Gray Ghost or Our Constitution

Gray Ghost: The Life of Colonel John Singleton Mosby

Author: James A Ramag

Confederate John Singleton Mosby forged his reputation on the most exciting of military activities -- the overnight raid. Mosby possessed a genius for guerrilla and psychological warfare, taking control of the dark to make himself the "Gray Ghost" of Union nightmares.

For more than twenty-seven months Mosby led daring raids behind Union pickets and created false alarms up and down the Potomac. Although he never commanded more than four hundred men, his forces were regularly overestimated, once by a factor of forty. Union officials dispatched more than seventy search and destroy missions against him, but he retained the tactical advantage until Lee's surrender at Appomattox ended the war.

Mosby's dynamic personality, forged in childhood, was the foundation for his success as a guerrilla chief, but it was also his greatest weakness. Attempting to repeat patterns of heroic conflict after the war, he threw away his status as a leading southern hero and sacrificed a lucrative law practice to support the Republican party and U.S. Grant's campaign for the presidency.

Forced into exile from his native Virginia, Mosby again charged into controversy. During his service as U.S. consul in Hong Kong, he worked to reform the office and single-handedly exposed the corruption of his predecessors. When his bosses in the State Department balked, Mosby sent information directly to President Hayes and, eventually, exposed the wrong-doing to the Washington Post.

In retirement, Mosby continued in his well-worn role of underdog by authoring the first defense of Jeb Stuart's actions at Gettysburg, exposing Lee's role in the debacle.

Library Journal

The extraordinary life of Confederate guerrilla John Singleton Mosby defies belief. Ramage (Northern Kentucky Univ.; Rebel Raider: The Life of General John Hunt Morgan) casts Mosby, whose raiders harassed Union rear columns and supply trains in the Shenandoah Valley, as the stoic icon of the Lost Cause who never hesitated to employ stealth, terror, and pillage against an equally resolute foe. Mosby never had more than 400 irregulars under his command, yet his raids occupied an enemy force many times that number. As an attorney in postwar Virginia, Mosby attempted to unite state conservatives behind Republican presidents Grant and Hayes and was spurned as a turncoat. He then took a number of Republican appointments, including U.S. consul in Hong Kong and assistant attorney in the Justice Department. In his later years, he lectured and wrote about his wartime experiences before passing away in 1916 at 82, fully redeemed on both sides of the Mason-Dixon line. Painstaking research, dramatic illustrations, and a useful bibliographic essay add to this absorbing biography. Highly recommended.--John Carver Edwards, Univ. of Georgia Libs., Athens Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

A comprehensive biography of the Confederate guerrilla leader (1833–1916), with an emphasis on his Civil War exploits. Ramage's (History/Northern Kentucky Univ.; Rebel Raider: The Life of General John Hunt Morgan, not reviewed) well-documented volume charts the progress of Mosby from a boyhood victim of playground bullies to an icon of the Confederacy. Proceeding in fairly chronological fashion, Ramage focuses on Mosby's stunning career as a guerrilla leader, a man who was shot several times (once in the groin—the bullet remained in his body), who quoted Lord Byron while he harassed the Union troops relentlessly despite repeated attempts to capture or kill him. Ramage is most at ease in these sections, moving steadily (if unspectacularly) through descriptions of strategies and firefights that generally end with Mosby's men stealing Union horses and supplies (which they divided among themselves), killing enemy soldiers, and disappearing into the woods like, well, gray ghosts. The author credits Mosby with innovations in guerrilla strategy (e.g., in close combat, his cavalry used two handguns each instead of the traditional saber) and more than once characterizes him as "one of the most brilliant minds in the history of guerrilla war." The final 66 pages deal with Mosby's long post–Civil War life. He was, among other things, a private attorney, US consul in Hong Kong, an employee of the US Interior and Justice departments, a popular lecturer and writer. He even portrayed himself in a lost silent film. Ramage sometimes slips into the biographer's trap—admiring his subject so thoroughly that he can utter only a rare discouraging word about Mosby, who owned slaves and once shotan unarmed classmate. Also unconvincing is the cereal-box psychology Ramage applies to Mosby—viz., his boyhood battles with bullies explain his ferocious fighting spirit. A volume that will become the standard reference on Mosby—intelligent and thorough, but at times flattering rather than analytical. (32 b&w illustrations, 7 maps, not seen)

Table of Contents:

1	Mosby's Weapon of Fear	1
2	The Weakling and the Bullies	11
3	"Virginia is my mother."	28
4	Scouting behind Enemy Lines	36
5	Capturing a Yankee General in Bed	58
6	Miskel's Farm	77
7	Featherbed Guerrillas	96
8	Unguarded Sutler Wagons	105
9	Masquerading as the Enemy	120
10	Seddon's Partisans	131
11	Mosby's Clones in the Valley	147
12	Th. Night Belonged to Mosby	165
13	Blue Hen's Chickens and Custer's Wolverines	184
14	The Lottery	201
15	Sheridan's Mosby Hunt	216
16	Sheridan's Burning Raid	228
17	Apache Ambuscades, Stockades, and Prisons	243
18	"All that the proud can feel of pain"	262
19	Grant's Partisan in Virginia	271
20	Hayes's Reformer in Hong Kong	285
21	Stuart and Gettysburg	300
22	Roosevelt's Land Agent in the Sand Hills	318
23	The Gray Ghost of Television and Film	333
	Conclusion	344
	Notes	349
	Bibliographic Essay	401
	Acknowledgments	407
	Index	411

Book about: Reel Food or Man Catchin Meals

Our Constitution: What It Says, What It Means

Author: Donald A Ritchi

An in-depth look at the entire text of the U. S. Constitution, annotated with detailed explanations of its terms and contents. Each Amendment and Article is accompanied by sidebar material on the history of its application, including profiles of important Supreme Court cases, texts of related primary source documents, and contemporary news articles. Double page timelines for several of the Articles and all the Amendments highlight important events and legal cases. Visually stunning, with facsimile reproductions of primary source documents, paintings, phots, and historical artifacts, Our Constitution is perfect for history students.

VOYA

Superbly organized, clearly written, and attractively illustrated, this book is an excellent resource for a general study of the Constitution or a starting point for in-depth research. The introduction and five short chapters outline the necessity for a constitution, the type of government it created, the rights it protected, how it expanded, and the struggle interpreting and implementing it. Following this overview, the examination of the actual document begins using the pattern, What It Says (actual words) and What It Means (the explanation). After the Preamble, the seven articles and the twenty-seven amendments are then divided into manageable sections for closer discussion. Article 1, Section 8, clauses 9-11 gives Congress the ability to create a lower federal court system, the right to enact laws to protect American shipping on the seas, and the right to declare war. The ensuing explanation is straightforward, and two sidebars-Formal Declarations of War and A Police Action in Korea (a military response but not a formal declaration of war)-reinforce understanding. An illustrated War Powers Timeline summarizes military responses from 1801 (piracy) to Terrorism in 2001 and acts as another learning tool. Appendixes contain short biographies of the delegates to the Constitutional Convention and outline twenty-one Supreme Court Decisions that have shaped the Constitution. Further Reading (subdivided into topics such as Amending the Constitution) facilitates specific research. Web sites and a list of Museums and Historic sites related to the constitution also provide opportunities for expanded study. The text supplemented by sidebars, political cartoons, and time lines is informative andinteresting, but the organizational pattern of this reference is its strong suit. This book is an essential purchase for schools, libraries, civic organizations, and private citizens concerned about protecting the rights and liberties guaranteed under the Constitution.

School Library Journal

Gr 7 Up-This appealing, well-organized volume begins with five chapters of background (Why have a constitution? How has it changed?) and then goes on to discuss the preamble, articles, and amendments, using a "What It Says" (word for word) and "What It Means" format. Every spread contains photos, reproductions, and sidebars, all of which invite students to read and understand this living document. The amendments section has time lines of events and court decisions in which the amendment has been cited. For example, the Sixth Amendment (speedy and public trial) includes the "Scottsboro Boys" Trial in 1932, a decision about excluding Mexican Americans from a jury in 1954, questions about jury size from a 1970 decision, and the 2001 presidential order that permits military trials of suspected terrorists. The substantial back matter includes an excellent Constitutional glossary, a lengthy annotated list for further reading, two pages of annotated Web sites, and a listing of museums and historic sites related to the Constitution. Far more thorough and engaging in format than Cathy Travis's Constitution Translated for Kids (Synergy, 2006), this is an excellent, well-documented addition for most libraries.-Linda Beck, Indian Valley Public Library, Telford, PA Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.