We live in a historic area: Mosby’s Rangers ruled the territory, abetted by local traitors such as the Miskel family, whose farm is just 3 miles from Cardinal Glen.

What the marker doesn’t mention is the fact that the lane leading to the farm was lined on both sides by dense hedgerows that trapped the Federal troops, allowing the Confederate traitors to surround them, thus showing the tactical advantage of guerilla warfare: local knowledge.

It also helped that 160 years ago, there were no trees to obstruct the view, from the Maryland side of the Potomac river, where Mosby saw the glint to Union signal mirrors in the early morning light, all the way to Leesburg Pike, Rt 7, where he could see the Federals’ dust cloud.

After the War, while most traitors promptly broke their oath of allegiance to the United States, John Mosbey refused to deny slavery’s centrality to secession, and became a pariah in the South. He lost clients from his Warrenton, Va., law practice, his income plummeted, and even his young children were subjected to taunts that their father was a Judas. Having betrayed his Confederate identity, he felt forced to leave Virginia in 1877 for Washington, D.C. He would never again reside in his home state.

Reason enough to keep Rt 50 named John Mosby Highway.