CSA General Turner Ashby

 

“Strong hardened men wept and they said they loved him better than any one; even their fathers.”
-Lucy Butler Southern Diarist

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 Markham was part of my old stompin' grounds.

Accent

  

Enlarged

 Mosby Troop Disbandment Monument

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Turner Ashby was born October 23, 1828 at Rose Bank, his family home in Markham.  His father, Turner Ashby, Sr. died when he was young leaving his mother, Dorothea, to manage the family estate and raise six small children.

As a child, Turner was known to ford swollen rivers on foot and reveled in taming colts deemed too wild to be ridden.  He was even said to have had a pet wolf which he named Lupus.

As he grew, Turner became known for his magnificent horsemanship.  He frequently competed in local equestrian games where the ring tournament, in which riders were challenged to pierce a ring with a lance, was his favorite competition.  He rarely failed to win.

In 1850, financial difficulties forced Dorothea Ashby to sell Rose Bank to railroad president Edward C. Marshall.  Though his siblings moved away, Turner’s deep love for the Markham area compelled him to purchase an estate within sight of his boyhood home.  He called his new home Wolf’s Craig and here attempted to settle into life as a merchant and farmer.

In 1853, as the railroad approached Markham, a feud between the rail workers turned into a riot.  Ashby gathered a few men and marched to the scene.  Order was restored and shortly thereafter, Edward C. Marshall hired him to organize a militia to patrol the railway.  Through this partnership, Ashby obtained his captaincy from Governor Johnson and gained access to weapons from the Virginia armory.  He organized the Mountain Rangers at Wolf’s Craig in 1853.

As Captain of the Mountain Rangers, Ashby led his men to Harpers Ferry when news of John Brown’s raid broke.  In Charles Town the Mountain Rangers performed picket and patrol duty until Brown’s trial drew to a close.  The mission served to introduce him to Lee, Jackson  and Stuart and gave him a better knowledge of the Shenandoah Valley.

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