Col.
John Singleton Mosby
Photo Albums:
John Mosby: Cultural Icon:Movies, comic books, even a board game! Mid-20th century pop culture quickly transmogrified John Singleton Mosby from historic hero to cultural icon. Click on the thumbnails below to see larger versions of each picture.
(Also visit our narrative page on Col. Mosby as portrayed in the popular culture of the Civil War era and in modern times.)
The publication of Virgil Carrington Jones' Ranger Mosby in 1944 brought John Mosby's legendary exploits to a whole new generation of Americans. (Click on the thumbnail to view a larger version of the book's original dustjacket, using Beance's painting "Mosby Planning an Attack on a Federal Convoy", published just after the War.
In the early 1960's, just in time for the Civil War Centennial, the television series "The Gray Ghost" was produced, starring Tod Andrews. (pictured on the video cover, at left). Virgil Carrington Jones was script consultants for the first few episodes but resigned as he didn't like the direction in which the program was going. However, for a generation of American children, it put Col. Mosby right up there with Superman in the pantheon of heroes.
April 1961 TV listing supplement to the St. Louis newspaper, showing Tod Andrews and horse, wearing a distinctly butternut lookig uniform with lots of yellow trim. Although videos of the old series make modern-day reenactors cringe, the series itself played a major role in inspiring the Centennial-era revival of Civil War reenacting.
The TV series also spawned a comic book. The story in this one has to do with turning in Yankee prisoner. (Hmm. gray uniform shown here...)_
The Centennial brought forth a spate of commemorative items, including this supposed facsimile of a cavalry breastplate used by Mosby's men. Only a few problems with it: (1) it says Col. John Singletom Mosby, 1862. In 1862, Mosby was a lieutenant, under JEB Stuart. (2) he didn't have his own command until early 1863 (3) It shows a guy in a kepi wielding a sabre. There are no published photos of Mosby in a kepi, and he thought sabres were largely useless. (4) heart breastplates were very uncommon and are a modern "reenactorism"
Unfortunately, not all representations of Col. Mosby as cultural icon were positive, as this poster done during the massive resistance era by a "White Citizens Council" group shows. Col. Mosby's disbanding his battalion rather than surrendering has inspired many people, both for the right reasons and the wrong ones. Mosby would have been horrified at having his image coopted by this kind of group, as a non-racist and ferverent believer in reuniting the nation after the War, who actually ended up having people take potshots at him for being a Republican and Grant and Hayes supporter after the War.
Not all portrayals of Mosby and his men were especially flattering, even when they were well intentioned! This commemorative whiskey decanter is an interesting case in point. Labelled, "Mosby's Rangers", it looks rather like a leprechaun in gray pajamas toting an sawed-off Enfield. (or is that meant to be a Sharps?)
In the 1970's another Mosby film was made, this time by Disney. The men's costumes were slightly better than the 1960's TV series (however, we used the term "costumes" deliberately) but the women were Hollywood's typical idea of "old timey Civil War gal" (e.g. 1890's clothes and hairdos, bangs, etc.) Plot was pretty lame too, although it did have the virtue of highlighting the Yankee burning raids against the local citizenry of "Mosby's Confederacy" and the issue of divided loyalties of some of the local residents. For all it's faults, it's a good pro-Southern feel good film, which is probably why it's out of print, now that Disney's gone politically correct. Mosby was portrayed by Jack Ging who later was a co-star in the TV series Mannix.
Out of admiration, a lot of people name their pets Mosby. I once had a cat named Mosby, so named because she was elusive and gray, a "gray ghost". In the early days of the Kennedy Center, their mascot cat was also named Mosby. The cat was extremely popular and became a legend in it's own right, with a biographical book for childen written by Beppie Noyes.
In the mid 1980's, a solitaire board game was launched called Mosby's Raiders, using reproductions of photos of Colonel Mosby in the instruction. At least the picture on the front of the box looks like Col. Mosby (actually, it looks like the Michael Gnatek print)
(Also visit our narrative page on Col. Mosby as portrayed in the popular culture of the Civil War era and in modern times.)Other Albums
Images of Col. Mosby over the course of his life and of his family.
Paintings of Col. Mosby and the men of the 43rd, both modern and historic.
Images of the men of the 43rd battalion
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