Various newspaper accounts of the actions of Partisan John S. Mosby – April 1863
From the Richmond Examiner – April 1st, 1863
DEPARTURE OF PRISONERS. – Yesterday eight hundred and fifteen Yankee prisoners took their departure Northward from the Libby for “hum.” Among them was Baron Wardener, captured by Captain Mosby, who goes back as a civilian, and eleven officers – five captains and six lieutenants, under the provisions of a special exchange for an equal number of Confederate officers sent South. This morning four hundred more will go down, which deduction will leave about four hundred prisoners still remaining in Richmond, and this number daily being added to. Their transportation to City Point is in charge of Captain V. Bossieux.
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New York Tribune – April 3rd, 1863*
CAPTAIN MOSBY REPORTED WOUNDED
We learn that Capt. Mosby, the captor of Gen. Stoughton, commanded the Rebels in the skirmish near Drainesville on Wednesday morning, and was dangerous if not fatally wounded. Capt. Flint, who commanded the Union cavalry was killed and other officers wounded.
(*this was an erroneous account of Mosby’s famous “April Fools skirmish” at Miskel Farm, an account of which I will post later in the month – vhp)
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The Southern Illustrated News – April 4th, 1863
THE TIMES.
The week has been unusually devoid of interest, so far as military matters are concerned. The weather has put a veto upon active operations. On Thursday evening the vernal equinox was ushered in by a snow storm which lasted over twenty-four hours. The depth of the snow has been variously estimated at from eight to twelve inches on a level. On Tuesday, the 17th, Capt. Mosby of Stuart’s cavalry, not content with the capture of Brig. Gen. Stoughton, made another bold dash into the enemy’s lines, on the Orange and Alexandria Railroad, near Bristol Station, and captured four commissioned officers and twenty-one privates. The latter were paroled on the spot; the officers are now safely ensconced in the Libby prison, there to remain in durance vile, until the “best government the world ever saw” comes to its senses. Captain Mosby is the son of Mr. Alfred Mosby, of Albemarle co., in Virginia, and previous to the war resided in the town of Abingdon, as a practitioner of law. He has made a most enviable reputation, and is destined to achieve a fame not surpassed by any chief of scouts in the Confederacy, if he [text is unclear] but as cautious as he is daring.
In return for Capt. Mosby’s pleasantries, the exasperated Yankees pounced down upon an unprotected young lady, Miss Antonia Ford of Fairfax, and dragged her to prison, on the pretence of her being a spy—a pretext as barefaced as it is cowardly, and based solely upon the fact that she possessed a humorous commission from Gen. Stuart, who of course has no authority to confer commissions, and gave her this only as an autograph memento of her hospitality and kindness. Comment is unnecessary.
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From the Richmond Examiner – April 4th, 1863
BARON WARDENER. – This titled Dutchman, who was captured at Fairfax Court House with General Stoughton, by Capt. Mosby, and confined for a time at the Libby prison, has returned to the North on parole, and ventilated his Teutonic spleen by the publication of some of the most bare faced and monstrous lies in regard to the management of the prison and its officers, that we have seen yet. This Wardener claims to have been fed part of the time on the “flesh of defunct mules,” and says, “what little beef he or the other prisoners got was putrid.” These assertions bear falsehood so palpably on their face, that they are hardly worth the space necessary to refute them; but we do so in order that truth may go upon record in juxtaposition with the lie. We have on occasion, at the request of the commandant, partaken of the meat that this dilettante German so stigmatizes, and found it excellent bovine, nutritious and sweet smelling, and not a part of that useful quadruped, related to the donkey and Wardener. As for the soup and bread, not better is served on the tables of the first hotels in Richmond. Would to heaven our soldiers were furnished with such rations. – This same Wardener styles Captain Turner a “brute,” and says he ordered him about like a “dog,” when everybody who knows the commandant knows him to be the kindest and most humane of men, although a strict disciplinarian.
The Baron goes on and heaps lie upon lie, but we think it only necessary to expose one or two, to prove him a liar of the first calibré.
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Charleston Daily Courier – April 6th, 1863
From Richmond—-ANOTHER DARING DASH OF CAPT. MOSBY.— Richmond April 5th -Capt. Mosby with fifty men was attacked by one hundred and fifty Yankees at Dranesville, VA. on the 1st of April. Capt. Mosby first fire brought down some thirty of the enemy. The rest fled. Mosby pursued and captured seventy-nine, who arrived here last evening. They belong to the First Vermont Cavalry.
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The Indiana Weekly Democrat – April 9th, 1863
Desperate Skirmish with the Rebels
Loss on Both Sides
On Tuesday last the rebel Capt. Mosby visited Centreville, with his notorious guerrilla band, numbering about sixty, dressed in Federal uniforms. They left for Drainsville, or its neighborhood, and on Wednesday morning a squadron of the 1st Vermont Cavalry came upon them at a plantation where they were bivouacked. Mosby’s men were dismounted and received our cavalry with a fire from behind fences, which stampeded some of the raw soldiers.
The fight soon became desperate. Mosby threatened his men with death if the flinched, and he himself wounded Capt. Flint five times with his revolver, killing him. Lieut. Grout, of the Vermont cavalry, and seven men, were also killed.
Our loss was about sixty killed, wounded and prisoners.
Mosby was in the house on the plantation when he was surprised, but we learn that he rallied his men with lightening-like celerity, and when our squadron broke, he pursued and hacked them severely.
The guerrilla chief received a severe saber cut on the forehead.
We learn that the Vermont Carbine companies delivered their fire upon the enemy with good effect, and then opened to the right and left to allow the saber companies to charge, but they failed to come up to the work.
The bodies of Capt. Flint and Lieut. Grout were embalmed to-day.
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New York Tribune – April 20th, 1863
Reported Cavalry Expedition Under Gen. Stahel.
It is reported in the City today that the Rebel cavalry force which has been hovering around the Bull Run Mountains and Culpepper has been surrounded by an expedition sent out by Gen. Stahel and is or will be captured. [Wash. Rep. Friday]
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The (Richmond) Daily Dispatch – April 24th, 1863
Reports from Washington City.
The Washington dispatches, of the 10th, contain some matters of interest — among them the following:
Yesterday morning at daylight, the rebel cavalry — some of Mosby’s fares — took Mr. Sherman from his house, near Dranesville, and securing him of giving information to the Federals, hung him.–It is thought that the Government will retaliate for the hanging of Detective Sherman by summarily executing Captain Powers and a civilian in the old Capitol prison, against whom evidence is said to be concessive of their being spies.
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Philadelphia Press – April 25th, 1863
Army of the Potomac
Moseby and his gang are in the neighborhood of Warrenton.
A WOUNDED TRAITOR AND A RENEGADE
Sergeant Ames, formerly of Co. L.N.Y. Fifth Cavalry was the scoundrel who deserted to Moseby’s gang of guerrillas and subsequently acted as their guide in their two raids into Fairfax. The sergeant who is called ‘Big Yankee’, was once deemed one of the best soldiers in the regiment. He once whipped three of Ashby’s cavalry, taking one of them prisoner.
While on a scouting expedition, they fired upon him from the edge of a wood, and after he had drawn their fire, he retreated. When they pursued him in the open field, he wheeled, and opened fire upon them, compelling two to flee, and one to surrender.
Captain Dye, commissary of the Third brigade, Stahl’s division, was so impressed with the efficiency of Ames that he made him a commissary and quartermaster sergeant. Soured by the promotion of others in his regiment, and poisoned by the promises of Moseby, he deserted to him, and became one of his best soldiers.
Moseby says that if all the Federal cavalry were like ‘Big Yankee’, they would conquer anything. Moseby’s gang have all the plunder they capture and Ames has sent word to his regiment by some returned prisoners, that he has ‘made’ five good horses since he joined Moseby.
Information reached here yesterday by a lady, a refugee, that this renegade now lies dangerously wounded in a house in Middleburg. If Colonel Deforest of the New York 5th Cavalry should capture the scoundrel he will have a prompt trial and a sudden execution.
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Richmond Dispatch – April 28th, 1863
Mosby, the Raid maker.
–It is often asked, who is Capt. John S. Mosby? The family is a very numerous one and many of his name are in our army. Capt. Mosby is the son of Mr. Alfred D. Mosby, formerly of Albemarle county, but at present residing in Amherst, in the vicinity of Lynchburg. Capt. M. is a very young man, He was educated at the University of Virginia; is by profession a lawyer, and had located himself as British. Washington county, where he is highly and was rapidly in his profession. He married the daughter of the Hon. Beverly L. Clark, of Kentucky, and late Minister to Central America – Capt. Mosby entered the service as a private in the Washington county cavalry.
Val
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