Bottom Line

"I've always understood that we went to war on account of the thing we quarreled with the North about. I've never heard of any other cause than slavery."

 Colonel John Singleton Mosby, CSA.  His irregular cavalry unit, Mosby's Rangers, was incorporated into the Confederate Army, the only one so accepted.  He became U. S. Consul to Hong Kong and was a friend of President Grant after the war. 

 Later in the war, after Grant had come east to direct the operations of the Army of the Potomac, Grant wrote that he regularly took a train to Washington “to confer with the Secretary of War and the President.” On one of these train trips back to Virginia, “a heavy cloud of dust was seen to the east of the road as if made by a body of cavalry.” When the train reached the next station and stopped, those on board asked the “man at the station” about this, and “he informed us that Mosby had crossed a few minutes before at full speed in pursuit of Federal cavalry. Had he seen our train coming, no doubt he would have let his prisoners escape to capture the train. I was on a special train, if I remember correctly, without any guard".

 Among many other astonishing things, Mosby befriended the young George S. Patton and would act out Civil war engagements with him.  Mosby volunteered for the Spanish American war but was denied a commission by the incompetent War Secretary Russell Alger, he instead raised and trained horses for the army he once fought against.  President Theodore Roosevelt sent him to deal with land theft by Colorado rancher barons as a special agent of the Department of Interior, for whom he dealt with many of the land grabbing outrages so prevalent at the time.  It is now popular with some to call the Southerners traitors, a modern day lie put about by people who expect others to do their fighting for them, never mind serving in uniform themselves.  Colonel Mosby had this to say about his service-

"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" and that, "The South was my country."  I do not agree with this, if one's government is party to treason or evil then the social contract is sundered and all bets are off.  One of America's better naval commanders is renowned for his epigram, “My country, right or wrong; if right, to be kept right; and if wrong, to be set right.” 

When the time comes all patriots will converge on fools and criminals and set this country straight.

'A long time between stops.  A long time for something to go wrong'.  Convicted murderer, former soldier, and ever alert opportunist Richard B. Riddick, Pitch Black.