I won the Dog Naming Fight: Meet Mosby

Sweet. Write down this day folks, the first and likely last one I ever win with Ms Caro. It will likely be General Mosby Pugglesworth IV, but I at least got Mosby in there.

I generally have named my recent pets after Confederate officers. My last sainted pet was “Forrest”. Brown Neck Gaitor also follows the naming convention, with his Australian Cattle Dog named Jeb Stuart. Mosby is named after John Singleton Mosby.

I won’t go through the entire history of Mosby, but you should at least go read his wiki page. A few brief things about him though. He was basically a Cav ranger who darted in and out, and gave the Northern bastards fits. He was all about the maneuver warfare side of the house. Before the war he killed a man in a fight and went to jail for a year where he taught himself the law. He would eventually become an Assistant Attorney general.

My favorite quote of his is from a letter he wrote in 1907. Although he deeply despised slavery, he fought for the south, and said:

I am not ashamed of having fought on the side of slavery —a soldier fights for his country — right or wrong — he is not responsible for the political merits of the course he fights in … The South was my country.

This is where IVAW peeps will chime in with something dumb, but so be it.

A last few points. Long after the war and his subsequent political jobs, Mosby befriended a young kid, and used to while away the time making up battle plans. That child would become General George S. Patton:

During George’s childhood, one of the best friends of the Patton family was none-other-than Colonel John S. Mosby, the fabled “Grey Ghost” of J.E.B. Stuart’s legendary cavalry. Patton grew up hearing tales of daring raids and stunning cavalry attacks from the Grey Ghost himself. During visits to the Patton Ranch in Southern California, Colonel Mosby would re-enact the Civil War with George; playing himself, he let George play the part of General Lee as they would recount the battles of the war, astride their horses.

These firsthand stories, and horseback re-enactments, directed by one of the greatest Guerilla fighters of all time no doubt had a huge influence on Patton. Both his sense of bravery and duty, and his Guerilla like tactics were no doubt heavily influenced by his early exploits with John S. Mosby.

Several years ago on my birthday I was invited to the oval office to meet with President Bush. At one point the topic of making decisions came up, and in particular the importance of making bold decisions timely. Bush wasn’t really defending himself in any way, merely discussing his thinking on the issue. For some reason he looked at me at the end, and I decided that was a good moment to share my favorite story of Mosby with the President of the United States.

After the war, General Mosby became the Virginia Campaign Manager for Ulysses S. Grant. That’s right, a southerner became the campaign manager for the man who led the forces which defeated his side. He felt that veterans should support other veterans. And this didn’t make him all that popular with Virginians. They burned his house down, attempted to assasinate him, and eventually drove him all the way to California, where he would meet Patton. He didn’t cave into pressure, he did what he felt was right, consequences to himself be damned.

Category: Politics