MOSBY'S RANGERS: LESSONS IN INTELLIGENCE AND SPECIAL OPERATIONS CHRONOLOGY

• Document Type: SPECIALCOLLECTION
• Collection: FOIA Collection
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 06500912
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: March 16, 2022
• Document Release Date: February 25, 2016
• Case Number: F-2015-02488

Approved for Release: 2016/02/10 C06500912
Mosby's Rangers: Lessons in Intelligence and Special Operations Chronology
1833, John Singleton Mosby is born in Powhatan County, Virginia.
1861-1862: Mosby enlists in the Confederate Army and serves as an adjutant and scout under cavalry
commander J.E.B. Stuart.
21 April 1862: Confederate government passes the Partisan Ranger Act granting statutory authority to
raise and operate irregular military units.
29/30 December 1862: At Oakham, near Middleburg, Mosby is given his first independent command
under General Stuart. Mosby is a direct report to Stuart until his death and thereafter to General Lee.
26 January 1863: Mosby and the Rangers capture 2 mounted Union sentries at Frying Pan Meeting
House and 10 pickets at the "Old Chantilly Church" belonging to the 18th Pennsylvania Cavalry.
11 February 1863: Laura Ratcliffe, a Mosby source, learns from a Union soldier that Federal troops are
setting a trap to capture Mosby in the Frying Pan area and warns him near the present day Worldgate
Center.
26 February 1863: Mosby's Rangers surprise encamped Pennsylvania cavalry at Thompson's Corner
(West Ox and Thompson Road), causing most of them to flee.
2 March 1863: At Aldie Mill, Mosby and a small detachment of Rangers attack and overwhelm larger
force of Vermont Cavalry numbering 59 men, part of Sir Percy Wyndham's command.
8 March 1863: Mosby stops for lunch at the home of Lorman Chancellor in Middleburg before the raid
on Fairfax Courthouse.
8 March 1863: Mosby gathers 29 Rangers at Dover's Crossroads to conduct the raid to capture
Wyndham at Fairfax Courthouse.
8/9 March 1863: Mosby and 29 men ride through Union lines into Fairfax Courthouse area and capture
Brig. Gen. Edwin Stoughton.
17 March 1863: Mosby and 40 Rangers emerge out of the woods at Herndon Railroad Station and
capture most of the Union pickets stationed near there.
23 March 1863: Mosby and a group of Rangers emerge from the woods near Chantilly Plantation and
attack a Union picket along the Little River Turnpike. They are pursued west by a Union force and then
ambush them near Saunders Gate (present day corner of US-50 and Centreville Road).
2 April 1863: Mosby and a65-man detachment are surprised while bivouacked without security at
Miskel's farm in present day Sterling by a Vermont cavalry force of 200-plus men. They respond
aggressively and counterattack to rout the larger force.
30 May 1863: After a successful train raid at Catlett Station, Mosby and the Rangers try to hold off a
large Union cavalry force pursuing them. The Rangers use a cannon on a hilltop near present-day Vint
Hill Farms. Trying to fight conventionally and defend the position proves a mistake and a deviation from
Mosby's successful tactics and principles of war. Mosby loses 20 men killed, wounded, and captured,
including a skilled British soldier of fortune Capt. Bradford Smith Hopkins who later dies.
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10 June 1863: Mosby appoints the officers of Company A in Rector's Crossroads (present-day Atoka) as
his Rangers became regularized (listed as an official unit of the CSA military force)�at least in name.
17 June 1863: prior to the Battle of Gettysburg, Mosby meets with Stuart at Beveridge House, the
present-day Red Fox Inn, in Middleburg where he provides intelligence on Union forces and coordinates
plans to support Stuart's cavalry in the up-coming campaign. Mosby's Rangers do not participate in the
Battle of Gettysburg that follows (1-3 July).
16 October 1863: Mosby and seven of his men follow behind a Union wagon train moving west along
the Little River Turnpike without an armed escort. They ambush the wagon train near the present-day
Chantilly Library.
1 January 1864: Capt. William Smith and 30 Rangers gather in Rectortown and ambush 77 troopers,
from the 1st Potomac Home Brigade of Maryland Cavalry (Cole's Cavalry) passing through Five Points as
they hunted for Mosby.
9 January 1864: Mosby and scout Frank Stringfellow conduct the "Loudoun Heights Raid," on a
Maryland cavalry unit encamped on a peak overlooking Harper's Ferry. The nighttime raid results in
friendly fire casualties. While regarded by Mosby as a defeat, Generals Stuart and Lee see it as a useful
measure to keep up the pressure on Union forces.
22 February 1864: Mosby conducts an effective "L-Shape" ambush of a company-size Union patrol from
the 2nd Massachusetts Cavalry and 16th New York Cavalry at Sugarland Run Creek on modern Route 7.
6 July 1864: Mosby and his men surprise Maj. William Forbes and a 150-man-strong force of New York
and Massachusetts cavalry hunting for him near Mt. Zion Church north of Aldie. Mosby used a cannon
in the engagement.
18 October 1864: Rangers led by Capt. Richard Montjoy enter Falls Church to capture horses. They take
the pro-Union Rev. John Read (Reed) prisoner for allegedly sounding an alarm and being a spy. The
Rangers execute Reed and one other man near Piney Branch Creek close to Hunter Mill Road in an
action that many will later judge an atrocity and violation of the rules of warfare characteristic of
irregular warfare in the conflict.
6 November 1864: In retaliation for the execution of seven Rangers by units under Union cavalry
commander Maj. Gen. Philip Sheridan, Mosby's Rangers assemble 27 captured Michigan cavalrymen
and have them draw lots for execution near the Rectortown warehouse site. Seven lots are drawn, but
only three soldiers are killed as some escape and others survive the execution attempt. Mosby intended
this act as a message to Union forces that such executions would be reciprocal unless stopped
altogether by both sides.
18 November 1864: The 1st Squadron of Mosby's Rangers under the command of Capt. Adolphus "Dolly"
Richards, locates and then annihilates the Union Army counter-guerrilla unit, Blazer's Scouts, in West
Virginia.
28 November 1864: 5,000 Union cavalry from Sheridan's 15t Cavalry Division, led by Brevet Maj. Gen.
Wesley Merritt, enter Loudoun County for the "Great Burning Raid" to destroy Mosby's logistic base of
support among the populace.
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21 December 1864: Mosby and another Ranger are discovered while having dinner at Lakeland, near
present-day Atoka, by Union cavalry. Mosby is shot and seriously wounded. He is left for dead by Union
soldiers after he uses a "cover story" claiming to be someone else. He is out of action until late February
1865.
January 1865: Mosby receives promotion to full Colonel with the effective date of rank of 7 December
1864. The Rangers become a regiment.
7 March 1865: Mosby's Rangers ambush a 20-man detachment from the 16th New York Cavalry on
patrol near the present-day Oakton Methodist Church.
6 April 1865: Capt. George Baylor of Mosby's Rangers defeats the Union Loudoun Rangers near Harper's
Ferry, West Virginia.
21 April 1865: Mosby disbands the Rangers at Salem (now Marshall) two weeks after Lee's surrender at
Appomattox.
1867-1876: Mosby returns to his law practice at Brentmoor in Warrenton before entering US
Government service and various business ventures.
30 May 1916: Mosby passes away and is buried in the Warrenton Cemetery.
Approved for Release: 2016/02/10 C06500912