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     Colonel John Singleton Mosby was one of the most admired and respected men in the South.  He was also one of the most feared by the North.

     Mosby was a native of Powhatan County, Virginia, but in 1855 had moved to Bristol, Virginia, located on the Virginia-Tennessee border.  Mosby was a member of the local militia when the War broke out.  He served as a scout under General JEB Stuart in 1862 where his talents gained the notice of his superiors.  After operating behind enemy lines in late 1862, Stuart allowed Mosby to take fifteen men to serve as a nucleus around which Mosby quickly built a Partisan Ranger force which operated behind the Yankee lines until the end of the War.  The foothills of Northern Virginia soon became known as Mosby’s Confederacy and no Yankee could operate with impunity within his territory.

     The six by eight inch albumen photograph shown here shows Mosby in his Colonel’s uniform.  With the frame included it measures eight and a half by ten and a half.

     I own Mosby’s autobiography, two biographies and all four of the Confederate Faces volumes and I cannot find a copy of this image in any of them.  I can hardly imagine that it has never been published, but I can find no record of it.  The image has some light staining, but otherwise is perfect.  The detail is exceptionally clear for an Albumen, so much so that I can plainly see the Virginia state seal on his buttons.