Program Information

After Lee's surrender at Appomattox the Confederacy's premier partisan, John Singleton Mosby, had to decide how to spend the rest of his life.

A Moment in Time is a brief, exciting and compelling journey into the past. Created to excite and enlighten the public about the past, its relevance to the present and its impact on the future, A Moment In Time is a captivating historical narrative that is currently broadcast worldwide.

Transcript

Lead: After Lee's surrender at Appomattox the Confederacy's premier partisan, John Singleton Mosby, had to decide how to spend the rest of his life.

Intro: A Moment In Time with Dan Roberts.

Content: John Mosby grew up in rural Virginia, graduated from the University in Charlottesville and established a law practice in Bristol. When the Commonwealth seceded he volunteered for service in the Cavalry, fought at the First Battle of Manassas and rose to the rank of Lieutenant. An excellent scout, throughout the summer and fall of 1862, he conducted reconnaissance patrols for General J.E.B. Stuart in Northern Virginia.

When Stuart retired to Fredericksburg for the winter months he left Mosby behind to conduct guerilla operations behind Union lines. He was very good at what he did: conducting raids against supply lines, railroads, wagon trains and isolated Union outposts; he was so good in fact that Fauquier and Loudoun counties were known as "Mosby's Confederacy. He and his small band of partisans, while keeping his activities remarkably free of civilian casualties, kept Union forces off balance until the very end of the war.

After the surrender he resumed his law practice, this time in Warrenton, Virginia. A practical man, like Robert E. Lee he understood the implications of defeat and tried to accommodate himself and his community to the altered reality. He became friends with Ulysses S. Grant and supported his former antagonist for president. Mosby's neighbors turned their backs on the former guerilla fighter; one even took a shot at him one night at the Warrenton Depot. Grant, concerned for his friend's life, appointed him consul in Hong Kong and Mosby served in other Federal posts until his death in 1916.

The producer of A Moment In Time is Steve Clark. At the University of Richmond, this is Dan Roberts.

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