J. E. B. Stuart
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| James Ewell Brown (Jeb) Stuart | |
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| Born | February 6, 1833 Patrick County, Virginia, USA |
| Died | May 12, 1864 Richmond, Virginia, USA |
James Ewell Brown Stuart (February 6, 1833 – May 12, 1864) was an American soldier from Virginia and a Confederate Army general during the American Civil War. He was known to his friends as "Jeb".
Stuart was a cavalry commander known for his mastery of reconnaissance and the use of cavalry in offensive operations. While he cultivated a cavalier image (red-lined gray cape, yellow sash, hat cocked to the side with a peacock feather, red flower in his lapel, often sporting cologne), his serious work made him Robert E. Lee's eyes and ears and inspired Southern morale. He was killed in May 1864 during the Overland Campaign, at the Battle of Yellow Tavern.
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[edit] Early life
James Ewell Brown Stuart was born at Laurel Hill, a plantation in Patrick County, Virginia near the Virginia/North Carolina border. His father, Archibald Stuart, was a politician and attorney, and represented Patrick County in both houses of the Virginia General Assembly. He served one term in the United States House of Representatives. His father was a cousin of Alexander Hugh Holmes Stuart. Elizabeth Stuart, his mother, was known as a strictly religious woman with a great love of nature.
[edit] Education
At the age of 14, James was enrolled at school in Wytheville. He attended Emory & Henry College from 1848 to 1850. He entered the Class of 1854 at the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York. Robert E. Lee was Commandant of the Academy at that time. Stuart graduated 13th in his class of 46 in 1854. He achieved the rank of cavalry sergeant, the highest rank attainable for these cadets.
[edit] United States Army
In 1854, Stuart was assigned to the U.S. Mounted Rifles in Texas. He was soon transferred to, and promoted in, the newly formed 1st Regiment, U.S. Cavalry. Stuart's leadership ability was soon recognized. He was a veteran of Indian conflicts and Bleeding Kansas. Stuart was wounded in July 1857, while fighting on the frontier against Native Americans. In 1859, Stuart carried the orders for Colonel Robert E. Lee to proceed to Harpers Ferry to crush John Brown's raid on the U.S. Arsenal there. During the siege, Stuart volunteered to be Lee's aide-de-camp, and read the ultimatum to Brown before the final assault.
He was promoted to captain on April 22, 1861, but resigned from the U.S. Army on May 14, 1861, to join the Confederate States Army, following the secession of Virginia.
[edit] Confederate Army
J.E.B. Stuart was commissioned as a Lt. Colonel of Infantry in the Confederate Army on May 24, 1861. His later promotions were:
- Colonel, 1st Virginia Cavalry (July 16, 1861)
- Brigadier general, CSA (September 24, 1861)
- Major general, CSA (July 25, 1862)
Stuart's commands in the Army of Northern Virginia included:
- Cavalry Brigade (October 22, 1861 – July 28, 1862)
- Cavalry Division (July 28, 1862 – September 9, 1863)
- Second Corps (temporarily replacing Jackson, May 3–6, 1863)
- Cavalry Corps (September 9, 1863 – May 11, 1864).
After early service in the Shenandoah Valley, Stuart led his regiment in First Bull Run and participated in the pursuit of the routed Federals. He then directed the army's outposts until given command of the cavalry brigade. He established a public reputation for conducting daring reconnaissance raids in the enemy's rear. Twice he slipped around Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan's army, once in the Peninsula Campaign and once after the Battle of Antietam. While these exploits were not militarily significant, they improved Southern morale.
During the Northern Virginia Campaign, Stuart lost his signature plumed hat and cloak to pursuing Federals, but in a later raid, managed to overrun Union army commander Maj. Gen. John Pope's headquarters and not only captured his full uniform, but also intercepted orders that provided Lee with much valuable intelligence. At the end of 1862, Stuart led a raid north of the Rappahannock River, inflicting some 230 casualties while losing only 27 of his own men.
In May 1863, at the Battle of Chancellorsville, Stuart was appointed by Lee to take command of the Second Corps for a few days after Lt. Gen. Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson had been mortally wounded and did as well commanding infantry as he did cavalry.
Returning to the cavalry, the Gettysburg Campaign represented two low points in Stuart's career. He commanded the Southern horsemen at the Battle of Brandy Station, the largest predominantly cavalry engagement of the war, on June 9, 1863. The battle was a draw and the Confederates held the field. However, falling victim to a surprise attack was an embarrassing blow to a cavalryman and the fight revealed the rising competency of the Union cavalry and foreshadowed the decline of the formerly invincible Southern mounted arm.
As Lee and Union Maj. Gen. George G. Meade marched toward each other at Gettysburg, Lee ordered Stuart to screen the Confederate army as it moved down the Shenandoah Valley and to maintain contact with the lead element, Lt. Gen. Richard S. Ewell's Second Corps, as it advanced in the direction of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Stuart once again attempted to circle the Union army and eventually found himself well to the east of Ewell, out of contact with the Union army, and out of communications with Lee. Lee's orders gave Stuart much latitude, and both generals share the blame for the long absence of Stuart's cavalry, as well as for the failure to assign a more active role to the cavalry left with the army. Stuart and his three best brigades were absent from the army during the crucial phase of the approach to Gettysburg and the first two days of battle. Lee's army was left blinded in enemy territory without detailed knowledge of the terrain, roads, or their opponent's strength and positions. This lack of knowledge was a significant reason that the Battle of Gettysburg started on July 1, 1863, before Lee could fully concentrate his army as planned.
Stuart arrived at Gettysburg late on the second day of the battle—bringing with him a caravan of captured Union supply wagons—and received a rare rebuke from Lee. (No one witnessed the private meeting between Lee and Stuart, but reports circulated at headquarters that Lee's greeting was "abrupt and frosty." Colonel Edward Porter Alexander wrote, "Although Lee said only, 'Well, General, you are here at last,' his manner implied rebuke, and it was so understood by Stuart."[1]) On the final day of the battle, Stuart was ordered to get into the enemy's rear and disrupt their line of communications at the same time Pickett's Charge was being conducted against Cemetery Ridge, but his attack on East Cavalry Field was repulsed by Union cavalry under Brig. Gens. David McM. Gregg and George Armstrong Custer.
During the Overland Campaign, Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant's drive on Richmond in the spring of 1864, Stuart intercepted Maj. Gen. Philip Sheridan's cavalry at Yellow Tavern on the outskirts of Richmond on May 11. A dismounted Union cavalryman shot him from a distance of thirty feet with a pistol; Stuart died the next day in the Confederate capital. The last words he spoke were in a whisper, "I am resigned; God's will be done." He was 31 years old. J.E.B. Stuart was buried in Richmond's Hollywood Cemetery. He was survived by his wife, Flora Cooke Stuart, and his children, J.E.B. Stuart Jr., and Virginia Pelham Stuart. Following his death, Flora wore the black of mourning for the remaining 49 years of her life.
[edit] Heritage, memorials
Like his intimate friend, Stonewall Jackson, General J.E.B. Stuart was a legendary figure and is considered one of the greatest cavalry commanders of all time. Stuart was the son-in-law of Brig. Gen. Philip St. George Cooke of the Union service. Upon learning that his father-in-law would serve under the Union banner, Stuart is alleged to have said, "He will regret it but once, and that will be continuously." On the other hand, Stuart's brother-in-law was Brig. Gen. John Rogers Cooke of the Confederacy.
A statue of General J.E.B. Stuart by sculptor Frederick Moynihan was dedicated on Richmond's famed Monument Avenue at Stuart Circle in 1907. Like General Stonewall Jackson, his equestrian statue faces north, indicating that he died in the War. The U.S. Army named two models of World War II tanks, the M3 and M5, the Stuart tank in its old adversary's honor. A high school in Falls Church, Virginia, J.E.B. Stuart High School, is also named after him. The school's team nickname, Raiders, honors his Civil War tactics.
In December 2006, a personal Confederate battle flag, sewn by Flora Stuart, was sold at auction for a world-record price for any Confederate flag, for $956,000 (including buyer's premium)[2].
The 34-inch by 34-inch flag was hand-sewn for Stuart by Flora in 1862 and Stuart carried it into some of his most famous battles. However, in December of that year it fell from a tent front into a campfire and was damaged. Stuart returned it to his wife with a letter describing the accident and telling of his despondency over the banner's damage. The flag remained with the Stuart family until 1969 when it was given to Stuart Hall, Staunton, Virginia, by a granddaughter of the Confederate general. Flora Cooke Stuart was headmistress of the Virginia Female Institute in Staunton, which was renamed "Stuart Hall" in her honor in 1907.The school quietly sold the flag and letter to a private collector in 2000. In 2006, the flag and letter, which had been displayed in a single frame in the Stuart Hall front parlor, sold separately at auction.
[edit] In popular media
On the television show, The Dukes of Hazzard, one of the Duke cousins (who only appears in one episode) is named "Jeb Stuart Duke".
In the long running Comic Book G.I. Combat, featuring "The Haunted Tank", published by DC Comics from the 1960s through the late 1980s, the ghost of General Stuart guided a tank crew (first a Stuart, later a Sherman) commanded by his namesake "Lt. Jeb Stuart".
Joseph Fuqua played Stuart in the films Gettysburg and Gods and Generals.
Errol Flynn played Stuart during the pre-Civil Wars years confronting John Brown in Kansas and Harper's Ferry in the movie Santa Fe Trail.
Several alternate histories, describing scenarios where the Confederacy won the Civil War, gave extensive roles to Jeb Stuart's alternative lives. He is a prominent character in Robert Skimin's Gray Victory and Harry Turtledove's Timeline-191 series.
[edit] References
- Eicher, John H., and Eicher, David J., Civil War High Commands, Stanford University Press, 2001, ISBN 0-8047-3641-3.
- Sears, Stephen W., Gettysburg, Houghton Mifflin, 2003, ISBN 0-395-86761-4.
[edit] Notes
- ^ Sears, pp. 257-58.
- ^ Antique Trader, December 27, 2006, p1, p. 15 (online auction site)
[edit] Further reading
- Longacre, Edward G., The Cavalry at Gettysburg, University of Nebraska Press, 1986, ISBN 0-8032-7941-8.
- Longacre, Edward G., Lee's Cavalrymen: A History of the Mounted Forces of the Army of Northern Virginia, Stackpole Books, 2002, ISBN 0-8117-0898-5.
- Wittenberg, Eric J., and Petruzzi, J. David, Plenty of Blame to Go Around: Jeb Stuart's Controversial Ride to Gettysburg, Savas Beatie, 2006, ISBN 1-932714-20-0.
