tained to such fame. Mosby was constantlyrnreferred to in the Union as well asrnthe Confederate newspapers —he was arnbogeyman to the North and a hero to thernSouth, even though he never commandedrnmore than 400 men. The reach ofrnjMosb’s renown is hard to estimate, but Irncan think of three \as to approach it.rnHe was the only Confederate to be treatedrnas he was by a contemporary major authorrnin Melville’s poem. The Scout towardarnAldie. That work, which firstrnappeared in Battle Piecen (1866), usesrnMosby’s name in ever one of its stanzas,rnas the mysterious enenn’ comes to dominaternthat poem by dominating the imaginationsrnof the invading Yankee soldiersrnhe successfully opposes. Ramage hasrnshown that psychological dominationrnwas one of Mosb’s most powerfidrnweapons; and F.dmund Wilson, AaronrnThe College of St. Thomas MorernJTie Classical College of TexasrnLife is an adventure and truth is the keyrnthat lifts up the heart. Great books andrngreat ideas, taught in the context of arncommunity faithful to Christ and thernChurch, are the beginning.rnThe College invites you to join in thernstudy of great texts in the classical disciplines:rnLiterature, Philosophy, Theology,rnLatin, Greek, and to participate inrnour three overseas programs: Rome:rnOxford: Greece.rnThe College is accredited by the Southern Associationrnof Colleges and Schools to offer the Bachelorrnof Arts DegreernThe College of St Thomas Morern3013 Lubbock StreetrnFort Worth Texas 76109rn817.923-8459rnwww.cstm.edurnThe Liberal Arts in the Roman Catholic TraditionrnM O V I N G ?rnSend change of address and thernmailing label from your latest issue to:rnCHRONICLES Subscription Dept.rnP.O. Box 800, Mount Morris, IL 61054rnKramer, and Stanton Garner hae variouslyrndealt with the C[ualities of Melville’srnpoem.rnA second aspect of fame, one more familiarrnto us than literar)’ citation, is cinematicrncelebration. At least two formerrnConfederate generals wore blue in 1898,rnbut only Mosb (1833-1916) pla>ed himselfrnin a movie. It’s too bad there are nornknown copies of A//’s Fair in Love andrnWar (1910), in which the 76-ycar-old appearedrnas his self of 1861, but we willrnhave to do without. In 1913, there wasrnanother moie. The Pride of the South,rnwith Joseph King playing Mosb’.rnThe Gray Ghost, starring Tod Andrewsrnas “Major John Mosby,” was syndicatedrnb’ CBS in 1957-8, and onlv Boston objectedrnthat “portraing a rebel as a hero”rnvas subversixc. At that time, there was arnGray Ghost comic book as well. Therernwas even a Walt Disne’ show about Mosbyrnin 1967. Today, John Singleton Mosbvrnis easily accessed as a commodih’ orrncollectible — so much for fame. In hisrnMemoirs, Mosb’ himself ruefiilK told therntale of what fame was worth:rnOne night I was with one man nearrnthe enemy’s camps in Fairfax. V’ernwere passing a house, when I heardrna dog bark and somcbodv call,rn”Come here, Mosby.” So I turned,rnrode up to the house, and asked thernman if he had called me.rn”No,” he said, “I was callingrnhioshy. I vsanted him to stop barking.”rnThe core of Mosbv’s reputation is, ofrncourse, in his militar’ career, which wasrnin the cavalrw There is no doubt thatrnMosbv was Stuart’s and Lee’s favorite andrnmost trusted scout, and in ariousrnepisodes, Mosb did influence eents byrnthe information that he had gathered.rnBut it was the leadership of his group ofrnparti,san rangers that did the mo.st to bringrnhim renown. In that part of northernrnX’ivginia he caused to be called “Mosb’srnConfederacx ” and elsewhere, capturingrna Yankee general in bed, masqueradingrnas the eneni)’, fighting Custer, bedeilingrnSheridan, raiding in tiie dark, sendingrnLincoln a lock of his hair, escapingrnwounded and returning as bush-tailedrnas ever, Mosb earned his ferme b’ defyingrnthe Yankees and fooling them againrnand again. Wlien the end came, Mosbyrnv as disappointed. Just over die ri’er fromrnWashington, he and his men were doingrnnicelv and had no inkling of Lee’s surrenderrnor its nccessih. Ramage has donernfine work in clarifying the tangled story ofrnMosby’s many fights, the complicatedrncontexts of Yankee plans, and in assessingrnand refusing to overestimate Mosbv’srncontribution to the Confederate war effort:rnFor this alone, his book is well worthrnreading and having.rnBut the stor)’ is bigger than that. AIosbyrnwas in conflict before tlie war and afterrnit. He shot a bully and was expelled fromrnthe University of Virginia, and startedrnreading law while he was in jail. Duringrnthe war, he sent to his w ife for books ofrnpoetry, novels, and history, many allusionsrnto which show up in his Memoirs.rnAfter die war, he became a Republicanrnand a friend of Grant, a position fliat didrnnot pla in Virginia at that time, but hasrnsince. Appointed by Haes as consul tornHong Kong, Mosbv was the reformer of arncorrupt civil service, and received a remarkablerncompliment before he left thatrnpost. General Li Hung Chang, who hadrnprevailed over the great Tai Rebellion,rnactualfy invited Mosb in 1884 to recruitrnConfederate veterans to fight for Chinarnagainst France in the Sino-French Warrnin “Annam,” today’s Vietnam. But surelvrnthis is an aperture into alternative liistor-rnthat we can pass by, as Mosbs did.rnThe point is that Mosbv had a flair forrncontrarian and surprising action. Ramagernattributes this cjuality to his smallrnstature and hatred of bullies. Mosbvrnloved to fight and was good at it, in thernfield and in the courtroom and on diernhustings, too. His wit and his temperamentrnsent him colliding with others inrnthe Sand Hills of Nebraska as well as inrndie clouds of flic national mytholog}-.rnMosby’s alliance with the Republicansrn—a refusal of political correctness inrnthe N’irginia of his time —is allied to otherrnsuch refusals. Though he was faithfulrnto the Confederate cause, he was not intellectuallyrnbound by it after it was gone.rnHe said what he wanted to about sla’cr^rnand secession, appreciating the ambiguityrnof politics in peace just as he hadrnpushed riie envelope of the acceptable inrnwar. Since we now lia c more need ofrnaccurately remembering John SingletonrnMosby in his high-spirited singularityrnthan ever before, James A. Ramage’srncoinprehciisie and com incing studrncould not be more timelv or more vvel-rn].0. Tate is a professor of English atrnDowling College on Long Island.rn34/CHRONICLESrnrnrn