The Gray Ghost and Two Executions

On September 1ST, Philip states that “Mosby is lurking about our lines.” John Singleton Mosby was a First Lieutenant in the Confederate Army in command of the 43rd Virginia Cavalry. “Mosby’s Rangers” engaged in a campaign of raids on Union supply lines and harassment of couriers. Their ability to seemingly appear and disappear earned Mosby the nickname “The Gray Ghost.”


Mosby famously captured Brigadier General Edwin H. Stoughton in Fairfax, Virginia in 1863. When Mosby found Stoughton asleep in bed, he awakened the General with a slap to the rear, and asked "Do you know Mosby, General?" The General replied "Yes! Have you got the rascal?" "No," said Mosby. "He's got you!"

Philip also discusses two executions in this week’s diary excerpt; the first was a bounty jumper, the second, a soldier who assaulted a young girl resulting in her death.

During the Civil War, it was legal to pay a bounty to someone to enlist in your place. It was actually an encouraged practice, being thought that enabling men to pay others to enlist in their place would actually increase the number of soldiers enlisting. The northern army allowed payment of fees up to $300.00. A bounty jumper would enlist, collect the bounty, desert then re-enlist at another location to collect another bounty. Some soldiers even enlisted in various regiments on both sides of the conflict to reduce the likelihood of being caught. Bounty hunters often faced death if caught as the army sought to make an example out of them to discourage other bounty jumpers.

Sources:

______

SEPTEMBER 1ST
Was sent out on picket. Mosby is lurking about our lines. Nothing new to report from the front of Richmond.

SEPTEMBER 2ND
This morning we received the news of the fall of Fort Morgan and we are still whipping the rebels in front of Richmond. Atlanta has surrendered to General Sherman yesterday. Nothing new around here. Received some letters from home. Answered them.

SEPTEMBER 12TH
Was over to the theater in Alexandria. The play was “The Idiot of the Mountains.” A very good piece then the play ended very badly.

SEPTEMBER 16TH
Went out on picket…had a very good time of it. Everything passed off smoothly. There was a bounty jumper (bounty jumpers enlisted in the Union or Confederate army then left after collecting the bounty) shot at Camp Sedgewick this day. His name was Connely he had over twenty thousand dollars in money made by bounty jumping. He succeeded in 17 attempts and was caught on the 18th. He made a speech and warned us all not to follow in his foot steps. There is another one to be shot in a few days for committing a rape on a young girl of fourteen years of age. The girl afterwards died from the effects of the outrage.

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