James F. Ames, a sergeant in the 5th New York Cavalry, deserted the Union army in February 1863 and joined Lieutenant Colonel John S. Mosby’s Partisan Rangers, later the 43d Cavalry Battalion. Known as “Big Yankee” Ames, he rose to the rank of 2d lieutenant. On the night of 8 March 1863, he guided Mosby’s Rangers on the Fairfax Court House raid in which Mosby captured Union Brigadier General Edwin Stoughton. On 9 October 1864, a Federal soldier shot and killed Ames on the road leading to Benjamin “Cook” Shacklett’s house. Ranger Private Ludwell Lake, Jr. killed the Union soldier. Ames was buried nearby in an unmarked grave. Mosby said, “I never had a more faithful follower.”