Mosby's Rangers: 43rd Battalion's Ghost and Guerrilla Tactics

Mosby’s Rangers: 43rd Battalion’s Ghost and Guerrilla Tactics

mosby's rangers raid a virginia town looking for military intelligence on northern soldiers

Initially, John Singleton Mosby was opposed to the South’s succession from the United States, but a sense of Southern homeland persuaded him to enlist in the Confederate Army as a private serving under William Grumble Jones.

After serving with the Washington Mounted Rifles, and later the Virginia Volunteers, General Jeb Stuart took notice of Mosby’s aptitude for intelligence gathering. He promoted Mosby to First Lt., and assigned him to the General’s cavalry scouts, and in June of 1863, under the authority of General Robert E. Lee and the Partisan Ranger Act as enacted by the Confederate Congress, John Mosby formed and took command of the 43rd Battalion.

Mosby’s Leadership of 43rd Battalion

Mosby’s sole tactic involved executing small raiding parties of up to 150 men behind Union lines, relying heavily on stealth to enter target areas undetected, executing attacks on Union positions before scattering into the surrounding woods and dispersing the troops among local Southern sympathizers—literally and figuratively melting into the countryside.

Mosby’s attack and hide strategy operated mainly within the distance a horse could travel in a day’s hard ride, which generally amounted to raids within a 25 mile radius of Middleburg, Virginia, although some raids went into Maryland after the Battalion expanded to six cavalry companies and one artillery company by the summer of 1864.

Mosby believed and repeatedly proved that, in his own words,

“a small force moving with celerity and threatening many points on a line can neutralize a hundred times its own number.”

John Singleton Mosby

Gray Ghost of the Confederacy

The Rangers fast-attack, hit-and-run tactics were largely carried out with two pistols for each raider, since carbines proved to be unsuited for fighting on horseback.

Speed, surprise and shock represented the true secret weapon of Mosby’s command, allowing a small, intrepid force to charge much larger lines of Union soldiers, representing one of the first unified displays of guerrilla warfare tactics in American history. During the Battalion’s existence, Mosby’s Rangers conducted a total of 33 major offensives, making the 43rd Battalion one of the most storied units in Civil War history.