r e lee camp number one. Mind you, as i did my initial research on palmer, i did find that palmer and randolph belongs to the same camp, but i could not find any evidence whatsoever that been palmer had ever married. I wondered how awkward might some of those meetings have been between old broken hearted been palmer and janet and norman Vincent Randolph . [laughter] happily, i discover that been palmer did in fact mary in 1878 to a woman named ellen nknoll, known as nelly. Almost 10 years his junior way to go, ben from a very wellknown southern family, a welltodo family as well, and they, too, made a very good match. Nelly was very socially minded, and she worried about the care of animals in richmond and pushed ben to get involved in seeking protection of animals in richmond, and it was through her pushing at that time that ben got very involved in a society of the protection of cruelty to animals. After he died and she inherited a good amount of money, she was responsible for donating a large fund to the richmond spca. To this day, they consider the palmers part of their legacy. She also donated a great deal of money to the museum of the confederacy, which at that time of her donation was on its last legs. It was in deep, deep trouble and the financial boon that they gained from the money donated by nelly palmer in her husbands name enable that museum to continue on. You see the photo of those three paintings as well. Those are three paintings of the wagon train rate is done by three different french artist, which have belongs to the palmer family. Those were also donated to the museum of the confederacy and last i was told still hang there on display. Wonderful legacy for two young men, both as mosby rangers, and for what they did after the war. I will be followed by don hakenson. [applause] don the first thing i want to say to everybody as i am extremely honored to be here. I also want everybody to know that today is my wedding anniversary. [laughter] i am here, my wife is home, and i want you to pray for me when i go home tonight. [laughter] and i mean that very sincerely. [laughter] i am going to talk about the most famous raid that John Singleton mosby conducted during his two and a half years as a partisan. It made him a legend, and that was the fairfax courthouse rated that occurred at 2 00 in the morning on 9 march, 1863. But before i talk about that rate, i need to introduce you to some people. This is colonel percy windham. He is in charge of the calvary at fairfax house. He was born in the English Channel in 1833. He is only a few months older than John Singleton mosby. He is 15 years old, he joined the british navy. Then he goes to australia, and he gets a commission, and he becomes an officer of the australian cavalry. Then he goes to italy, and he served with garibaldi. And when the United States went to war, he came to the United States, and he pledged to fight for the union army. And he is the commander of the Union Calvary at fairfax courthouse in february and march of 1863. John singleton mosby just started conducting his operations in january, march of 1863, and he is becoming a thorn in their side. And someone would come and ask sir Percy Wyndham what did he think of mosby, and he said that mosby is nothing but a horse thief. John singleton mosby heard about that comment and said the only horses i ever captured were mounted by Union Cavalry, and they were armed with pistols. And John Singleton mosby wanted to capture this man. Make no mistake about it. But in order to get any fairfax courthouse, things had to happen. This mans names is james f. Ames. He was a sergeant in the fifth new york cavalry, and he would desert, and he would join mosbys command in february of 1863. Mosby immediately would trust this man. The rangers would call him big yankee. This man knew the call signs and he knew where the pickle posts were if mosby wanted to go into the fairfax courthouse. This man was very significant. Another man staying at fairfax courthouse was Brigadier General edwin h. Stout. Mosby knew he was Edwin Stoughton. Mosby knew he was there. This man is the honest general and the union army. He is in charge vapor of a brigade that is actually camped at fairfax station. Stoughton is staying at fairfax courthouse. He should have been with his men, and he would regret that mistake. Mosby would have dinner with a man by the name of norman chancellor, the mayor of middleburg. Mosby would write when he left the house, left the place of norman chancellor, he knows he is going to go to fairfax courthouse that night and he writes in his memoirs, i shall mount the stars tonight or sink lower than plummet ever sounded. Mosby was an educa