J.E.B. Stuart

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James Ewell Brown (Jeb) Stuart
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] Childhood

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 Mounted Rifleman in Texas. He was soon transferred to, and promoted in, the newly formed 1st Regiment, US 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 US Army on May 14, 1861 to join the Confederate 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:

Stuart's commands in the Army of Northern Virginia included:

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 led the cavalry in the Army of Northern Virginia at

Stuart was also a raider. Twice he slipped around 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 Second Bull Run Campaign, he lost his signature plumed hat and cloak to pursuing Federals, but in a later raid, managed to overrun Union army commander 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 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 cavalry engagement on the North American continent, 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 General 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, Richard S. Ewell's Second Corps, as it advanced in the direction of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Stuart somehow misinterpreted these orders and 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, in turn, was left blinded in enemy territory without detailed knowledge of the terrain, roads, or his opponent's strength and positions. This lack of knowledge was the primary reason that the Battle of Gettysburg started on July 1, 1863, before Lee could concentrate his army as planned. Stuart arrived late on the second day of the battle--bringing with him a caravan of captured Union supply wagons--and received a stinging rebuke from Lee. (It is unlikely Lee would have attacked on July 2 in the way he did if he had known the disposition of the Union forces at the Peach Orchard.) On the final day of the battle, Stuart failed to get into the enemy's rear and disrupt their line of communications, being checked by Union cavalry under Generals David McM. Gregg and George Armstrong Custer.

During the Overland Campaign, Grant's drive on Richmond in the spring of 1864, Stuart halted 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.

[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 a son-in-law of Brigadier General Philip St. George Cooke of the Union service; his wife's brother was Brigadier General John Rogers Cooke of the Confederacy. He was survived by his wife and his children, J.E.B. Stuart Jr. and Virginia Pelham Stuart. His widow, Flora Cooke Stuart, wore the black of mourning for the remaining 49 years of her life.

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.

[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.
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