The Neihart herald. [volume] (Neihart, Mont.) 1890-1901, 1900-03-03
But be lies in dust.
Col. MosbY's Capture.

Col. Mosby's Capture
DR.. j. G. Wiltshire of West Madison
street, who was a lieutenant in Col.
John S. Mosby's famous command dur
ing the civil war, emphatically denies
a story of Mosby's capture by federal
troops which has recently been given
prominence in New York papers. DR..
Wiltshire was almost continually with
Mosby during that chieftain's exciting
career, and knows as much of the his
tory of Mosby and his men as any 9TH
er living man. The story is to the eff
feet that a federal trooper of the First
Pennsylvania cavalry, George w. Fink,
started out one day in 1861 as the head
of a scouting party in the Shenandoah
valley. The party surrounded a house,
SO the story goes, where 1t was sus-
pected that several confederates were
concealed. "In one of the upper cham
bers, two officers, a lieutenant and a
captain, were found lying under the
beu and were triumphantly dragged
forth, covered with dust and lint from
the floor. In another room a third
man, dressed in civilians clothes, but
very evidently connected with the ar
my, was found and placed under ar
rest in company with the others. Their
arms were taken from them, and I'M
der the guard of Fink and one COM
panion the return to the camp was
begun. On the way a thick wood was
passed through. The man in civil
ian's clothes was riding at the front
of the little party. When the middle
of the grove was reached he wheeled
his horse, plunged the rowels into it's
side, and dashed off to the right. Fink
promptly raised his carbine and fired
at the rapidly retreating form. The
horse fell dead, but the rider leaped
free from the animals body and ran
like the traditional whitehead further
into the woods. The cavalryman could
not leave the two prisoners who re-
manned n who were watching with
breathless interest the flight of their
companion, so the journey to the camp
was continued without chase having
been made. When the Headquarters
was reached the two officers were
turned over to the commander. On
their way to the guardhouse they
turned to i and one of them said:
You may be interested in knowing
that the man who got away was Col.
Mosby.' Fink was afterward known
in the federal army as the man who
captured Mosby.'" There is not a
WoII OF truth in that story" said Dr..
wiltshire. S many n~onsensical and
~groundless tales have been circulated
OF captures of Mosby that it is i'm
possible to deny them all. The fact
is, the federals only had their hands
on Mosby once during his entire career
and then they hadn't sense enough to
keep him. The capture was made in
this way: Mosby and a few of his men
were riding along the road heal Up
perville, Va, on the evening of Dec.
Fl, 1864, at a time when the country
was full of federals. Mosby stopped
with n or two officers at the house
of Ludwell Lake for supper sending
most of his men on. While they were
at supper the house was suddenly sur
rounded by federal cavalrymen. Two
or three entered the room and ordered
the inmates to surrender. Just then
a shot was fired through the window,
and Mosby fell to the foor badly
wounded. The bullet struck him in
the stomach, but was DETECTED by the
muscles and passed around to the back.
The federals asked Lake and his
daughter, Mrs. Skinner. who the
wounded man was, but they replied
that they did not know. They asked
Mosby, who said he was Lieut.. John
son of a Virginia regiment. Mosby
was covering with his hands the in
sigma of rank on his coat. While
the troopers were temporarily out of
the room he took off his coat and
threw it under the bed. The federaIs
concluded that he would die of his
wound and rode away, leaving him w.
ing on the floor. Mr.. Lake and some
of Mosby's men quickly placed him in
an OF cart and tool him away to safe
ty. When the federals reached their
camp, it was afterward learned, they
examined some papers they had taken
from Mosby, and then discovered the
identity of their prisoner, but the bird
had flown. This was the only time
Mosby was eve captured, all stories
to the contrary Notwithstanding. 1t
was thought at first that his wound
was fatal, but he soon recovered."-
Baltimore Sun.