Warrenton jewel

Ignorance is a dangerous thing, especially in the hands of a newspaper editor.

In the Dec. 23 editorial, “Open house,” the writer lamented the fact that “another year has passed” and the property purchased by the Town of Warrenton at 173 Main Street “remains locked and forlorn.”

It is — or was — the focus of the late Mosby Museum Foundation’s efforts to open a museum dedicated to illustrating the lives of four prominent Warrenton families who lived there from when it was built in 1859 to 1881.

Each of the families was headed by a prominent lawyer and/or judge — Edwin Spilman, James Keith, John Singleton Mosby and Eppa Hunton — whose life reflected some of the more interesting aspects of life in Fauquier County in the mid-to-late 19th century.

This space is too limited to debate the wisdom of the Town of Warrenton’s efforts to open a museum there; merits of the Mosby Foundation; or the writer overlooking the fact that a tragic death occurred on the property in 2007 with tragic consequences that forced the foundation to disband.

Rather, I want to take issue with the writer’s characterization of Col. Mosby as nothing more than a “small-town lawyer.”

It is true that Mosby and his family lived at Brentmoor for less than two years. During that time, however, his wife and their last two children died there. But the editorial writer completely takes their time there out of context.

John Singleton Mosby was, at his core, a great intelligence officer during the War Between the States whose “days of daring-do” found his band of no more than 800 Partisan Rangers holding down 30,000 Yankees for the last 28 months of the war, keeping them away from Petersburg and Richmond and helping prolong the war for another six months.

Indeed, Mosby’s image hangs in the Army Ranger Hall of Fame at Ft. Bragg. He is studied by today’s Rangers for his abilities to use terrain, foul weather and fear as weapons to turn the tables on his better-armed and - equipped enemies.

Mosby was personally paroled by General of the Army Grant in 1866, and they became friends after Mosby publicly supported Grant in his reelection campaign of 1872.

Mosby was vilified for this and sold Brentmoor to Eppa Hunton in 1877, moving to Alexandria. He was nearly assassinated several months later while getting off the train in Warrenton, and it was Grant who helped get President Hayes to appoint him as U. S. Consul to Hong Kong (1878-85).

After Hong Kong, Mosby worked as a lawyer for the Southern Pacific Railroad, as a land agent for the Interior Department and as an attorney in the Justice Department, retiring in 1910. He died on Memorial Day, 1916, and is buried with his family on the brow of a hill in Warrenton Cemetery.

Those who are uninformed or ill-informed would benefit more from researching the history of 173 Main Street rather than throw stones from a safe distance.

If anything, I think the Town of Warrenton has a jewel in the Spilman-Mosby House at Brentmoor and would do well to take advantage of every opportunity to promote its tourist-generating economic benefits for the town and county.

Dave Goetz

Warrenton