Research OnLine - Virginia 43rd Cavalry Battalion

Virginia 43rd Cavalry Battalion

HISTORICAL NOTES:

The Virginia 43rd Cavalry Battalion was formed in June, 1863, with five companies, later increased to eight and designated as Mosby's Cavalry Regiment in December, 1864. The unit served behind Federal lines in Northern Virginia and was the most effective command of its kind. The enemy forces were never safe and the area became known as "Mosby's Confederacy." In 1865 the unit was still strong with over 600 effectives, but after General Lee surrendered, Mosby assembled his men at Salem on April 21, and the command disbanded.

Exactly what to call the Confederate 43rd Battalion was controversial in their own day. Were they soldiers, partisan rangers, or (in the Union view) unsoldierly guerrillas hiding among civilians, simply a loose band of roving thieves? According to the memoirs of one of Mosby's men, John Munson, Mosby himself avoided overtly military words like "troops" or "soldiers" or "battalion" in favor of the more comradely "Mosby's Men" or "Mosby's command". The Yankees and Northern newspapers referred to them as guerrillas, a term of opprobrium at the time. Munson reports "the term (guerilla) was not applied to us in the South in any general way until after the war, when we had made the name glorious, and in time we became as indifferent to it as the whole South to the word Rebel.

The method of operation involved executing small raids with up to 150 men (but usually sized from 20 to 80) behind Federal lines by entering the objective area undetected, quickly executing their mission, and then rapidly withdrawing, dispersing the troops among the welcoming farms of local Southern sympathizers, and melting into the countryside.

Mosby's area of operations was Northern Virginia from the Shenandoah Valley to the west, along the Potomac River to Alexandria to the east, bounded on the south by the Rappahannock River, with most of his operations centered in or near Fauquier and Loudoun counties, in an area known as "Mosby's Confederacy". Mosby's Command operated mainly within the distance a horse could travel in a day's hard riding, approximately 25 miles (40 km) in any direction from Middleburg, Virginia. They also performed raids in Maryland.

Of his purpose in raiding behind the Federal lines, Mosby said:

"My purpose was to weaken the armies invading Virginia, by harassing their rear... to destroy supply trains, to break up the means of conveying intelligence, and thus isolating an army from its base, as well as its different corps from each other, to confuse their plans by capturing their dispatches, are the objects of partisan war. It is just as legitimate to fight an enemy in the rear as in the front. The only difference is in the danger ..."

— Col. John S. Mosby, CSA

FIELD OFFICERS: Colonel John S. Mosby, Lieutenant Colonel William H. Chapman, and Major A.E. Richards.

ASSIGNMENTS:

BATTLES:

ROSTERS: The rosters of this unit contains the names of 1797 men.

Company A - Organized June 10, 1863 at Rector's Cross Roads Rectortown, Virginia

Company B - Organized October 1, 1863 at Scuffleburg, Virginia, just south of Paris

Company C - Organized December 7, 1863 at Rectortown, Virginia

Company D - Organized March 28, 1864 at Paris, Virginia

Artillery Company - Organized July 4, 1864 at Paris, Virginia

Company E - Organized July 18, 1864 at Upperville, Virginia

Company F - Organized September 13, 1864 at Piedmont Station near Delaplane, Virginia

Company G - A reorganization of the Artillery Company, November 28, 1864 at Salem in Fauquier County, Virginia

Company H - Organized April 5, 1865 in Loudoun County, Virginia

REFERENCES:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/43rd_Battalion_Virginia_Cavalry

Bibliography for Research:

Virginia 43rd Cavalry Battalion

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