Hunting the Gray Ghost
Of all the stories the northern section of the Virginia Piedmont is known for, it is probably best known for that of the “Gray Ghost”—Civil War Confederate partisan Colonel John Singleton Mosby. Reviled by the North, storied in the South during the war, Mosby’s cavalry exploits in this region came to be the stuff of legend.
Today, the sites associated with the legendary Mosby stories are strikingly still present. There are a total of five Hunting the Gray Ghost tours you can explore here in the Virginia Piedmont Heritage Area. Originally a booklet designed for the Civil War Sesquicentennial, these tours were created by VPHA Historian Emeritus Richard Gillespie with the assistance of several notable Civil War historians.
Biography: John Singleton Mosby (December 6, 1833 – May 30, 1916), also known by his nickname "Gray Ghost", was an American military officer who was a Confederate cavalry commander in the American Civil War. His command, the 43rd Battalion, Virginia Cavalry (known as Mosby's Rangers or Mosby's Raiders) was a partisan ranger unit noted for its lightning-quick raids and its ability to elude Union Army pursuers and blend in with local farmers and townsmen. The area of northern central Virginia in which Mosby operated with impunity became known as Mosby's Confederacy.