John S. Mosby Quotes (1833-1916)

“I've always understood that we went to war on account of the thing we quarreled with the north about. I've never heard of any other cause of quarrel than slavery.”

“There was more vindictiveness shown to me by the Virginia people for my voting for Grant than the North showed to me for fighting four years against him.”

“Calhoun's last speech had a bitter attack on Mr. Jefferson for his amendment to the Ordinance of '87 prohibiting slavery in the Northwest Territory. Calhoun was in a dying condition – was too weak to read it. So James M. Mason, a Virginia Senator, read it in the Senate about two weeks before Calhoun's death, March 1850.”

“While I think as badly of slavery as Horace Greeley did, I am not ashamed that my family were slaveholders. It was our inheritance. Neither am I ashamed that my ancestors were pirates and cattle thieves. People must be judged by the standard of their own age. If it was right to own slaves as property, it was right to fight for it.”

“Mosby, Rhett, Davis, Stephens, and other Confederates had no difficulty conceding what their descendants go to enormous lengths to deny, that the raison d'être of the Confederacy was the defense of slavery. It follows that, as the paramount symbol of the Confederate nation and as the flag of the armies that kept the nation alive, the St. Andrew's cross is inherently associated with slavery. This conclusion is valid whether or not secession was constitutional. It is valid whether or not most southern soldiers consciously fought to preserve slavery. It is valid even though racism and segregation prevailed among nineteenth-century white northerners.”

“John S. Mosby, lately of the Southern Army, will, here-after, be exempt from arrest by Military Authorities, except for violation of his parole, unless directed by the President of the United States, Secretary of War, or from these Headquarters. His parole will authorize him to travel freely within the State of Virginia, and as no obstacle has been thrown in the way of paroled officers and men from pursuing their civil pursuits, or travelling out of their states, the same privilege will be extended to J.S. Mosby, unless otherwise directed by competent authority.”

“How can a soldier be proud of the country he defends while at the same time opposed to the cause he is fighting for? John S. Mosby, the renowned Confederate partisan leader, dealt with this moral dilemma years after the Civil War ended. Mosby despised slavery and believed the South had seceded to protect it. Yet he fought to defend the Confederacy, as he felt his patriotic duty to his nation outweighed all other factors. After the war, Mosby befriended General Ulysses S. Grant and joined the Republican Party.”

“Declining invitations to memorial ceremonies wherein wrong-headed speakers claimed slavery had nothing to do with the conflict, Mosby offered in response he was not ashamed to say he fought for the Confederacy, and did he ever!”

“Captain John S. Mosby has for a long time attracted the attention of his Generals by his boldness, skill and success, so signally displayed in his numerous forays upon the invaders of his native State. None know his daring enterprise and dashing heroism and dashing heroism, better than those foul invaders, though strangers themselves to such noble traits. His late brilliant exploit– the capture of Gen. Stoughton, U.S.A., two Captains, thirty other prisoners, together with their arms, equipments and fifty-eight horses– justifies this recognition in General Orders. This feat, unparalleled in the war, was performed in the midst of the enemy’s troops, at Fairfax C.H., without loss or injury. The gallant band of Capt. Mosby share the glory, as they did the danger of this enterprise, and are worthy of such a letter.”