Back in 1957-1958, when I first started to become a Civil War collector at the ripe age of 10, my favorite T.V. show was the Gray Ghost.  This T.V. show was based on the true story of Col. John Singleton Mosby, a lawyer by trade, who joined the 43^rd Battalion of the 1^st Virginia Cavalry and became a guerilla “raider” for the Confederacy.  Mosby earned his nickname “gray ghost” for his cunning and stealth tactics.   The letter we are offering concerns an episode that demonstrates Mosby’s ingenuity.  Artist Dale Gallon portrays the content of our letter’s story in his painting of Mosby and his Partisan Rangers entitled “Over due at Catlett’s Station.”  Gallon states, “Mosby’s early morning attack on the train on the Orange and Alexandria line just north of Catlett’s Station, Virginia, was part of a calculated effort to disrupt the lines of supply to the Army of the Potomac and force the Federals to divert badly needed cavalry units to counter his hit and run operations.”  Read the transcription of this famous Mosby raid that so aptly demonstrates an adventure of the “Gray Ghost”!  The letter is 4 pages in ink.  The first 1 ½ pages are lighter than the last 2 ½ pages.  Apparently the writer, Azro A. Rice, switched pens… but just in time because the story about Mosby is in nice dark ink!   

# S9