MOSBY, JOHN S. (1833-1916). ALS to James Williamson. [San Francisco], 10 June [1895]. Mosby acknowledges the anniversary of his raid against Seneca, MD, and mentions some of his rangers by name.

One page, 8 x 10 in.

In part: "As I write this date I am reminded that it is the anniversary of the day I organized Co. A (1863) & I started on the raid? to Seneca, Md. Of course I intended for you to keep the picture. Who is to be your publisher? 'Once a Week' has an article of mine. A new life of Phil Sheridan has just appeared. I wrote a pretty severe review of it & sent it to a friend in Washington & requested him to try to get it in the N. Y. Sun. Will yours be a subscription book? Have you the pictures of Dr. Sowers - Jim Chilton - John Saunders - & Stacy Bispham of Warrenton - Joe Owens - Bristol, Va & Tennessee - George Slater - Paris, Va - Thomas Sealock (Roderick Dhu) Linden, Warren Co. Va - Bob Chew - Charlestown, West Va - Charlie Dear, Washington, Va."

On 10 June 1863, Mosby led one hundred men on a raid across the Potomac River to a Union camp at Seneca, Maryland. His band routed a company of the 6th Michigan Cavalry Regiment and burned their encampment.

Mosby had nicknames for many of his close friends, including Thomas J. Sealock, who he called "Roderick Dhu," according to an article in the Alexandria Gazette dated 27 May 1885. Stacy Bispham is listed as one of the 99 of "Mosby's Men" featured in a photograph of the 3rd Reunion of the 43rd Battalion in Richmond, VA on 1 July 1896. James Chilton (1841-1905) was a Virginia lawyer who joined Mosby's 43rd Battalion in September of 1864. Charles Dear joined Mosby in 1863 when he was 16 years of age, and suffered numerous assorted wounds throughout the war, including at Mt. Carmel Church, the site of a fight between Mosby's Rangers and a detachment of the 14th PA Cavalry on 19 February 1865, which Mosby later called "the most brilliant thing my men ever did."

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