A Close Encounter with COL Mosby's Pistol

Back in 2013 while attending a reunion of Mosby's Rangers descendants in Middleburg, VA I had the pleasure of meeting Don Hakenson, author of several historical books on the Rangers. Turns out, we are distant cousins with Baldwin Lunsford as our common ancestor.

A docent at the Stuart-Mosby Cavalry Museum, he also leads bus tours of sites around Mosby's Confederacy.  The very next weekend he was to be at the museum for a bus tour. "If you can get there extra early before the bus leaves I can let you hold Mosby's pistol".

I said whaaaaaat?

Needless to say, I was there well before any of the tour patrons arrived. No way was I going to miss out on this opportunity to actually hold a Mosby historical artifact. This pistol was donated to the museum by the Mosby family. But I'm sure he had more than one as the Rangers were known to carry a whole bag of Colt 1860s when raiding.

Don's book on Ranger Frank Rahm and a more detailed analysis of the Cobbler Mountain artillery incident involving John H. Lunceford is an excellent read.

On the way back from the museum I followed Don's directions to John's grave in Delaplane (Piedmont Station), VA.

R. Dwayne Lunsford, PhD