Bristol Historical Association: Author and Historian Michael Shaffer

Bristol Virginia – Author and historian Michael Shaffer will present a program for the Bristol Historical Association on Monday, April 9 at the Bristol Train Station on Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. Shaffer’s presentation is entitled “Bristol’s Gray Ghost: Colonel John S. Mosby”.   The meeting will begin at 6:30pm and is open to the public.

Shaffer is a Civil War historian, author, instructor, and frequent lecturer.  A member of the Society of Civil War Historians, Historians of the Civil War Western Theater, and Georgia Association of Historians, he serves as a Civil War consultant for the River Line Historic Area.  He is a native of Bristol and holds BA and MA degrees, with honors, in Military History – Civil War Studies from American Military University.  Shaffer is currently teaching a series on this topic at Kennesaw State University.

It is Shaffer’s contention that during the American Civil War, “perhaps no other soldier approached the actions of Colonel John Singleton Mosby. The daring partisan ranger led his small body of troops on several raids, capturing Federal troops, destroying supplies, and drawing the attending of Northern soldiers needed elsewhere.”

Mosby is of immense interest of Civil War historians. Before the onset of the war, Mosby was a resident of Goodson, now Bristol Virginia, and operated a law office on Main Street. He drew acclaim in the South during the war, and drew ire following the war with his support of President U.S. Grant. He also served as the American consul to Hong Kong and in the U.S. Department of Justice.

The April 9th meeting is in partnership with the Bristol Train Station Foundation and the Bristol YWCA.  The program is free to the general public. Contact Tim Buchanan, Program Chairman, for details of this or other upcoming programs, by e-mail; buchanan03@bvu.net. Visit our Facebook page for details, BRISTOL HISTORY. Sid Oakley is the president of the Bristol Historical Association.