Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 4).djvu/475

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MOSBY
MOSENTHAL

ting the guerillas. Many cavalry outposts were captured by them, and the National forces were compelled to strengthen their pickets, sometimes to contract their lines, and to use constant vigilance against stratagems, surprises, and nocturnal attacks. His force was made up of deserters from the Confederate ranks, of volunteers from civil life, and of furloughed cavalrymen who had lost their horses and joined him temporarily in order to obtain remounts captured from the enemy. One of his boldest lieutenants was a deserter from the National army. At Chantilly, on 16 March, 1863, he made a counter-charge, and routed a cavalry force much larger than his own. At Dranesville, on 1 April, 1863, he defeated a detachment sent specially to capture him. While the armies were engaged at Chancellorsville he surprised a body of cavalry at Warrenton Junction, but was routed by a detachment that came to the rescue. He raised a new force, obtained a howitzer, passed to the rear of Gen. Hooker's army, wrecked a railroad-train, inflicted severe damage on the troops that surrounded him, and finally cut his way through the lines. In May, 1864, Mosby captured a railroad transport near Aquia creek, and compelled Gen. Grant, while his army was engaged in the Wilderness, to detach a cavalry force to protect his communications. Mosby received a captain's commission in March, 1863, and two weeks later that of a major, and he reported to Gen. Stuart till the time of that officer's death in May, 1864, and after that to Gen. Robert E. Lee. Before the close of the war he was made a full colonel. He received several bullet-wounds. His partisan rangers, under an act of the Confederate congress, stood on the same footing as the cavalry of the line, and received the same pay, besides being allowed to retain captured spoils. On 21 April, 1865, he took leave of his partisans, saying: “Soldiers of the 43d regiment: I have summoned you together for the last time. The vision we have cherished of a free and independent country has vanished, and that country is now the spoil of a conqueror. I disband your organization in preference to surrendering it to our enemies. I am now no longer your commander.” Remaining in Fauquier county, where he was at the close of the war, he opened a law-office in Warrenton, and obtained a lucrative practice. In 1872 he incurred much obloquy in the south by publicly supporting the Republican presidential candidate, Ulysses S. Grant, who had extended his protection to Mosby's guerillas at the surrender in 1865. He defended his course on the ground that the south, which had already accepted the enfranchisement of the negroes, might consistently support the Republican party, and thereby most quickly attain tranquillity and home rule. During President Grant's second term he exerted himself to appease the spirit of dissatisfaction in the south, but declined all favors from the administration. He supported the candidacy of Rutherford B. Hayes in 1876, in a letter to the New York “Herald,” in which first appeared the phrase “the solid south.” He was appointed consul at Hong Kong, introduced reforms in the consular service, and remained there more than six years, but was removed on the accession of President Cleveland. On his return to the United States he settled in San Francisco and resumed the practice of law. In December, 1886, he delivered in Boston a lecture on Stuart's cavalry, which was repeated in other places, and published in a volume entitled “War Reminiscences” (Boston, 1887). See also “Partisan Life with Mosby,” by John Scott (New York, 1867); and “Mosby and his Men,” by J. Marshall Crawford (1867).


MOSBY, Mary Webster, author, b. in Henrico county, Va., in April, 1791; d. in Richmond, Va., 19 Nov., 1844. Her parents dying during her infancy, she was adopted by her paternal grandfather, Robert Pleasants, a Quaker planter who had set free more than a hundred slaves. She was educated at a Friends' school near Philadelphia, and married in 1810 John Garland Mosby. She contributed to magazines and annuals under the signature of “M. M. Webster,” and published a book entitled “Pocahontas” (Philadelphia, 1840), treating of the legend of the Indian heroine, from whom, through her maternal grandfather, Thomas Mann Randolph, she was a lineal descendant.


MOSCOSO, Luis Alvarado de (mos-ko'-so),. Spanish adventurer, b. in Badajos in 1505; d. in Peru in 1561. He served as captain under Pedro de Alvarado {q. v.) in Guatemala from 1529, and accompanied him in 1534 on his expedition to Peru. When Alvarado relinquished all claims to the possession of the country, in consideration of 100,000 gold castellanos, Moseoso received a large share of this indemnity and lived luxuriously for a few years in Spain. After he had dissipated his fortune he joined Hernando De Soto (q. v.), who was preparing his expedition to Florida. After De Soto's death, 20 June, 1542, Moseoso became commander-in-chief of the expedition, and, having wintered with the Natchitoches, resolved on the evacuation of the country. Beginning his retreat on 1 July, 1543, he returned with greatly diminished forces to the Mississippi, built seven frail boats, on which he embarked his men, drifted down the river, and, after several fights with the Indians on the banks, entered the Gulf of Mexico, 19 July,. 1543. On 10 Sept. they reached Panuco river, in New Spain, and arrived at last in Mexico on 23 Dec, 1543. Moseoso was well received by the viceroy, Mendoza {q. v. and accompanied the latter in 1551 to Peru, where he held various important commands, and was employed against the Indians with success till his death.


MOSELEY, Benjamin, English physician, b. in Essex about 1739 ; d. in 1819. He resided for several years in Kingston, Jamaica, and subsequently be- came physician to Chelsea hospital. Among his numerous works are " Dysentery of the West Indies" (Jamaica and London. 1781); "Tropical Diseases" (1788); learned and able treatises on "Coffee" (1788) and "Sugar" (1799); and "Lues Bevilla, or Cow-Pox," in which he strongly opposes vaccination (2d ed., 1805).


MOSELEY, William D., governor of Florida, b. in Lenoir county, N. C, 1 Feb., 1795; d. in Palatka, Fla., 4 Jan., 1863. He was graduated at the University of North Carolina in 1818, studied law, and was admitted to practice in 1820. In 1829-'36 he was a member of the state senate, of which he was speaker for four years. In 1834 he was the Democratic candidate for governor". He removed to Monticello, Fla., in 1839, having purchased a plantation in the neighborhood, was sent the next year to the territorial legislature, declined a renomination, was elected a senator in 1844, and on the admission of Florida to the Union in 1845 was nominated and elected governor by the Democrats over Richard K. Call, who had been the territorial governor. After serving through his term of four years he retired to his plantation, and in 1855 removed to Palatka.


MOSENTHAL, Joseph, musician, b. in Cassel, Germany, 30 Nov., 1834. He studied music in his native town under his father and Ludwig Spohr, emigrated to the United States in 1853, and settled in New York city. He became organist and choir-