MOSBY, JOHN S. (1833-1916). ALS to James Williamson. [San Francisco], 3 May 1895. Mosby mentions the Greenback Raid and several Rangers by name.

One page, 8 x 9 3/4 in.

In response to Williamson's apparent inquiry, Mosby identifies Lieutenant Tom Turner, from Prince George County, MD, of Company A, as the man who was killed at Harper's Ferry. He also mentions that John G. Beckham of Company E, who he describes as "one of our best men," has just been nominated as Mayor of Alexandria, VA, and that "splendid soldier" John C. Kane of Company D, is now in Silverton, CO.

He also notes that he wrote a description of the Greenback Raid, which might appear in a periodical he calls "the 'World.'"

He then asks when Williamson's book will be published, and offers a word of advice: "If you write to Joe Nelson, Warrenton, & John H. Alexander Leesburg you could get their pictures. War pictures are the best."

The Greenback Raid was an assault by Mosby's Rangers on a passenger train coming from Baltimore carrying German immigrants, other civilians, women, children, and Union soldiers on the night of 14 October 1864 in Jefferson County, WV. Most notably were two paymasters who were carrying $172,000 worth of paper "greenbacks," which the rangers violently seized. Mosby's men had torn nails from the railroad track, causing the train to topple when it reached that stretch at 2:30 AM. All told, two federal soldiers were killed, a woman was wounded, money was stolen, and the train was set on fire.

James Joseph Williamson (1834-1915) James Joseph Williamson (1834-1915) served as a private in Company A of Mosby's cavalry regiment, giving him first-hand knowledge of the rangers' experience during the war. He kept a diary which proved helpful as he constructed his narrative account published in 1896, Mosby's Rangers: A Record of the Operations of the Forty-Third Battalion of Virginia Cavalry from its Organization to the Surrender. Williamson prefaced the book, in part: "The object of this work is to put in durable form a record of the exciting scenes and events in the career of Mosby's Rangers, in most of which I was an humble actor, and to preserve the memory of the gallant deeds of Colonel Mosby and his brave companions who shed their blood, and of our heroic dead who gave up their lives, in the cause for which we fought."

This lot is located in Cincinnati.

The John Singleton Mosby Collection of Hugh C. Keen