Under the Black Flag: Execution and Retaliation in Mosby's Confederacy

• Author: Major William E. Boule, Jr
• Pages: 05

I Introduction

Near the northern Virarna village of Rectortoan, the rwenty-Seven Union soldiers stood in stunned disbelief as the lorter). began The winners would live, the losers would die at The end of a rape. Each soldier was required to draw a slip of paper from a brawn felt hat. Seven were marked. the rest were blank Aware that this autumn Sunday morning of Kovember 6. 1864, might be their last. some wepr openly. Others begged to be spared Still others seemed unable to comprehend the reality of impending execution Almost all prayed, fervently imploring Gad that He allow this cup to pass 1

The Confederate leader, Lieutenant Colonel John Singleton Masby. having ordered the drawing, left the immediate scene The selection process began. A southern soldier stopped in front of each Union prisoner and. holding the hat above eye level, requested that he draw a slip. Those pulling a marked slip were ordered to the aide and placed under close guard A lieutenant, J C Disoway of Neir. Yark. and six pnvates drew marked slips. Of the privates, one was a newsboy-his soldier's task was to vend newspapers to the Army Informed of his having drawn a marked slip. Lieutenant Colonel Mosby ordered the boy released and a second drawing conducted to fill the now vacant seventh slot Again the hat moved down the line, and this time an older prisoner drew the final death warrant.'

The seven condemned men were led on horseback in the direction of the Union lines. because Mlosby wanted them hanged where

.Judge Advocate General J Corns. Unrfed States Army Currenll) assigned u

Chief. Adminisfratlie La- Fort Eusts. Vrrgrua B S 1077, Umvenny of Vuania, J.U , 1883, U'ashmgton & Lee Unlremf) LL \I , 1881, The Judge Advocate General's School. Unrfed States Arm) Farmed) assigned as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Law atthe Uruted State3 MldUtan Academy, 1891-84 Trial Counsel and Chief of Mdtan Ju~fice. 326 Army An Defense Command. Darmrtadt. Federal Republlc of German). Defense Counsel and Legal Assistance Attorney, Fort Lewlr. Washington 1084.87 This ~nielewas unlren while the author was a member of the USMA Law Department facult) The author wishes to thank the members of the haDepartment. especially Colonel william Harlan. for their suppon and encouragement

IKEII\ H SIEPIL. REBEL nir L W E A ~ D ~ H E I O F J O H ~

S I M L E ~

$JoH\ H ALEXAVDEI I05m 5 ME\ 147 (10071

~iossr

128 (1083)

the sight of their dangling corpses would create the greatest possible effect on the Union soldiers.3

En route to the Berryvilie Pike, near the northern Virginia headquarten of Union commanders Major General Philip H. Sheridan and Brigadier General George A. Custer, the condemned and captors met a Confederate raiding party, laden with Yankee prisoners, led by one of Masby's officers, Captam R.P. Montjoy. Recagnizing the doomed Union officer as a fellow Mason, Montjoy ordered the execution party to exchange him with one of Montjay's prisoners The exchange accomplished, the prisoners resumed their journey through a rainy night, toward the Union camps. At some paint during the trek one of the prisoners, Pnvate George Soule, eseaped.5

Arriving near Rectonown, the Confederate soldiers decided not to nsk moving closer to the enemy. The executions now began. Union Sergeant Charles Marvin, who also escaped, described the event as follows:

The first man was gotten up, his hands tied behind him, a bedcord doubled and tied around ha neck; he was marched to a large tree beside the road, from which a limb projected. He was lifted in the air, the rope taken by one of the men on horseback and tied to the limb, and there he was left dangling. Two more were treated in the same manner.o

However, the Confederate soldiers, finding hanging to be an intolerably slow method of execution. sought to speed the process. The three remaining prisoners were lined up to be shot in the head. Sergeant Marvin's executioner's pistol would not fire, and Marvin struck his captor and escaped. The other two, both shot in the head and left for dead, survived.' The grim business finished, Mosby's men melted back into the Virginia countryside, leaving this note pinned to the one of the hanging bodies:

These men have been hung in retaliation for an equal number of Colonel Mosby's men, hung by order of General Custer at Front Royal Measure for meaSure.B

.4lthaugh Confederate partisan leader John Singleton Masby ordered the execution, without triai. of Union prisoners of war, he did so m a proportionate retaliation for the s m h execution onSeptember 22, 1864, of seven members of his command by members of the Union Army What led to this ugly incident on the Berlyville Pike? Was Moiby, in ordering the executions, guilty of a war crime7

II School, Jail, and the Law

While the Cwd War offers any number of interesting and color-ful figures, perhaps none rivais that of John S Mosby, and certain11 none arrived to prominence by a more cumus route. Born in 1833 in Powhatan County, Virginia, Mosby grew up near Charlattesville. Vir-ginia, where he enrolled at the University of Virginia in 1860. Even as a college student. he gave an indication of the aggressiveness which would characterize his years as B Confederate raider.

While a student, Masby got into an altercation with George Turpm, a University of Virginia medical student with a reputation as a bully. Tulpin apparently had made insulting remarks about Some af the guests at a social affair hosted by Mlosby. When Mosby sought (in writing) an explanation of the perceived slight. Turpin responded rudely. The two then met-possibly by chance--at a iocai house where Mosby boarded Dunng the course of the confrontation that ensued Masby shot Turpin in the jaw. Mosbr was quickly arrested and jailed Fire feet and seven inches tall, and weighing no more than 125 pounds, Mosby had confronted-or been confronted byethe considerably taller and heawerlhrpin. Apparentlr however the self-defense issue was greatly disputed, and at a tnal heid m Chariot-tesville, the court convicted Mosby of "unlawful shooting" while acquitting him of the more serious charge of "malic~ou~shootmg."l0

The court sentenced Mosby to twelie months in the Charlottesviiie jail. While a prisoner, he became friends with William Robatson, the attorney who had prosecuted Mosby on behalf of the Commonwealth of Virginia Mosby borrowed legal materials from Robertson and began to study law. Following his release after seven months m jail, Mosby continued TO study under the rutelage of Robertson.11 and nas admitted to the bar in 1864. He opened his

*Id af23-24(nofing thsr terrimony stfrialeonfllefedon this point1)"Id ar10-11"The Uniienit, of Virinia emelled Mmbv wer the Shootinr incident However. m 1816 the Lnneriay b;stosedan Moiby a.medal and a eertifl>ate that cated. in pan. ' YOUR ALMA MATER ha pnde m )our scholarly application in the da)s of your preporsernng ioufh1886) See

THE LEPlCRi OF JOHN Mmsr 261 (A hl~l~hell ed

19941 MOSBY'S CONFEDERACY 151

practice in the southern Aibemarle County village of Howardsville, where he met Pauline Clarke, whom he married in 1857.

111. Rom Lawyer to Warrior

In 1868, Mosby moved his practice to Bristol, Virginia. As the secessionist storm gathered fury in 1860, Masby argued, occasionally publicly, against deumon. President Lincoln's call on April 15, 1861, for 75,000 volunteers to suppress the "insurrection" in South Camiina and Virgnia's consequent secession an April 17th altered Mosby's thinking.

Enlisting as a private in a local militia company known as the Washington Mounted Rifles, commanded by Captain William E. "Grumble" Jones, Mosby later became a member of a regiment cammanded by Colonel James Eweil Brown (Jeb)...