Mosby's Confederacy

Evans, Thomas J., and James M. Moyer. Mosby's Confederacy: A Guide to the Roads and Sites of Colonel John Singleton Mosby. Shippensburg, Pa.: White Mane Pub. Co, 1991.

From the book’s dust-jacket: “As Mosby said after reading the Life of Marion, ‘I remember how I shouted when I read aloud…the way the great partisan hid in the swamp and outwitted the British.’ As an old veteran, he explained his war tactics to an interested small boy named George S. Patton, Jr. In between, Col. John Singleton Mosby earned a reputation as the Civil War’s greatest guerrilla leader. He so dominated his chosen battleground, centering in Northern Virginia, close to the seat of the Union government, that it became known as Mosby’s Confederacy.”

This wonderful book is relatively hard to come by, yet it is essential reading for anyone contemplating day-trips into Mosby’s Confederacy. It was written by many of the stalwarts of the Stuart-Mosby Historical Society, some of whom I’ve known and many I regret that I did not know. Several of these men and women fall into the category of those we call “old-timers,” in that they knew or knew someone who knew some of Mosby’s men. So, much of what is found here is based upon oral history or rather obscure written sources. Even if you never chance to enter Mosby’s Confederacy, you may be fascinated by the places and events described  in this book and the people who inhabited them not so long ago.