Executions of Mosby's Men

J-9

On 23 Sept. 1864, in a fight south of town, some of Lt. Col. John S. Mosby's Rangers mortally wounded Lt. Charles McMaster, 2d U.S. Cavalry, after he allegedly surrendered. Union Gen. Alfred T. A. Torbert's cavalrymen retaliated by executing six captured Rangers nearby. They shot David L. Jones and Lucien Love behind the Methodist church, Thomas E. Anderson beneath an elm tree, and Front Royal resident Henry Rhodes in a field in front of Rose Hill; they hanged William Thomas Overby and a Ranger named Carter at the W. E. Carson house. Mosby, believing Gen. George A. Custer responsible, on 6 Nov. ordered an equal number of his men executed near Berryville.

Department of Historic Resources, 2004

See a problem? Report it to HighwayMarkers@dhr.virginia.gov.

DHR could use your help! We don't have a recent image of this marker. If you have one that you'd like to submit for inclusion on this site, please send it to HighwayMarkers@dhr.virginia.gov.

References/Bibliographic Citation:

Thomas J. Evans, Mosby’s Confederacy: A Guide to Roads and Sites of Colonel John Singleton Mosby (Shippensburg, Pa.: White Mane Publishing Company, 1991); John Singleton Mosby, The Memoirs of Colonel John S. Mosby (1917; Nashville: J.S. Sanders & Company, 1995), 300-303; John S. Salmon, The Official Virginia Civil War Battlefield Guide (Mechanicsburg, Pa.: Stackpole Books, 2001), 335; Jeffery D. Wert, Mosby’s Rangers (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1990), 211-222, 244-250.