Beschreibung:

MOSBY, JOHN SINGLETON Lieutenant Colonel, C.S.A. Autograph letter signed ("JS Mosby") to C.F. Proudfoot, Washington, D.C., 3 February 1910. 1 page, 4to, on Department of Justice stationery . MOSBY, 45 YEARS AFTER THE WAR: "IF YOU WANT TO KNOW WHAT I WAS IN THE WAR, READ GEN. GRANT'S...MEMOIRS" Mosby responds to an article written by a Union-veteran, entitled 'Execution of Mosby's men in Return for Murdering Union Soldiers,' dealing with the controversial reprisals in the Shenandoah Valley: "...The men the writer refers to did not belong to my command. All of my men who were captured in the Shenandoah Valley in 1864 returned home from prison: they were not, therefore, shot when prisoners...There is, however, one exception; the killing of six (6) of my men at Fort Royal in the Shenandoah Valley about 20th September 1864. See my letter to Sheridan about it -- War Records, November 1864. I observe the writer speaks of the 14th Pa. Cavalry. In two fights we captured 150 of their regiment -- sent them to Richmond -- they were exchanged & sent home. It is not likely that we have treated them one way & the 8th Ohio another way. If you want to know what I was in the War read Gen. Grant's & Sheridans Memoirs..." Mosby headed the Confederate Partisan Rangers, a group organized to engage in guerilla warfare around the Loudoun Valley of Northern Virginia. The Rangers proved very successfull in hampering the Union army; Mosby disbanded his troops on 20 April 1865 instead of surrendering to Union forces. In his Memoirs , Grant wrote: "Since the close of the war, I have come to know Colonel Mosby personally...He is a different man entirely from what I had supposed...able and thoroughly honest and truthful" (Boatner, p. 572).