[Illustration: Copyright, 1914, by Mrs. J.
E. B. Stuart
_General Stuart in 1854, from an ambrotype owned by Mrs. J. E. B.
Stuart, which is here reproduced for the first time._]
[Illustration: Signature, JEB Stuart]
LIFE OF
J. E. B. STUART
BY
MARY L. WILLIAMSON
_Author of Life of Lee, Life of Jackson, and Life of Washington_
EDITED AND ARRANGED FOR SCHOOL USE
BY
E. O. WIGGINS
_English Department, Lynchburg High School, Virginia_
[Illustration: Publisher logo]
Harrisonburg, Virginia
SPRINKLE PUBLICATIONS
1989
BOOKS
by Mary L. Williamson
For Third Grade
Life of Lee
183 pages, cloth. Price, 35 cents
For Fourth Grade
Life of Jackson
248 pages, cloth. Price, 40 cents
For Fifth Grade
Life of Washington
211 pages cloth. Price, 40 cents
For Fifth Grade
Life of Stuart
215 pages cloth. Price, 40 cents
Sprinkle Publications
P. O. Box 1094
Harrisonburg, Virginia 22801
Copyright, 1914
BY
B. F. JOHNSON PUBLISHING COMPANY
PREFACE
Some years ago, to fill what appeared to me a need in our literature for
children, I made a study of the lives and campaigns of General R. E. Lee
and of General Stonewall Jackson and prepared, for very young readers,
histories of those great commanders.
In performing these tasks, I became interested in the combats and
maneuvers of General Lee’s chief of cavalry, Major-General J. E. B.
Stuart, who has been justly called “the eyes and ears of Lee.” As the
years go by, I find no book in print recounting to children his
wonderful feats and valorous service, or explaining to them the part
played in the battles of Lee and Jackson by the Stuart Cavalry Corps and
Horse Artillery whose exploits hold a brilliant place in modern military
tactics.
To make good this omission, I have prepared this little life of Stuart,
in the hope that it will not only pass on the story of military deeds as
captivating as any in history, but warm the hearts of rising generations
to lives of courage and devotion.
In the later stages of my work, Miss Evelina O. Wiggins has been
associated, contributing various materials, obtaining three pictures and
several interesting letters of General Stuart’s, and making available
Mrs. J. E. B. Stuart’s criticism of the manuscript. Miss Wiggins has
also rendered the aid of adapting the book to the practical needs of the
schoolroom. Her experience and position as a teacher make the latter
service highly valuable.
MARY LYNN WILLIAMSON
New Market, Virginia
September 1, 1914
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The publishers wish to acknowledge their obligations to Mrs. H. B.
McClellan for permission to use material from her husband’s book, _Life
and Campaigns of General J. E. B. Stuart_; to General T. T. Munford and
to Judge Theodore S. Garnett for information and pictures; to Mr. J. E.
B. Stuart and the Confederate Museum, Richmond, Va., for permission to
make photographic copies of the personal relics of General Stuart in the
Museum; and to Mrs. J. E. B. Stuart for the ambrotype and letters of
General Stuart which she allowed to be copied for use in this book and
for the invaluable aid of her careful critical reading of the
manuscript.
CONTENTS
Chapter Page
Preface 3
List of Maps and Illustrations 6
List of Books 8
Introduction 9
I Youthful Days 13
II A Lieutenant in the United States Cavalry 22
III A Colonel of Confederate Cavalry 34
IV A Brigadier General: The Peninsular Campaign and the
Chickahominy Raid 44
V A Major General: Camp Life and the Second Battle of Manassas 68
VI The Maryland Campaign 80
VII The Chambersburg Raid 94
VIII The Cavalry at Culpeper and Fredericksburg 109
IX Chancellorsville 124
X The Battle of Brandy Station 139
XI The Gettysburg Campaign 151
XII Final Campaigns and Death 167
XIII Some Tributes to Stuart 191
Suggestive Questions 203
The Organization of an Army 210
Word List 211
LIST OF MAPS AND ILLUSTRATIONS
PAGE
General Stuart in 1854 _Frontispiece_
Ruins of Liberty Hall Academy 14
Emory and Henry College about 1850 17
J. E. B. Stuart when a Student at West Point 19
Badge of West Point Graduates 20
Carrying the Gun down the ‘Mulepath’ 23
Indians of the Plains 29
Arsenal at Harper’s Ferry 31
Picketed Cavalry Horse 41
Stuart’s Gauntlets 44
Stuart’s Cavalry Boots 45
Map of the Chickahominy Raid 53
The Burial of Latané 55
The Chickahominy River 58
Ruins of Railroad Bridge across Pamunkey River 63
Facsimile of Page of Letter from General Stuart to his Wife 72
Catlett’s Station 74
Major Heros Von Borcke 82
Map Showing the Routes of Stuart’s Cavalry in Gettysburg
Campaign and Chambersburg Raid 95
Stuart’s Sword 98
Stuart’s Pistol 99
Stuart’s Carbine 99
General Stuart in 1862 107
Major John Pelham 110
Confederates Destroying Railroad 119
Federals Repairing Railroad which Confederates had Destroyed 121
A Pontoon Bridge 128
General Stonewall Jackson 135
Map of Battle of Brandy Station 143
The Battle of Brandy Station 145
A Federal Wagon Park 155
The Toll of War 160
The House in which Stuart died 186
Monument in Hollywood 196
Monument at Yellow Tavern 198
Stuart Statue, Richmond 201
LIST OF BOOKS
For Reference and Teachers’ Use
H. B. McClellan: _Life and Campaigns of General J. E. B. Stuart_
Heros Von Borcke: _Memoirs of the War for Confederate Independence_
John S. Mosby: _Campaigns of Stuart’s Cavalry_
George M. Neese: _Three Years in the Confederate Horse Artillery_
Theodore S. Garnett: _Major-General J. E. B. Stuart_
G. F. R. Henderson: _Stonewall Jackson and the American Civil War_
Gamaliel Bradford: _Confederate Portraits_
John Esten Cooke: _Surry of Eagle’s Nest_
J. William Jones: _Christ in the Camp, or Religion in Lee’s Army_
Southern Historical Society Papers,—
Vol. 1, pp. 99-103; Address by Fitzhugh Lee
Vol. 8, pp. 434-’56; Character Sketch by H. B. McClellan
Vol. 37, pp. 210-’31; Stuart at Gettysburg by R. H. McKim
See also other articles on Stuart in the Southern Historical Papers.
INTRODUCTION
Henry of Navarre was a famous French king who led his forces to a
glorious victory in a civil war. An English writer, Lord Macaulay, wrote
a stirring poem in which a French soldier is represented as describing
this battle. Here is his picture of the great, beloved king:—
“The King is come to marshal us, in all his armor drest,
And he has bound a snow-white plume upon his gallant crest.
He looked upon his people and a tear was in his eye,
He looked upon the traitors and his glance was stern and high;
Right graciously he smiled on us, as rolled from wing to wing,
Down all our line a deafening shout, ‘God save our lord, the King!’
“‘And if my standard bearer fall,—as fall full well he may,
For never saw I promise yet of such a bloody fray—
Press where you see my white plume shine amidst the ranks of war,
And be your oriflamme to-day the helmet of Navarre.’
“A thousand spurs are striking deep, a thousand spears in rest,
A thousand knights are pressing close behind the snow-white crest;
And in they burst and on they rushed, while like a guiding star,
Amidst the thickest carnage blazed the helmet of Navarre.”
These lines about the French king of the sixteenth century are often
quoted in describing a gallant cavalry leader of our own country. As we
read them, we see the Confederate general, “Jeb” Stuart, his cavalry hat
looped back on one side with a long black ostrich plume which his
troopers always saw in the forefront of the charge. His men would follow
that plume anywhere, at any time, and when you read this story of his
life, you will not wonder that he inspired their absolute devotion.
You have read about the lives of the peerless commander, General Robert
E. Lee, and his great lieutenant, General Stonewall Jackson. In these
you have learned something about the movements of the great body of our
army, the infantry; but the infantry, even with such able commanders as
Lee and Jackson, needed the aid of the cavalry and the artillery. It is
with these two latter divisions of the army that we deal in studying the
life of General Stuart. As chief of cavalry and commander of the famous
Stuart Horse Artillery, he served as eyes and ears to the commanding
generals. He kept them informed about the location and movements of the
Federals, screened the location of the Confederate troops, felt the way,
protected the flank and rear when the army was on the march, and made
quick raids into the Federal territory or around their army to secure
supplies and information as well as to mislead them concerning the
proposed movements of Confederate forces. A heavy responsibility rested
on the cavalry, and General Stuart and his men were engaged in many
small but severe battles and skirmishes in which the army as a whole did
not take part.
“_To horse, to horse! the sabers gleam,
High sounds our bugle call,
Combined by honor’s sacred tie,
Our watchword, ‘laws and liberty!’
Forward to do or die._”
—Sir Walter Scott
LIFE OF J. E. B. STUART
CHAPTER I
YOUTHFUL DAYS
1833-’54
James Ewell Brown Stuart, commonly known as “Jeb” Stuart from the first
three initials of his name, was born in Patrick county, Virginia,
February 6, 1833. On each side of his family, he could point to a line
of ancestors who had served their country well in war and peace and from
whom he inherited his high ideals of duty, patriotism, and religion.
He was of Scotch descent and his ancestors belonged to a clan of note in
the history of Scotland. From Scotland a member of this clan went to
Ireland.
About the year 1726, Jeb Stuart’s great-great-grandfather, Archibald
Stuart, fled from Londonderry, Ireland, to the wilds of Pennsylvania, in
order to escape religious persecution. Eleven years later, he removed
from Pennsylvania to Augusta county, Virginia, where he became a large
land-holder. At Tinkling Spring Church, the graves of the immigrant and
his wife may still be seen.
Archibald Stuart’s second son, Alexander, joined the Continental army
and fought with signal bravery during the whole of the War of the
Revolution. After the war, he practiced law. He showed his interest in
education by becoming one of the founders of Liberty Hall, at Lexington,
Virginia, a school which afterwards became Washington College and has
now grown into Washington and Lee University.
[Illustration: RUINS OF LIBERTY HALL ACADEMY, AT LEXINGTON, VA.]
His youngest son who bore his name, was also a lawyer; he held positions
of trust in his native State, Virginia, as well as in Illinois and
Missouri where he held the responsible and honored position of a United
States judge.
Our general’s father, Archibald Stuart, the son of Judge Stuart, after a
brief military career in the War of 1812, became a successful lawyer.
His wit and eloquence soon won him distinction, and his district sent
him as representative to the Congress of the United States where he
served four years.
There is an interesting story told about General Stuart’s mother’s
grandfather, William Letcher. He had enraged the Loyalists, or Tories,
on the North Carolina border, by a defeat that he and a little company
of volunteers had inflicted on them in the War of the Revolution. One
day in June, 1780, as Mrs. Letcher was alone at home with her baby girl,
only six weeks old, a stranger, dressed as a hunter and carrying a gun
in his hand, appeared at the door and asked for Letcher. While his wife
was explaining that he would be at home in a short time, he entered and
asked the man to be seated.
The latter, however, raised his gun, saying: “I demand you in the name
of the king.”
When Letcher tried to seize the gun, the Tory fired and the patriot fell
mortally wounded, in the presence of his young wife and babe.
Bethenia Letcher, the tiny fatherless babe, grew to womanhood and
married David Pannill; and her daughter, Elizabeth Letcher Pannill,
married Archibald Stuart, the father of our hero.
Mrs. Archibald Stuart inherited from her grandfather, William Letcher, a
large estate in Patrick county. The place, commanding fine views of the
Blue Ridge mountains, was called Laurel Hill, and here in a comfortable
old mansion set amid a grove of oak trees, Jeb Stuart was born and spent
the earlier years of his boyhood.
Mrs. Stuart was a great lover of flowers and surrounding the house was a
beautiful old-fashioned flower garden, where Jeb, who loved flowers as
much as his mother did, spent many happy days. He always loved this
boyhood home and often thought of it during the hard and stirring years
of war. Once near the close of the war, he told his brother that he
would like nothing better, when the long struggle was at an end, than to
go back to the old home and live a quiet, peaceful life.
When Jeb was fourteen years old, he was sent to school in Wytheville,
and in 1848 he entered Emory and Henry College. Here, under the
influence of a religious revival, he joined the Methodist church, but
about ten years later he became a member of the Episcopal church of
which his wife was a member.
Though always gay and high-spirited, Stuart even as a boy possessed a
deep religious sentiment which grew in strength as he grew in years and
kept his heart pure and his hands clean through the many temptations
that beset him in the freedom and conviviality of army life. A promise
that he made his mother never to taste strong drink was kept faithfully
to his death, and none of his soldiers ever heard him use an oath even
in the heat of battle. His gallantry, boldness, and continual gayety and
good nature, coupled with his high Christian virtues, caused all who
came in contact with him not only to love but to respect and admire him.
[Illustration: EMORY AND HENRY COLLEGE ABOUT 1850]
He left Emory and Henry College in 1850 and entered the United States
Military Academy at West Point where he had received an appointment.
At this time, Colonel Robert E. Lee was superintendent at West Point.
Young Stuart spent many pleasant hours at the home of the superintendent
where he was a great favorite with the ladies of the family. Custis Lee,
the eldest son of Colonel Lee, was Stuart’s best friend while he was a
student at the Academy.
An interesting incident is told about Stuart while he was on a vacation
from West Point. Mr. Benjamin B. Minor of Richmond, had a case to be
tried at Williamsburg, and when he arrived at the hotel it was so
crowded that he was put in an “omnibus” room, so called because it
contained three double beds.
Late in the afternoon when the stage drove up, he saw three young cadets
step from it and he soon found that they were to share with him the
“omnibus” room.
He went to bed early, but put a lamp on the table by the head of his bed
and got out his papers to go over his case. After awhile the three
cadets came in laughing and singing, and soon they were all three piled
into one bed where they continued to laugh and joke in uproarious
spirits.
Finally one of them said, “See here, fellows, we have had our fun long
enough and we are disturbing that gentleman over there; let us hush up
and go to sleep.”
“No need for that, boys,” said Mr. Minor, “I have just finished.”
Then as he tells us he ‘pitched in’ and had a good time with them.
The cadet who had shown such thoughtfulness and courtesy was young Jeb
Stuart who as Mr. Minor discovered was one of his wife’s cousins. He was
very much pleased with the boy and invited him to come to Richmond.
Stuart accepted the invitation and called several times at the Minor
home.
[Illustration: From daguerreotype
Confederate Museum, Richmond, Va.
J. E. B. STUART
When a student at West Point]
He explained to Mr. Minor his plan for an invention which was to be
called “Stuart’s lightning horse-hitcher” and to be used in Indian
raids. He excited Mr. Minor’s admiration because he had such gallant and
genial courtesy and professional pride. He wanted even then to
accomplish something useful and important to his country and himself.
General Fitzhugh Lee, who was at West Point with Stuart, and who later
served under General Stuart as a trusted commander, tells us that as a
cadet he was remarkable for “strict attendance to military duties, and
erect, soldierly bearing, an immediate and almost thankful acceptance of
a challenge to fight any cadet who might in any way feel himself
aggrieved, and a clear, metallic, ringing voice.”
Although the boys called him a “Bible class man” and “Beauty Stuart,” it
was in good-natured boyish teasing; where he felt it to be intended
differently or where his high standards of conduct seemed to be sneered
at, he was well able with his quick temper and superb physical strength
to teach the offender a lesson.
[Illustration: BADGE OF WEST POINT GRADUATES
The arms of the United States Academy, suspended by a ribbon of
black, gray, and gold from a bar bearing the date of the
graduate’s class]
As ‘Fitz’ Lee tells us, Stuart was always ready to accept a challenge,
but he did not fight without good cause, and his father, a fair-minded
and intelligent man, approved of his son’s course in these fisticuff
encounters. Between his father and himself there was the best kind of
comradeship and sympathy, and young Stuart was always ready to consult
his father before taking any important step in life. The decision as to
what he should do when he left West Point, however, was left to him, and
just after his graduation he wrote home that he had decided to enter the
regular army instead of becoming a lawyer.
“Each profession has its labors and rewards,” he wrote, “and in making
the selection I shall rely upon Him whose judgment cannot err, for it is
not with the man that walketh to direct his steps.”
Meanwhile, by his daring and skill in horsemanship, his diligence in his
studies, and his ability to command, he had risen rapidly from the
position of corporal to that of captain, and then to the rank of cavalry
sergeant which is the highest rank in that arm of the service at West
Point. He graduated thirteenth in a class of forty-six, and started his
brief but brilliant military career well equipped with youth, courage,
skill, and a firm reliance on the love and wisdom of God.