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Jeb Stuart
Febuary 6, 1833 - May 12, 1864
James Ewell Brown Stuart - Confederate cavalry officer whose reports of enemy
troop movements were of particular value to the Southern command during the
American Civil War (1861-65).
An 1854 graduate of the U.S. Military Academy, West Point, N.Y., Stuart
resigned his commission to share in the defense of his state when Virginia
seceded from the Union (April 1861). At the
First Battle of Bull Run
(called First Manassas by the South) that July, he distinguished himself by
his personal bravery. Later in the year he was promoted to brigadier general
and placed in command of the cavalry brigade of the Army of Northern Virginia.
Just before the Seven Days' Battle--fought in June 1862 in defense of
Richmond--Stuart was sent out by Confederate general
Robert E. Lee to locate the
right flank of the Federal army under General
George B. McClellan. He
not only successfully achieved his mission, but he also rode completely around
McClellan's army to deliver his report to Lee. In the next campaign he had the
good fortune, in his raid against Federal communications, to bring back a
staff document from which Lee was able to discover the strength and position
of Federal forces.
Stuart, promoted to a major general and commander of the cavalry corps, was
present at the Second Battle of Bull Run (Second Manassas, August 1862) and
again circled the Federal army, returning with 1,200 enemy horses. During the
Maryland campaign that followed, he brilliantly defended one of the passes of
South Mountain (Crampton's Gap), thus enabling Lee to concentrate his army in
time to meet McClellan's attack. By the winter of 1862 Stuart's extraordinary
skill as an intelligence officer was fully recognized, and Lee called him the
"eyes of the army."
At the Battle of Fredericksburg (December 1862) Stuart's horse artillery
rendered valuable service by checking the Federal attack on General
T.J. ("Stonewall") Jackson's
corps. The following May at the Battle of Chancellorsville, Stuart was
appointed by Lee to take command of the 2nd Army Corps after Jackson had been
wounded.
The next campaign at
Gettysburg, Pa. (July 1863), was preceded by the cavalry Battle of Brandy
Station (June 9), at which for the first time Stuart and his men were met by
worthy opposition from the Federal cavalry. The Confederates' northward march
to the Potomac River was screened by Stuart's cavalry corps, which held the
various approaches on the right flank of the army. Stuart's conduct at
Gettysburg was long a subject of controversy. Though ordered by Lee to deploy
his cavalry as a screen while also gathering intelligence for the advancing
Confederate army, Stuart instead struck off on a raid, was delayed, and
arrived at Gettysburg too late to provide Lee with vital information on the
positions and movements of the Union forces. When Stuart did rejoin Lee's army
at Gettysburg on July 2, the battle had already begun, and his exhausted
forces were of little help.
Throughout the winter of 1863-64 Stuart continued to supply the Confederate
command with accurate knowledge of Northern troop movements. But soon after
the opening of the 1864 campaign his corps was drawn away from Lee's army by
General Philip Sheridan's Federal cavalry forces. In attempting to keep the
enemy from reaching Richmond, during the engagement generally known as
Spotsylvania Courthouse, Stuart's army met defeat (May 11), and he himself was
mortally wounded at close range the next day.
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