The Colonel John S Mosby Chapter of the Children of the Confederacy (CofC) was a youth Auxiliary Chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC).
The United Daughters of the Confederacy was founded in 1894. Some of the key cornerstones of the Organization were to protect "southern heritage," fulfilling the needs for veteran’s charity, erection of monuments to the southern lost cause, and the spread of pro-southern education. Membership was only eligible to those who were blood descendants lineal or collateral men and women who served in the Confederate army. The group was most well known for their effort’s southern monuments, and flags. Less known is their successful ideology indoctrination and education and creating the auxiliary organization the Children of the Confederacy.
The children's auxiliary like the parent organization was organized and an arm of the southern Democratic party. This insured the organization to be effective with top-down communication and coordination with chapters. The use of separate committees of interest assured that the work of the organization would be accomplished. The education committee, for example, worked closely with local governments and schools to assure that a sympathetic curriculum would be taught to southern children. “UDC members placed Confederate flags and portraits, Confederate heroes, in southern classrooms and worked with the teachers to plan history lessons.”[1]
The Children of the Confederacy's first chapter was started in Alexandria VA in 1896. It wasn't until 1956 when the Fairfax chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy would patron a children's auxiliary group adopting John Singleton Mosby as the namesake for their newest chapter of the Children of the Confederacy.
[1] Cox, Karen L. Dixie's Daughters: The United Daughters of the Confederacy and the Preservation of Confederate Culture. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2019.
Rachel Amon, Fall 2020, Prof.Oberle undergrad