Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1911-11-23
Lock of LincoIn's Hair.

a LOCh vi LtnSOiu
Col. John S. Mosby, the Southern cav
airy leader in the Civil War, has many
mementoes of that long and bloody strug-
gle, but none which he treasures more
jealously than lock of dark hair wrap
ped in faded yellow scrap of newspa-
per. The hair was cut from the head oi
Abraham Lincoln. II was Lincoln'S own
hand which cut it, and the great wal
President himself who sent it.
In the spring of 1863 the Army of the
Potomac lay along the north bank of the
Rappahannock about fifty miles south OF
Washington. The intervening country
was, OF course, in the possession of the
Union troops. Off in the recesses of the
Blue Ridge Mountains, about thirty miles
westward, was Colonel Mosby, with a
body of picked Southern cavalrymen,
seeking to do what injury he could to the
Federal outposts and lines Of communi-
cation.
About the middle OF March there en-
camped at Fairfax Courthouse, village
of about five hundred inhabitants, half
way between Washington and the army
on the Rappahannock, force OF several
thousand Union troops under General
Stoughton. From military point OF view,
his camp at Fairfax was nearly as safe as
Boston. Between his own force and the
Southern army, under General Lee, lay
General Hooker's great Army OF the Po-
tomac. Even Colonel Mosby's small
force-leSS than a hundred men-was
thirty miles away.
Nevertheless, Colonel Mosby deter
mined to capture General Stoughton.
Selecting twenty of his best troops, he
started, one drizzly March afternoon, for
Stoughton's camp. 1t was after midnight
when he ran into the first picket, who
was easily captured in the darkness. And
thus, taking picket after picket in the black
night, Colonel Mosby made his way with
out alarm into the village, until he entered
General Stoughton's bedchamber. The
unhappy officer was compelled to dress
and accompany his captors. The pitch
black, rainy night, and the fact that the
men OF both commands wore rubber capeS
of the same style, rendered it impossible
for the prisoners, Stoughton included, to
determine the number of the enemy.
With half hundred prisoners and ahun-
dred horses, Colonel Mosby quietly
made his way out of the camp, and was
soon beyond reach Of pursuit.
The adventure created stir in military
quarters. Stoughton was roundly CEN
sured for allowing himself thus to be
stolen from the midst of his troops, al
though he was in nowise to blame.
President Lincoln, whose sense OF hui
NOR nothing could quench, remarked,
when told of the affair, that he did not
mind losing the general, but the hundred
horses were a serious matter. 81 can
make general with the scratch ola pen,"
he said, dryly, "but can't make horses"
Shortly afterward Colonel Mosby, with
few companions, was reconnolterlng in
the vicinity of Washington. On the road
he encountered an old Dutch market
woman taking her garden-truck in her
cart to peddle it through the Washington
streets. Colonel Mosby stopped and
questioned her. Noticing pair of Scis-
sors at her belt, and having heard OF
President Lincoln's comments on Gener-
al Stoughton's capture, he said:
'Do you know Mr.. Lincoln ?"
"Yae," replied the old woman. "Seen
him often, have"
Taking the scissors, Colonel Mosby
cut off lock of his hair, and wrapping it
in piece of paper, handed il to the old
woman, saying:
'I'm Colonel Mosby. When you get
to Washington, 60 to the White House
and tell the President that Colonel Mosby
sent him this lock OF his hair; and say
also that he is coming over into Wash
ington some night TO get lock OF the
Presidents hair"
The old market-woman went her way,
and Colonel Mosby rode back, and for
got the incidents Some weeks later,
however, when making another recon
naissance in that neighborhood, the old
woman hailed him from roadside cot
tage. Hurrying into the cottage, she
brought forth scrap of newspaper, and
delivered if to Colonel MoSby.
"Here iss a lock OF President Liucoln's
hair" she said. "He tolt me to say to
you that he hat rather you would not
come ofer to see him, and that he send it
tn vol by me. Here il iSS P'