In my previous post I added an e to Mr. Mosby's name. Howsoever, I'se believe my facts were still right.

Voila:Mosby was born in Powhatan County, Virginia, to Virginny McLaurine and Alfred Daniel Mosby, a graduate of Hampden-Sydney College. Mosby began his education at a school called Murrell's Shop until his family moved to Albemarle County, Virginia (approximately four miles from Charlottesville) around 1840. Here, nestled in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, John attended school in Fry's Woods before transferring to a Charlottesville school at the age of ten. Because of his small stature and frail health, throughout Mosby's school career he was the victim of bullies. But instead of becoming withdrawn and lacking in self confidence, the boy responded by fighting back although - as he admitted in his memoirs - he never won any fight in which he was engaged. The only fight he didn't lose in these schoolboy melees, was with a man who remained his friend in later life and that was because an adult stepped in and separated the combatants.

In 1849, Mosby entered the University of Virginia taking up a Classical Studies curricula. He was far above average in Latin, Greek and literature (all of which he enjoyed), but mathematics continued to be a problem for him. In his third year, a quarrel erupted between the frail, physically small Mosby and a notorious bully, George R. Turpin, a tavern keeper's son who supposedly was a medical student at the University. However, the robust and physically impressive Turpin with his comrades engaged more in causing than healing injuries. In one case, Turpin took a knife to one small student and in another he almost killed a much smaller boy with a rock. When Mosby heard of an insulting remark about himself which Turpin made to a friend of the smaller man, Mosby sent Turpin a letter asking for an explanation, one of the 'rituals' in the 'code of honor' to which all Southern gentlemen of the time adhered. Turpin became enraged and declared that upon their next meeting he would 'eat him (Mosby) up raw!' Mosby decided that he had no choice but to absorb one of Turpin's notorious beatings since he could not prevail in a fight with the much larger man and to run away would be dishonorable.

On March 29th the two met, but before he left for the boarding house at which the meeting was to take place, Mosby decided to take a small 'pepperbox' pistol with him in hopes of dissuading Turpin from an attack. Unfortunately, when the two met and Mosby said, 'I hear you have been making assertions....' Turpin put his head down and charged without any further ado. At that, young John pulled out the pistol and shot his adversary in the neck after which the distraught 19 year old went home to await his fate. Mosby was arrested and arraigned on two charges: unlawful shooting - a misdemeanor with a maximum sentence of 1 year in jail and a $500 fine and malicious shooting - a felony with a maximum sentence of 10 years in the penitentiary. After a trial which almost resulted in a 'hung jury', Mosby was convicted of the lesser offense but received the maximum sentence - a year in the Charlottesville jail and a fine of five hundred dollars. Later Mosby discovered that he had been expelled from the University before he was even brought to trial; there is nothing to suggest that Turpin, for all of his former violence, was likewise expelled for his notorious past.

While serving time, Mosby won the friendship of his prosecutor, attorney William Robertson. When he told Robertson of his desire to study the law, Robertson offered his law library to the young man and Mosby occupied himself with the study of law for the remaining time of his incarceration. Immediately after the sentence had been handed down, a petition was begun by nine of the twelve jurors asking that the young man be pardoned. It seemed that two of the jurors were against the boy, one hated students of the University and found Mosby's trial an opportunity to make a statement to that effect. The other juror hated Mosby's father Alfred. As well as this petition and other petitions from the University, Mosby's parents submitted sworn statements by several physicians indicating the frail state of the youth's health and that the twelve month sentence might well constitute a death sentence as Mosby was beginning to sicken as the weather grew cold and he suffered in the small, unhealthy jail. On December 23, 1853, Mosby was pardoned by the governor and in early 1854, his fine was rescinded. After studying for months in William J. Robertson's law office, Mosby was admitted to the bar and established his own practice in nearby Howardsville, Albemarle County, Virginia. Around this time, Mosby, a Methodist, met Pauline Clark, a Catholic visiting from out of town. The couple moved to Bristol, Virginia, (close to Clark's hometown in Kentucky), and were married in a Nashville hotel on December 30, 1857.