General J. E. B. Stuart Biography
STUART, JAMES EWELL BROWN (1833-1864),
American soldier, was born in Virginia on the 6th of February 1833 and entered
West Point military academy in 1850. Commissioned in 1854 second lieutenant of
cavalry, he saw considerable service in Indian warfare, and took part also in
the repression of civil disorder in Kansas. In 1855 he had married a daughter
of Colonel Philip St George Cooke, who was regarded as the most capable
cavalry officer in the United States service, and gave his son-in-law the
benefit of his experience and judgment. In 1859 Stuart, while staying in
Washington on official business, was sent to assist Colonel
R. E. Lee in the suppression of the
John Brown raid on Harper's Ferry. |
General J.E.B. Stuart |
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winter of 1861 he continued his outpost service and was somewhat severely handled
by General Ord's force at the
action of Dranesville. He was now promoted
brigadier-general and placed in command of the cavalry brigade of the army
of Northern Virginia. Just before the Seven Days' Battle he was sent out by
Lee to locate the right flank of
McClellan's army, and not only successfully achieved his mission, but rode
right round McClellan's rear to deliver his report to
Lee at Richmond. After the battle of
Gaines's Mill on the 27th of June Stuart's cavalry raided  McClellan's
abandoned line of communication with White House, and his dismounted
riflemen, aided by a light howitzer, successfully engaged a Federal gunboat
on the Pamunkey. But such romantic and far-ranging raids on this occasion,
as on several others, contributed little or nothing to the success of the
army as a whole. In the next campaign, it is true, he had the good fortune,
in his raid against General Pope's communications, not only to burn a great
quantity of stores, but also, what was far more important, to bring off the
headquarters' staff document of the enemy, from which
Lee was able to discover the
strength and positions of his opponents in detail. Stuart, now a
major-general and commander of the cavalry corps, was present at the
second battle of Bull Run, and
during the Maryland campaign he brilliantly defended one of the passes of
South Mountain (Crampton's Gap), thus enabling
Lee to concentrate his disseminated
army in time to meet McClellan's attack. After this battle the indefatigable
troopers embarked upon a fresh raid, which, though without any definite
object, had its value as an assertion of unbroken courage after the
quasi-defeat of Antietam, and in addition
wore out the Federal cavalry in vain efforts to pursue them. On this
occasion the swift Virginians covered 80 miles in 27 hours and escaped with
the loss of but three men. At
Fredericksburg Stuart's cavalry were as usual in the flank of the army,
and his horse artillery under Major Pelham rendered valuable service in
checking Franklin's attack on " Stonewall "
Jackson's corps by diverting a whole infantry division that formed part
of Franklin's command. At
Chancellorsville Stuart was specially appointed by
Lee to take over command of the 2nd
army corps after Jackson had been
wounded, and though unused to commanding so large a force of all arms he
acquitted himself so well in the second day's fighting that many considered
that a grave injustice was done to him by the promotion of
Major-General Ewell,
Jackson's principal lieutenant, to fill the position left vacant by
Jackson's death. The next
campaign, Gettysburg, was preluded by the cavalry battle of Brandy Station,
in which for the first time the Federal cavalry showed themselves worthy
opponents for Stuart and his men. The march to the Potomac was screened by
the cavalry corps, which held the various approaches on the right flank of
the army, but at the crisis of the campaign Stuart was absent on a raid, and
although he attempted to rejoin Lee during the battle, he was met and
checked some miles from the field by General Gregg, so that the skill and
courage which might have turned the scale in favor of
Lee on the first and
second days of the great battle were employed only in covering his retreat.
The cavalry took part in the war of maneuver between
Meade and
Lee in the
autumn of 1863, and then went into winter quarters. Very shortly after the
opening of the campaign of 1864 Stuart's corps was drawn away from Lee's
army by the Union cavalry under Sheridan, and part of it, with which was
Stuart himself, was defeated at Yellow Tavern on the 10th of May. Stuart
himself was killed.
Stuart possessed the ardent and resolute character of the true cavalry
leader, and although he was fortunate enough to command brigades and
regiments exclusively composed of men who were both born horsemen and
natives of Virginia, and to be opposed, for the first two years, by docile
but unenterprising squadrons which were recruited in a more ordinary way,
yet it was undeniable that he possessed the gift, indeed the genius, of a
great leader. That his energy was sometimes squandered on useless raids was
but natural, considering the character of his forces, but in regard to his
performances in the more exhausting and far more vital service of security
and reconnaissance,
General Johnston could ask " How can I sleep unless he
is on the outpost? " and General Lee could say " He never brought me a false
report." Stuart preserved under all circumstances the gaiety of a cavalry
subaltern and the personal character of an earnest Christian, and the army
regarded his loss as almost as heavy a blow to the Confederate cause as that
of Stonewall Jackson.
See Life by H. B. McClellan (1885).
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