Mosby, John S.

John Singleton Mosby, the Gray Ghost, was a Confederate colonel and cavalry commander during the American Civil War (1861-1865.) As a young man, Mosby developed an interest in the law as the result of serving time for the unlawful shooting of a local tavern-owner s son, and eventually established his own law practice in Virginia. Although an opponent of both slavery and the secessionist movement, Mosby joined the Confederate army at the outbreak of war in 1861, and was eventually given command of a cavalry battalion in 1863. Known as Mosby s Rangers or Mosby s Raiders, the battalion operated i...