Thursday, October 23 (7:30pm) – Saturday, October 25 (5pm)

Sterling, Virginia

Tour Leader: Horace Mewborn and Bob O’Neill

Registration Fee: $325

Immortalized with the sobriquet “The Gray Ghost” for his legendary hit-and-run tactics, Colonel John S. Mosby seemingly controlled a vast region of fertile farmland and small villages in parts of Fairfax, Loudoun, Clarke and Fauquier counties. From 1863 until the end of the war, this area was known as “Mosby’s Confederacy.” Union forces expended significant amounts of manpower and treasure attempting to gain the upper hand on Mosby’s partisan rangers. But time and again, the diminutive cavalryman foiled numerous Yankee efforts to defeat him and his guerilla band. Our tour is designed to take you to places both inside and outside the boundaries of “Mosby’s Confederacy” as well as some sites little visited by Mosby enthusiasts.

On our first day we will start with a walking tour of Fairfax Court House (present-day downtown Fairfax City.) You will see the Judge William Thomas home which served as headquarters for the mustachioed and controversial Col. Sir Percy Wyndham. We’ll also see the Joshua Gunnell house where Lt. Col. Robert Johnstone stayed and the Antonia Ford house. Ford was a close friend of Jeb Stuart and allegedly spied for Mosby. The final site in Fairfax CH will be the Dr. William Gunnell’s house where Mosby captured Union Brig. Gen Edwin Stoughton in March 1863 while the general was in bed. We will drive to Machen Farm where Mosby’s Rangers surprised a detachment of 16th New York cavalrymen, capturing none other than the later famous Boston Corbett. Before lunch we’ll visit Miskell’s Farm where on April 1, 1863 a detachment of the 1st Vermont Cavalry surprised Mosby in a fight that could have gone either way. After lunch we’ll get inside Mount Zion Church where Mosby formed a 15-man unit for his first raid and where in July 1863 a group Rangers battled the 2nd Massachusetts Cavalry in the nearby fields. We’ll pay a visit of Aldie Mill where Mosby first surprised the 1st Vermont Cavalry. Then it’s on to Rector’s Crossroads and the Rector House where Mosby formed Company A, 43rd Battalion and where he met Jeb Stuart to finalize plans for the Gray Cavalier’s famous ride through the Army of the Potomac in June 1863. We’ll drive through Upperville on our return to the hotel. [Read more…]