MOSBY, JOHN SINGLETON (1833-1916), American soldier, was born in Edgemont, Va., on Dec. 6, 1833. He graduated at the University of Virginia in 1852, was admitted to the bar in 1855 and practised in Bristol, Washington county, Va., until the beginning of the Civil War. For a time he was adjutant of Gen. J. E. B. Stuart's 1st Virginia Cavalry. In 1863 with Stuart's permission he undertook a quasi-independent command. In Fair fax, Fauquier and Loudoun counties within the Federal lines, he raised and equipped a force of irregulars. On the night of March 8, 1863, with about 3o men, he penetrated the Federal lines at Fairfax Court-house and took 33 prisoners, including Brig.-Gen. Edwin H. Stoughton. He became famous for other such exploits. In the North he was regarded as a guerilla and in 1864, Sheridan, under orders from Grant, hanged seven of Mosby's men without trial; Mosby retaliated by hanging seven of Custer's cavalrymen. On April 1865, 12 days after Lee's surrender, he disbanded his men. Through the influence of Gen. Grant, he was paroled. He
returned to his legal practice, joined the Republican Party, can vassed Virginia in 1872 for Grant. In 1878-85 he was U.S. consul at Hongkong, and was assistant attorney in the Federal Depart ment of Justice from 1904 to 191o. He wrote Mosby's Remi niscences and Stuart's Cavalry Campaigns (Boston, 1887) and Stuart's Cavalry in the Gettysburg Campaign (New York, 1908). He died in Washington, D.C., on May 3o, 1916.
See J. M. Crawford, Mosby and his Men (New York, 1867) ; A. Monteiro, War Reminiscences by the Surgeon of Mosby's Command (Richmond, Va., 189o) ; J. J. Willliamson, Mosby's Rangers (New York, 1909) ; J. W. Munson, Reminiscences of a Mosby Guerrilla (New York, 1906) ; J. H. Alexander, Mosby's Men (New York, i9o7) ; J. Scott, Partisan Life with Mosby (New York, 1867).