The Raid of Rose Hill

   The raid of Rose Hill was lead by Major John S. Mosby. Mosby was a confederate army cavalry battalion commander. His command was the 43rd Battalion, a Virginia Calvary nicknamed, “Mosby’s Raiders”. Mosby’s Raiders were known for their lightning strike raids on Union targets as well as their ability to blend in with local townsmen and farmers.

On Sept. 28th Mosby raided a house near the Rose Hill plantation. The house stood nearby on the bluff at the end of May Boulevard. Mosby’s plan was to capture Francis H. Pierpont, the Provisional governor of the Restored government of Virginia. Mosby expected to find Pierpont at the city hotel, known today as Gadsby’s Tavern, but discovered that Pierpont was actually in Washington city. He decided to capture the Governor’s aid, Col. Daniel F. Dulaney, instead. Among the Calvary that raided Rose Hill was Dulaney’s own son, French Dulaney. A Rose hill neighbor who witnessed the raid wrote in her diary that a “party of Mosby’s boys came very unexpectedly to Rose Hill, and took off Col. Dulaney. One of them was his own son. …This boy’s first greeting to his father when he rushed into the room where his father was in bed [was] ... ‘How do Pa—I’m very glad to see you,’ and the father’s answer sitting up in bed, ‘Well, sir, I’m d-sorry to see you.’ But they took him down to Richmond nevertheless.”