One page, 8 x 10 1/2 in. On Department of Justice letterhead.

In part: "I think you will find the full names of both Robinson (Claiborne as I recollect) & of Banchard in Scott's book. Blanchard wrote a song wh[ich] is published in the appendix of Scott's book, 'Col. Mosby's last rodeo..."

Mosby speaks here of rangers Claiborne Robinson and Harris Chamberlain Blanchard, both of whom are pictured in Bendann's ca 1865 albumen portrait of Mosby's Rangers.

The book Mosby refers to here could be Partisan Life with Col John S. Mosby by John Scott, originally published in 1867.

James Joseph Williamson (1834-1915) was one of Mosby's Rangers, and most famously the author of the book Mosby's Rangers: A Record of the Operations of the Forty-Third Battalion of Virginia Cavalry from its Organization to the Surrender, originally published in 1896. Williamson prefaced the book, in part: "The object of this work is to put in durable form a record of the exciting scenes and events in the career of Mosby's Rangers, in most of which I was an humble actor, and to preserve the memory of the gallant deeds of Colonel Mosby and his brave companions who shed their blood, and of our heroic dead who gave up their lives, in the cause for which we fought."