by Steve White
I have used the nineteenth-century names of all the Virginia hamlets that figured in Mosby’s operations, even though some of them have subsequently changed. Salem, for example, is now called Marshall; Harmony is now called Hamilton. Incidentally, Mosby’s ambush of Reno’s men at the latter place as described in Chapter 27 was the Partisan Rangers’ last significant action. They never surrendered. A few days after the surrender at Appomattox, Mosby slipped a man into Richmond to ask Lee if they should take to the hills and carry on guerrilla warfare as many, up to and including Jefferson Davis, had proposed. Lee replied as he always did to everyone who would listen—which meant everyone, because he was Lee: “Go home, all you boys who fought with me. Help to rebuild the shattered fortunes of our old state.” Mosby obeyed. On April 21, 1865, he called the Rangers together at Salem and simply disbanded them. They left the field with honor.