Description:

JOHN S. MOSBY
(1833 - 1916) Confederate officer, "The Grey Ghost" led his Partisan Rangers on numerous troublesome raids against Union forces and supply trains. Superb Gettysburg and political content A.L.S. on Dept. of Justice letterhead, 1p. 4to., Washington, Oct. 16, 1907 to "Sam" , likely Samuel F. Chapman, Mosby's "Fighting Parson" and a fellow ranger. In part: "...Please tell Stockton [Terry, ex-color bearer for Mosby's Rangers] and my cousins that I leave here today for the University [of Virginia]...Stockton says it will be hard to convince the Virginia people that [cavalry General J. E. B.] Stuart was not in default at Gettysburg. As he had not been ordered to Gettysburg, but to join Ewell on the Susquehanna, it was not his duty to be there. If Stuart ought to have been at Gettysburg on the first day then so ought General Lee and Longstreet. All three were absent on that day for the same reason - because the army had not been ordered there. They could not foresee that [Gen. Ambrose P.] Hill and [Gen. Henry] Heth were going there on a picnic on July 1. The Democratic Party in Virginia has appropriated General Lee just as the Catholic Church has appropriated the Virgin and the Episcopal old Henry VIII. Reason has no influence on them. I wrote you that John Daniel [a Mosby Ranger] complained of my getting Grant to turn out carpetbaggers and appoint Confederates. He said it injured the Democratic Party by rendering a grievance. Of course then he must blame the Confederates for accepting these offices. Ask Stockton if he endorses John. If so, he must condemn his nephew Lewis Mosby...". In a postscript he adds: "...I suppose old [Campbell] Slemp [Colonel of the 64th Virginia Infy.] died happy (drunk)...Bascom is a hardened nutand I have no doubt had been putting up office at auction to the highest bidder...". Fine condition. A remarkable letter! "Jeb" Stuart has long been (wrongfully) partially blamed for the Confederate loss at Gettysburg. Lee has anticipated his arrival there prior to the first day of battle, July 1, but he did not arrive until late on July 2, after plans for "Pickett's Charge" had already been made. In actuality, Stuart had followed two conflicting orders from Lee to harass Hooker's army from behind, while destroying canal locks and communications. And Mosby's involvement? His Partisan Rangers were directly under Stuart's command, and it was Mosby who was Stuart's advisor as to which routes should be used for his incursion into Maryland, so of course it benefitted Mosby to protect himself historically...and politically. After the war, Mosby befriended Grant, became a Republican, and paid a heavy price for going against the political tide in Virginia: he received death threats, his boyhood home was burned down, and at least one attempt was made to assassinate him. Said Mosby: "There was more vindictiveness shown to me by the Virginia people for my voting for Grant than the North showed to me for fighting four years against him."

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January 31, 2013 11:00 AM EST
Stamford, CT, US

Alexander Historical Auctions LLC

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