Mosby, John S., 1833-1916 to Sam Chapman re: letters on slavery, the war, Lincoln, Grant, Lee, Stuart [decimalized]

A collection of letters from John Singleton Mosby, of Warrenton, Virginia, to Samuel Chapman of Covington, Virginia, most written on stationery of the Department of Justice. (Other recipients are noted in the inventory.) The letters discuss the Civil War, Reconstruction and American attempts to reevaluate the war, its causes and actors. Many of these letters are written while Mosby served as an Assistant Attorney for the Department of Justice (1904-1910). Mosby's letters demonstrate his conciliatory attitude towards the North. He supported President Grant's legacy of reconstruction, and believed that Southerners should endeavor to obtain federal appointments. (Mosby had became a pariah in the South because of his support for Grant and the Republican Party in the election of 1872.) He opposed the supporters of the "lost cause" mentality, which he frequently attacks. Topics include Lincoln's plan for compensated emancipation late in the war, Ewell's and Stuart's actions at Gettysburg (which he defends), Robert E. Lee's "infallible" image, Confederate reunions, the origins of the Civil War and the issue of slavery causing the war. In letter # 21 a Confederate reunion inspires Mosby to write at length, with numerous citations, about slavery causing the Civil War; he distinguishes why he (as an individual) fought, and concludes his letter by stating that he fought for his country not for slavery. The collection ends on a sad note with letter # 55 which Mosby wrote on his death bed.