The Mosby Myth

Confederate Colonel John Singleton Mosby (1833-1916) was only one of a number of heroes to emerge during the Civil War, yet he holds a singular place in the American imagination. He is the irrepressible rebel with a cause, the horseman who emerges from th

Paul Ashdown and Edward Caudill are professors of journalism at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.

Paul Ashdown and Ed Caudill provide an outstanding, thoroughly researched, and entertaining analysis of the Mosby legend in American popular culture. -- James A. Ramage, Northern Kentucky University Here is a first-rate study of how we as a people come to know what we think we know about our historical past. -- James Ogden III, historian, Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park, Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia Paul Ashdown and Ed Caudill do a fine job of separating the myth from reality and a splendid job of explaining the creation of the legend and how it fits in the American story, our national folklore, our image of ourselves. -- David B. Sachsman, University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, editor of The Civil War and the Press Ashdown and Caudill's work is thoroughly researched, each chapter concluding with a series of detailed notes. The book makes a fine addition to the library of any Civil War scholar or amateur buff. Teaching History The Mosby Myth contributes to the scholarship of the realtionship between history and memory. What emerges from the pages is a story of the development of the Mosby Myth and and explanation fo why it endures, thus showing in a large context how Americans form and use their memories of the Civil War. -- Sharon A. Roger Hepburm, Radford Universtiy Military History Of The West In a time when more and more fields of Civil War study have been rendered fallow by repetitive use, Ashdown and Caudill plow fresh, fertile soil by focusing on the many ways a hero and his public collaborate to create a legend. While they offer a brief life of Mosby in a vigorous style, they go on to explain lucidly how and why the 'Gray Ghost' has captured the imagination of Americans for almost 150 years. -- David Madden, founding director of The United States Civil War Center, editor of Beyond the Battlefield