e from General Hancock, calling for his surrender.

He sent a group of his officers--William Mosby, Sam Chapman, Walter
Frankland and Dr. Montiero--with a flag of truce, and, after several
other meetings with Hancock, the command was disbanded and most of the
men went in to take the parole.

When his armistice with Hancock expired, Mosby found himself with only
about forty irreconcilables left out of his whole command. As General
Joe Johnston had not yet surrendered, he did not feel justified in
getting out of the fight, himself. With his bloodied but unbowed
handful, he set out on the most ambitious project of his entire
military career--nothing less than a plan to penetrate into Richmond
and abduct General Grant. If this scheme succeeded, it was his
intention to dodge around the Union Army, carry his distinguished
prisoner to Johnston, and present him with a real bargaining point for
negotiating terms.

They reached the outskirts of Richmond and made a concealed camp
across the river, waiting for darkness. In the meanwhile, two of the
party, both natives of the city, Munson and Cole Jordan, went in to
scout. Several hours passed, and neither returned. Mosby feared that
they had been picked up by Union patrols. He was about to send an
older man, Lieutenant Ben Palmer, when a canal-boat passed, and,
hailing it, they learned of Johnston's surrender.

That was the end of the scheme to kidnap Grant. As long as a
Confederate force was still under arms, it would have been a
legitimate act of war. Now, it would be mere brigandage, and Mosby had
no intention of turning brigand.

So Mosby returned to Fauquier County to take the parole. For him, the
fighting was over, but he was soon to discover that the war was not.
At that time, Edwin M. Stanton was making frantic efforts to
inculpate as many prominent Confederates as possible in the Booth
conspiracy, and Mosby's name was suggested as a worthy addition to
Stanton's long and fantastic list of alleged conspirators. A witness
was produced to testify that Mosby had been in Washington on the night
of the assassination, April 14. At that time, Stanton was able to
produce a witness to almost anything he wanted to establish.
Fortunately, Mosby had an alibi; at the time in question, he had been
at Hancock's headquarters, discussing armistice terms; even Stanton
couldn't get around that.

However, he was subjected to considerable petty persecution, and once
he was flung into jai