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abilities, according to his namesake. Aside from hit and run attacks on federal formations in the area to disrupt and claim for their own the North’s military supplies, the Ranger’s greatest contribution to the Confederate war effort was the gathering of intelligence regarding Union troop dispositions and movements. “In this essential military activity Mosby and his men had no equal. Mosby needed to use only small units of trained and experienced scouts for each mission and the information produced by the combined efforts of these scouts flowed in a continuous stream to Gen. J.E.B. Stuart, Confederate Cavalary Commander, and through him to Gen. Lee,” Eastham noted.
Bob Ridley thrived in this sort of military atmosphere. He had to put up with little of the usual drudgery of soldering, such as formations, spit and polish or formality of any kind. “The premium was on individuality and of that he had perhaps an excessive amount,” his grand-nephew said. He was often on scouting missions by himself and, according to historian Hu Maxwell (who knew him personally and got Eastham’s own account soon after the war) his exploits in skirmishes with federal cavalrymen and his hairbreadth escapes were dramatic, indeed. Maxwell says that the Yankees had a $15,000 reward outstanding for his capture. “We know that Mosby himself prized his abilities highly for we have a testimonial in the form of a letter Mosby wrote to Bob Ridley in 1897 while the latter was incarcerated in Parsons, West Virginia, as the result of another ‘adventure’ later in life,” Eastham reported.
When Lee surrendered at Appomattox, Bob Ridley remained with Col. Mosby until the guerilla leader finally disbanded the remnants of the eight companies of his battalion at Salem (now Marshall), Virginia, on April 21, 1865. He disbanded his men but refused to surrender them, his great-nephew noted.
Return Home
After the war, Eastham, now 23 years old, returned to Rappahannock County to try his hand at farming but his heart was not in it after the excitement he’d lived through for four years. He went travelling, visiting several states in the deep South, but soon tired of roaming as well.
Returning to Rappahannock once again, he married Mary C. “Mollie” Reid,
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