Carte de visite photograph of Parsons in pre-Civil War dress uniform. Chest up view wearing dark double-breasted frock with dress shoulder epaulettes. Image is clear with good contrast. Pencil identification on front. Photographer's backmark, script "EA" for E. & H.T. Anthony, New York.

Mosby Monroe Parsons (May 21, 1822 – August 15, 1865) was a senior officer of the Confederate States Army who commanded infantry in the Trans-Mississippi Theater.

Parsons was born on May 21, 1822 in Charlottesville, Virginia, son of General Gustavus Aldophus Parsons. Around 1840 he moved with his family to Cole County where he studied and was admitted to the bar in 1846. During the Mexican War he organized and commanded the Cole County Dragoons. He was Attorney General of Missouri, elected to the House of Representatives, and was subsequently elected to the State Senate in 1858.

He commanded the 6th Division, Missouri State Guard from the outbreak of the Civil War until he was commissioned brigadier in the Confederate service on Nov. 5, 1862. Parsons fought at Carthage, Springfield and Elkhorn, and in the Arkansas campaigns of 1862 and 1863. The following year he was sent to reinforce Richard Taylor during the Red River campaign where he was present at Pleasant Hill, and later participated at Marks' Mills and Jenkins' Ferry against Steele. He was appointed commander of the Missouri State Guard to replace Sterling Price.

After the war, Parsons, like many other Missouri Confederates, chose to go to Mexico rather than return to Missouri. Parsons and three companions, including his brother-in-law, Capt. Austin M. Standish, Standish's orderly William "Dutch Bill" Wenderling and former Confederate Congressman Aaron H. Conrow were murdered by Captain Dario Garza, at the head of a body of Mexican soldiers, on or about August 15, 1865, near China, Nuevo León, Mexico. The bodies of Parsons and his comrades were buried in unmarked graves where they were killed.  [jet] [ph:L]

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