Fortenbaugh Lecture

TICKET PRICES
FREE

Tuesday, November 19 / 7 pm

By the spring of 1865, no Confederate name aroused more vitriol in the areas surrounding Washington, or perhaps even in the loyal North, than that of John S. Mosby. As colonel of the 43rd Battalion Virginia Cavalry, a partisan unit better known as Mosby’s Rangers, he had directed repeated raids on Union camps and supply lines in northern Virginia and the Shenandoah Valley. He became so effective at curtailing Union logistics and manpower in the region that both friend and foe labeled his area of operations “Mosby’s Confederacy.” Equally as vexing for U.S. forces was the perceived brutality of the Rangers. Union generals and privates alike referred to Mosby and his men as guerrillas and cutthroats, and the desire to eradicate them seemed to preoccupy the Union high command. Newspaper accounts recounted his daring escapades, families named their newborn sons after him, and by the winter of 1865, a French artist who was painting a full-length portrait of Robert E. Lee likewise asked Mosby to sit for sketches. Even those in the loyal North became entranced by his daring antics, leading to the wartime publication of a novels based on his exploits as well as a poem by Herman Melville.

But how did a slight lawyer from southwest Virginia who had enlisted as a private in 1861 come to gain such a reputation? In this lecture, Caroline E. Janney will trace the meteoric rise in the reputation of one of the Civil War’s most famous – or perhaps infamous – figures.

Caroline E. Janney is the John L. Nau III Professor of the American Civil War and Director of the John L. Nau Center for Civil War History at the University of Virginia. She has published eight books, including Remembering the Civil War: Reunion and the Limits of Reconciliation (2013) and Ends of War: The Fight of Lee’s Army after Appomattox, winner of the 2022 Gilder Lehrman Lincoln Prize.

Tickets are required for this event, but are free. To get your free ticket visit the Box Office at 25 Carlisle St., Gettysburg or call (717) 337-8200.