MEANEST CONFEDERATE IN THE EAST?

The short, exciting life of one of Loudoun County's most romantic and mysterious historical figures has been fully explored in a new biography by local author Richard Crouch. "ROUGH-RIDING SCOUT": The Story of John W. Mobberly, Loudoun's Own Civil War Guerrilla Hero, attempts to separate the fact from fiction in the life of this much-romanticized and much-vilified local Confederate leader.

For well over a century, tales have been coming out of western Loudoun about a Southern horseman whose lightning strikes were devastating to the Union occupiers, and who was so elusive, so deadly and so cruel that none who pursued him ever got close and lived to tell the tale. This was John Mobberly, Neersville farm lad, and detached scout from White's command. A hero to some and an especially vile and sadistic outlaw to others, this independent partisan leader terrorized the Short Hill country around Hillsboro, Waterford and Harpers Ferry. "As an amateur historian and a local landowner who has the Short Hill to look out at every day, I just had to find out the truth about these stories, " the author says.

Virtually all available material about Loudoun County, Virginia's own home-grown answer to White and Mosby -- if not Quantrell -- has been collected by Mr. Crouch in this 1994 publication. John W. Mobberly was the leader of a very dangerous band of uniformed ruffians that operated in the western half of Loudoun County, and nearby Maryland and West Virginia, during the latter half of the War Between the States. Mobberly made a name for himself with unbelievably reckless exploits, and it was said of him that he was idolized by the lonely ladies of the war-ravaged region. Yet while the lady friends who mourned his death were numerous, there was much about Mobberly that hardly fit the cavalier image.

Mobberly was often confused with Mosby. Like Mosby's Rangers and other guerrilla bands, he and his command -- or gang, depending on what you read -- swept down from the mountains, struck fast, and were instantly and mysteriously gone. He operated in a part of Mosby's territory, and the story touches upon many western Loudoun and nearby towns and villages, such as Lovettsville, Loudoun Heights and Neersville, as well as Hillsboro, Waterford and Harpers Ferry, and modern-day Round Hill, Brunswick and Bluemont.

But Mobberly was different. Reputedly illiterate, illegitimate and a Jew, he earned a unique reputation for vicious, savage, ruthless butchery. His comrade later wrote that Mobberly personally killed more Yankees than any man in Lee's whole army. Mobberly surely led an independent band -- and in fact was accused of turning bandit and attacking soldiers and civilians of both sides before the War's end. Yet he rode with White's Cavalry in the War's great battles at other times.

And more than any other Southern leader, Mobberly has left us with a whole closet full of mysteries. Why did so many ladies love him? Why was he eulogized as a romantic fallen hero if he was such a crude and sadistic bully? Was he a soldier or an outlaw, an officer or a private? An illiterate petty thug or a brilliant leader of military men in a superbly organized command? And where did he bury the gold?

This book explores those mysteries. It dispels some major misconceptions, and comes to some surprising conclusions about this exciting, mysterious and altogether different local historical figure. It includes map, photographs, footnotes, and a complete tourist's guide to the sites of Mobberly's exploits.