Samuel Perkins Moseley was born around 1833 in Buckingham County, Virginia, to William and Nancy Moseley. His father was a physician who owned $20,000 of real estate and $35,000 of personal property by 1860. Moseley grew up and attended school in Buckingham County. By 1860, he was working as a farmer, and he owned $500 of real estate and $200 of personal property.

 

He enlisted in the Confederate army on May 20, 1861, and he mustered in as a sergeant in Company E of the 20^th Virginia Infantry. The regiment disbanded in September 1861. On June 17, 1862, he joined the 1^st Virginia Artillery. He fell ill that summer and spent several months in a hospital in Richmond, Virginia, before Confederate officials sent him home to Buckingham County to recover.

 

On February 28, 1863, he was promoted to 2^nd lieutenant in Company E of the 21^st Virginia Infantry. The regiment took part in the Battle of Chancellorsville, the Battle of Gettysburg, and the Overland Campaign. He was promoted to 1^st lieutenant on May 21, 1863, and then to captain on June 20, 1863. In July 1863, after the Confederate defeats at Gettysburg and Vicksburg, he expressed a deep sense of discouragement, but he apparently remained committed to the Confederate cause. He wrote that there was “no telling now when this war will stop.” He believed that many northerners were “anxious for peace…but I do not see how it can be made until Old Abes time is out.” He was wounded in the left forearm in the Battle of Monocacy on July 9, 1864, and Union forces captured him during the battle. He remained in the army until at least November 1864.

 

He returned to Buckingham County after the war, and he married Pattie L. Hickock on September 3, 1871. They had at least four children: Rosa, born around 1873; John, born around 1875; Charles, born around 1877; and William, born around 1880. Moseley worked as a hotel keeper. He applied for a pension from the Virginia state government in 1888. He received a $15 monthly pension later that year, which increased to $30 per month by 1894. His wife died in 1909, and he died in Staunton, Virginia, on March 14, 1912.  

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