Ours. Tours. He has published the postwar relationship between mosby and ulysses s. Grant. Mr. Guest ishe is the past commander of the black wars can 780 sons of the confederate veterans and logic county. He has a professional background in public relations, sales, and marketing. He holds undergraduate degrees in english from bella rim university, and a masters of science degree in Community Development from the university of louisville. He is a u. S. Army veteran and lives in warrenton virginia. Lets give a hand for dave guest. [applause] thank you. It is a joy to be back here. It is a joy to see these faces. I am so happy so many of you came out tonight. I am grateful. Im going to do a little bit of saturday night live. This is my third visit here. I have been here 12 times. One of your members here was kind enough to bring me the Washington Post 2014 election results, which proves hell is not being a republican in virginia anymore despite what except fairfax county. I am just parroting this gentleman. Excuse him. I publish this book in 2012. Hell is being a republican in virginia. I brought with me tonight, these cool bumper stickers. Hell is being a republican in virginia. You can put this on your car. Let me get started by talking about where the title for this book comes from. When john mosby was an old man he lived to be 82 years old. This was 1914, 1950. He was 81 years old by this point. Living in washington. When a minister knocked on the door and wanted to talk with him about his future, his spiritual future if you know anything about john mosby you know he was not religious. He did not go to church. He probably did not believe in the hereafter. There was this minister talking about his soul. If you know some of the things about mosby you would know he was an irascible old man. More often than not, if he was born with you he would get up and walk out of the room. Yet he sat there and listened to this creature talk about his soul. Mosby listened. He probably did not respond well. He just sat there. This minister, who mustve been terribly frustrated said dont you even believe in hell . He looked back with those eyes and said yes, hell is being a republican in virginia. [laughter] that story was overheard by mosbys grandson. Some of you met him. He was a teenager, a young teenager, maybe 14 years old. He was born in 1899. Bev coleman overheard the story. He passed the story down through generations. To tom evans, who some of you know as well. Tom told me that story. When i heard that i thought there is the title for your book. The postwar relationship between mosby and grant, this is a little sexier. Lets get into some of the weeds here. This book is primarily about what happened after the war. You cant get there until you understand what happened before this time during the war. John mosby, as many of you know was a grill operator. Guerrilla operator. He ended up commanding 800 men 2000 2100 altogether served with him over the course of years they were any in existence. His little band held down 30,000 troops for two years. Keeping them away from petersburg, richmond, other battlefields. His operations were behind the lines. They lived off the federal largess. Mosby did away with the cavalry as an innovator. He believed the calvary saber was an outdated, worthless, romantic weapon that had no place in modern warfare. He preferred a pair of colds. He required his men come to serve with him with a mount and weapons. He had two orders. Mount and follow me. If you can do those things we will get along great. By men, what we would say were kids. Some as young as 14 years old. Some of the best officers are 20 years old. Just like today. These are men who had not heard the song of the bullet. They were not afraid. To them it was an adventure. By the end of the war it was not an adventure anymore. These men joined because they love their homes and families, and were protecting their homes and families from the blue boards. His men were daring. He was an innovator in many ways. He perfected the need to know. If you did need to know something, dont ask. His childhood hero was francis marion, the swamp fox, who tormented the british during americas war for freedom. Mosby was a sickly child. He was confined to bed. His fertile imagination picked up francis marion, and the deeds marion performed. These deeds stayed with him as an adult. Mosby was picked on as a child because he was frail, fragile, delicate. You look at his pictures, his shoulders are tapered. This boy found a way to grab some dirt, pick up a rock, and get the bully off of him. For the rest of his life, he used his brain to figure out how to defeat his enemies. They were always better armed, better equipped, better financed, whatever. You can trace this all the way through his life. So in 1865, as the war was winding down, the south was a disaster. There was no rule of law. The banks were broken. The money was no good. 4. 5 million slaves were gone. The railroads did not work. It was an absolute depression. There was no food. There were hundreds of thousands of wounded and maimed soldiers who carry the scars of war back home with them. There was nothing there. Nothing left. Probably one of the greatest things the federal government did was to impose martial law on the south. Military commanders went in and stabilized the situation. The south would have devoured herself had it not be for that. Grant was the architect for that. In 1865, as the war ended mosby disbanded his rangers on april 21 that year. During the math, general lee surrendered april 9. Lincoln was shot on the 14th. Died on the 15th. On the 18th, mosby had met with a federal commander, George Kaplan in virginia, under a flag of truce. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss whether he was surrender or not. The meeting was set at for 11 30 the morning, or at noon, the truce would end at noon. He shows up at 11 30. He says what are you doing here . Mosby said im not going to surrender. Whats the matter with you . He said i want to have a 10 day true so i can prepare myself and talk to my commanders. Chapman said there is no commander to talk to. The war is over. Mosby said i need to confirm that. Im not going to take the word from you. I have to find on my own. They reset the timetable. He says i will give you two days. See you back on the 20th. Mosby went back on the 20th and basically said im not surrendering. There was an incident that happened that day or one of his men, and mosby brought 15 officers, close to 20. They sat in this room in there was a young man named hern, referred to as an idiot, whose job it was guard the horses. Some troops said lets see what you can do on the horse. He said lets take some bets. They ran up and down the street. At 1. 1 of them took down a longer road where he saw a brigade of calvary in the pines. He races back and bursts into this meeting. He says im going to ambush. Mosby says the meeting is over. We have to protect ourselves. He walks out with his men. They ride out of there. Mosby, the next day, the 21st of april this landed his command. This was important. He disbanded his command rather than surrender. He himself knew that he was a wanted man. He was on the run. He ran. He and his brother and some other men finally broke up a few days later. They try to get to their parents house outside of lynchburg. They traveled at night and slept during the day. It took weeks to get down there. When they arrived at lynchburg they stay with their parents for a few days. Mosby negotiated with federal officers to come in and turn himself in. It was approved by grant that mosby would turn himself in. Granted grant wanted no more bloodshed. We are not going to hang anyone not going to do any trials. A clean break. But we want him in. Mosby dresses in his best kernels uniform colonels uniform. They ride into lynchburg. He struts around for a little bit. He goes inside the provost marshals office. He was somewhere else. There was a young lieutenant there and says i need to wire to find out what they want to do with you. He comes back a few minutes later and said im sorry. I have to arrest you. Mosley stands up and says i came in here in good faith to turn myself in. Here you are in your going to arrest me . He looks at the man and says i am the last soldier. The last citizen. The last one. He puts his pistols on his hits and said there are 12 bullets in here. Everyone will be fired before you leave and hand on me. He turned around and left. Before he got in the buggy he made a deal with the yankees they would not pursue him until the next morning. That is power. The next morning, 50 yankees show up at his mothers house and scare have to death to know where johnny is. She doesnt know. To make a long story short it was general halleck who countermanded grant. When grant finds out what happened he goes ballistic. He says i want him in. They bring mosby back in. He signs his parole. It is not honored. He is arrested three times over the next several months. He sets up, he is a lawyer as many of you know. He sets up his law practice in mornington. There is a lot of legal work to be done. We have not had a legislature, not any law for four years. There is a lot of legal work to be done. He is successful at that. He observes his people, the virginia people, the southern people are suffering under the boot of reconstruction. He wonders what he can do to help with that suffering. He has a vision where one day the southern people will be free , and welltodo. And not hungry anymore. In february of 1866. Pauline tells him she is going to take their oldest son beverly, the baltimore to buy furniture. He says fine. Have a great trip. She doesnt go to baltimore. She goes to washington. She gets off the train, she goes to the white house. There is anecdotal evidence that president andrew johnson, then a senator from tennessee, attended their wedding. Pauline was the daughter of a kentucky congressman. John and colleen were married in nashville, tennessee. Protocol that tell you if your daughter is being married in another state or district, you would want to invite that person to come to your daughters wedding. There was a good chance he was there. She pleads her case to the president. When is the war going to end . My husband cant get a break. He has been arrested despite the fact that he has parole. Johnson says if it wasnt to me your husband would be stretching hemp, get out of my office. She burst into tears. A federal officer comes up and says what i do to help you. She tells of her story. He says come with me. They walked down the street to general of the army grants office. It is grant who welcomes her into his office. Have a seat. Committee some water . How can i help you . She tells him the same story. One is the war going to in. My husband has been arrested. It is granted takes a piece of paper, his own letterhead from his desk, and rights mosbys parole. It is pauline who gets the parole, not john. She is quite a woman. So now she has john parole. Mosby is a free man. Only the president and grant can undo that parole. You can go anywhere he wants to practice law, without being harassed. Mosby is really affected by this. Not only has grant thrown a shield over him, he has done it again. In 1872, grant is running for a second term. Mosby is on a train with a representative from out in the valley. He says some kind words about grant. What a fine officer he was. What a humane man he was to not punish the south by executing its leadership. This representative tells that story to grant. Grant says i want to talk to this man. I want to see what he has to say about the southerners. On may 8 and 1872, mosby and his 12yearold son is on the way to the white house for the second time. This representative rides into washington. They go into the white house. They see the president. The president is there with a number of cabinet officers and people who are incurring favor with the president , industrial leaders and so on. Instantly there is tension in the air. Grant picks up on it. The great ghost of the confederacy, his 12 euro son. This guy was a bad dude. Grant leans back in his chair and takes a draw off of that stogie, blows the smoke into the air and says colonel, did you know in 1864 you were in five minutes of capturing me . Mosby said no, im sorry. He says i had just come from seeing the president who made me general in chief of the army. I was on the train heading back to headquarters at culpepper. I just had my security staff and my Staff Officers with me. I didnt have a large contingency of soldiers. Just a train engine and us. One of my officer saw a cloud of dust on the rails ahead of us. I had to stop the train and see what had caused that cloud of dust. Major jones came back within five minutes and said he talked with the stationmaster, and coronal mass colonel mosby had been chasing our guys a few moments before. He said what you think about that . He looks back at grant without blinking and i and said mr. President , if i had been five minutes earlier, maybe i would be sitting in your chair and you would be sitting in mind. [laughter] in mine. [laughter] they all did the same thing you just did. They laughed. The level of tension dropped. They got down to business. The business was this. Mr. President , im sure youre aware there is a bill being held up as senator charles committee. The amnesty act of 1872. Im sure you know that act has 14 classes of amnesty. Mr. President , if you can get that bill out of committee on to your desk and sign up there are a lot of people who cannot vote who will come to your side. Grant looked at him and said i will see what i can do. Most beliefs mosby leaves. Grant calls his old friend benjamin button. Benjamin butler. They called him spoons. Stealing silver. He calls butler, the junior senator from massachusetts and says, i want you to help me out. He tells them he wants this bill out of committee on his desk to sign it read the sooner the better. Charles sumner Charles Sumner was a radical republican. If you go back in your history books, you will recall seeing an image on the floor of the senate in 1856. Charles sumner was the caney. He was beating this not out of him, and beat him so badly Charles Sumner could not go back to work for three years. When he did when he did, he was a terror. He help make sure the french and british didnt come out on the side of the confederacy. Charles sumner was a loyalist to president lincoln. Charles sumner did not like grant. Charles sumner was blocking his bill, which was led to keep him from being reelected. Butler waits until old man sumner goes back and takes a nap. He calls the committee together gets a quorum, and passes the bill out of committee, waits until the floor of the senate and under the suppression of rules, they pass this bill. Because it works with the house version, a race to the white house. Grant signs it into law. Sumner goes nuts when he wakes up. This bill, this allows former confederates to vote and hold office. Do you have any idea what that means to restoring a persons dignity . Undoing it. They can now vote and hold office. Big deal. When the election is held, grant wins by more than 20,000 votes. A landslide. In 1872 that was a landslide. Mosby is grants new best friend. He is allowed to see the president every time, except wants. Only when he was in the hands of a dentist. Every other time, he would say, then i want to talk with you. He advised president grant on lots of things. One thing that attracted grant to mosby was the fact that mosby did want anything from him. Everybody else wanted something. They wanted something from the president. Mosby didnt want any of that. What he did what was patronage or his men. He asked the president to help his men get appointments as postmasters. Working at the navy yard, whatever. Grant made sure those men had appointments. He made sure they got jobs. Grant took a lot of heat for this. Getting rid of good union men for these old rebels, how dare you. They said mosby had a quarry that was mining stone to be used in union cemeteries. He was selling stone to the federal government, making tons of money. These were lies. Mosby was a very calm, very, around grant. He respected grant and grant respected him. They were soldiers. They were soldiers. He respected grant because grant was not nasty to the southern people. He respected grant because he was an honest man in his heart and core. Grant had a vision. Of a truly United Country. A truly United Country that would be powerful in the world powerful strong, assertive in the world. That was his vision. He could not do it until there was healing between north and south. This was what got them together. They had this vision of a stronger southern people. The only way that was going to happen was if the federal government played an active role in helping make that happen. That is how they work together. In 18 once mosby became a republican, he was out. Once the people who were already democrats, southern democrats not like today. They are the opposite of today. The people turn their backs. It was so bad mosby went to one reunion in 1895. It was so bad he never went back to another one. Not because of what he said it was. He said he didnt because it was all very strange. That is what he lived for. He loved that. That was the time when he was in control. He was in charge. He was respected and feared. He didnt go back because some of his men literally turn their backs on him. It was so bad, after mosby was on the run, there was a 2000 reward for his head or his hide. Some of mosbys men went to grant, and said they could get him bet it would cost 5,000. Grant says do it. One guy is not going to do it. These rangers, his own men went after him. They didnt get him. This is the kind of thing they were up against. Conservatives put his family out of society. His children were beaten at school. His wife was a pariah. People across the street from having to speak to him. He was an outside man. He was left to whether on the vine. He got into trouble over politics. Both duels failed because they would not face him. One guy, mosby propose they would have issued out with shotguns. With one ounce balls at 20 paces. The guy says no way i would do that. He was a good shot by the way. In case you havent figured that out. His life was in the tank. He was hurting. In 1876, pauline dies. As a result of complications from childbirth of her eighth child. 39 years old. Eight kids. 18 years. The baby is born in march of 1876. Hauling dies in may of 76. The baby dies in june. Their seventh child died at age 11 months, cause unknown. Mosby has six children, no wife, no mother for his children. He sells the house on main street and warrington. He moves to alexandria. He has some law clients in warrington. He goes out to warrant in one night in the fall of 1877. As he is getting off the train someone takes a shot at him. Try to assassinate him. They dont know who they were why they miss. Was it a warning shot . We dont know. Mosby believes his life was in mortal danger. On the other end, you have grant, who has finished his second term in 1877. Brother rutherford b. Hayes becomes president. And, grant says to julia, honey, we are going on a trip. He said, i have been fighting wars, ive been president , i have had it. I need a break. They book this tour