A superb signed envelope free-franked "Jno: S. Mosby" in the unmistakable hand of John Singleton Mosby (1833–1916), the legendary "Gray Ghost" of the Confederacy and commander of the 43rd Battalion Virginia Cavalry — the partisan rangers who became the most feared irregular force of the war.

The cover is on the printed letterhead of the Elkton Hotel (D. C. Graham, Manager, Elkton, Virginia) and is addressed entirely in Mosby's hand to "Captain Sam Chapman / Covington / Va." It carries a 2-cent Washington stamp tied by an Elkton, Virginia postmark dated July 23, 1913. Measures approximately 6 x 3.5".

The recipient was no ordinary correspondent. Samuel Forrer Chapman was a seminary-trained artillery officer who joined Mosby's command and rose to captain and commander of Company E, earning lasting fame as Mosby's "Fighting Parson" — the Baptist minister whom Mosby immortalized as a man who "prayed through a six-shooter, which he claimed was the most efficacious form of praying." Mosby kept few close confidants, but he and Chapman formed a friendship that endured for half a century. From 1880 until Mosby's death in 1916, the old commander wrote Chapman a remarkable run of candid, intimate letters — and to the very end he addressed them, just as he did here, to "Captain Sam Chapman." Postmarked 1913, this cover dates to the last years of that lifelong correspondence, just three years before Mosby's passing.

A tangible survivor of the decades-long friendship between the dreaded partisan chieftain and his fighting parson, and a highly displayable example of genuine Mosby's Rangers autograph material. Overall toning and handling wear with edge roughness and a small area of loss at the right end of the cover; Mosby's signature bold, dark, and fully legible.  [ss][ph:L]

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