James
Ewell Brown (Jeb) Stuart
was born in Patrick County, Virginia, on 6th February, 1833. After
graduating 13th in a class of 46 from the U.S. Military Academy at
West Point in 1854, he joined the Mountain
Rifles Cavalry.
Stuart was seriously wounded while fighting on the frontier against
Native Americans. In 1859 he accompanied Robert
E. Lee and the company of U.S. Marines that captured John
Brown at Harper's Ferry. in October,
1859.
On the outbreak of the American Civil War
Stuart resigned from the US Army and joined
the Confederate Army. Commissioned as
lieutenant colonel he took part the the first battle at Bull
Run (June, 1861) against the Union Army
led by Irvin McDowell. The Confederate
troops led by Joseph E. Johnston, Thomas
Stonewall Jackson, Jubal Early and
Pierre T. Beauregard easily defeated
the inexperienced Union troops.
He also led his men at Fredericksburg
(November/December, 1862), Chancellorsville
(May 1863) and Gettysburg (June/July,
1863), where for the first time he faced an organized Union
Army cavalry. During these battles Stuart developed a reputation
as a good gather of information on the enemy and Robert
E. Lee called him the "eyes of the army".
Stuart took part in the Wilderness Campaign
(May, 1864) but soon afterwards was mortally wounded at Yellow
Tavern near Richmond. James (Jeb)
Stuart died on 12th May, 1864.
(1)
John Singleton Mosby, Memoirs of Colonel
John S. Mosby (1887)
We were incorporated into the First Virginia Cavalry, which Stuart
had just organized, now on outpost to watch Patterson. I had never
seen Stuart before, and the distance between us was so great that
I never expected to rise to even an acquaintance with him. Stuart
was a graduate of West Point and as a lieutenant in Colonel Sumner's
regiment, the First Cavalry, had won distinction and had been wounded
in an Indian fight. At the beginning of the war he was just twenty-eight
years old. His appearance - which included a reddish beard and a ruddy
complexion - indicated a strong physique and great energy.
In his work on the outposts Stuart soon showed that he possessed the
qualities of a great leader of cavalry. He never had an equal in such
service. He discarded the old maxims and soon discovered that in the
conditions of modern war the chief functions of cavalry are to learn
the designs and to watch and report the movements of the enemy.
(2)
General Oliver
Howard
wrote about James Stuart in his autobiography published in 1907.
J. E. B. Stuart was cut out for a cavalry leader. In perfect health,
but thirty-two years of age, full of vigor and enter[rise, with the
usual ideas imbibed in Virginia concerning State Supremacy, Christian
in thought and temperate by habit, no man could ride faster, endure
more hardships, make a livelier charge, or be more hearty and cheerful
while so engaged. A touch of vanity, which invited the smiles and
applause of the fair maidens of Virginia, but added to the zest and
ardor of Stuart's parades and achievements. He commanded Lee's cavalry
corps - a well-organized body, of which he was justly proud.
(3)
John Haskell, a fellow Confederate
Army officer, commenting on Jeb Stuart after the war.
Stuart was a remarkable mixture of a green, boyish, undeveloped
man, with a shrewd man of business and a strong leader. To hear him
talk no one would think that he could ever be anything more than a
dashing leader of a small command, with no dignity, and much boastful
vanity. But with all he was a shrewd, gallant commander.
(4)
Philip Katcher, The American Civil War (1992)
In many ways he was more lucky than able, leading such efforts
as his 'ride around McClellan' in June 1862 against poorly trained
and organized Union cavalry. All this created the myth of the 'bold
cavalier'. Therefore, when finally a trained and organized Union cavalry
struck unprepared cavalry under Stuart at Brandy Station, Virginia,
in 1863, he was taken aback by the outcry of criticism he received.
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