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Title: Life of J. E. B. Stuart
Author: Williamson, Mary L. (Mary Lynn)
Language: English
As this book started as an ASCII text book there are no pictures available.
*** Start of this LibraryBlog Digital Book "Life of J. E. B. Stuart" ***
[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.
CHAPTER II
A LIEUTENANT IN THE UNITED STATES CAVALRY
1854-’61
Most of Stuart’s time from his graduation at West Point until the
outbreak of the War of Secession was spent in military service along the
southern and western borders of our country. During this period, there
was almost constant warfare between Indians and frontier settlers.
Stuart had many interesting adventures in helping to protect the
settlers and to drive the Indians back into their own territory. The
training that he received at this time helped to develop him into a
great cavalry and artillery leader.
The autumn after he left West Point, Stuart was commissioned second
lieutenant in a regiment of mounted riflemen on duty in western Texas.
He reached Fort Clark in December, just in time to join an expedition
against the Apache Indians who had been giving the settlers a great deal
of trouble. The small force to which he was attached pushed boldly into
the Indian country north of the Rio Grande.
[Illustration: CARRYING THE GUN DOWN THE ‘MULEPATH’]
It was not long before the young officer’s skill and determination
received a severe test. The trail that the expedition followed led to
the top of a steep and rugged ridge which to the troopers’ astonishment
dropped abruptly two thousand feet to an extensive valley. The precipice
formed of huge columns of vertical rock, at first seemed impassable, but
they soon found a narrow and dangerous Indian trail—the kind that is
called a ‘mulepath’—winding to the base of the mighty cliff. The
officers and advance guard dismounted and led their horses down the
steep path that scarcely afforded footing for a man and passed on to
choose a bivouac for the night. A little later, Lieutenant Stuart, with
a rear guard of fifty rangers detailed to assist him, reached the top of
the ridge, with their single piece of artillery. Stuart worked his way
down the trail alone, hoping that when he reached the foot he would find
that the major in charge of the expedition had left word that the gun
was to be abandoned as it seemed impossible to carry it down the
precipice. No such order awaited him, however, and the young officer
determined to get the gun down in spite of all difficulties. He noted
well the dangers of the way as he regained the top and, having had the
mules unhitched and led down by some of the men, he unlimbered the gun
and started the captain of the rangers and twenty-five men down with the
limber. He himself took charge of the gun and, with the help of the
remaining men, lifted it over huge rocks and lowered it by lariat ropes
over impassable places until it was finally brought safely to the valley
below.
The major had taken it for granted that Stuart would leave the gun at
the top of the precipice and was amazed when just at supper time it was
brought safely into camp. Such ingenuity, grit, and determination were
qualities which promised that the young officer would develop into a
skillful and reliable leader.
A few days later, the command encamped for the night in a narrow valley
between high ridges. The camp fires were burning brightly and the cooks
were preparing supper when a sudden violent gust of wind swept through
the valley and scattering the fire set the whole prairie into a moving
flame. With such rapidity did the fire sweep over the camp that the men
were unable to save anything except their horses, and in a deplorable
condition the expedition was forced to return to the camp in Texas.
In May, 1855, Stuart was transferred to the First Regiment of cavalry,
with the rank of second lieutenant. In July, this regiment was ordered
to Fort Leavenworth, Kansas; and in September, it went on a raid, under
the leadership of Colonel E. V. Sumner, against some Indians who had
disturbed the white settlers. The savages retreated to their mountain
strongholds and the regiment returned to the fort without fighting.
While on this expedition, Stuart learned with deep distress of the death
of his wise and affectionate father. It had been only a few weeks before
that Mr. Stuart had written to approve his son’s marriage to Miss Flora
Cooke, daughter of Colonel Philip St. George Cooke who was commandant at
Fort Riley. The marriage was celebrated at that place, November 14,
1855.
At this time, there was serious trouble in Kansas between the two
political parties that were fighting to decide whether Kansas should
become a free or a slave state. Stuart, who had been promoted to the
rank of first lieutenant, was stationed at Fort Leavenworth in 1856-’57.
Here he was involved in many skirmishes and local raids. It was at this
time that he encountered the outlaw “Ossawatomie” Brown of whom we shall
hear again a little later.
Stuart passed uninjured through the Kansas contest, and in 1857 entered
upon another Indian war against the Cheyenne warriors who were attacking
the western settlers. In the chief battle of this campaign, the Indians
were routed, but Lieutenant Stuart was wounded while rescuing a brother
officer who was attacked by an Indian.
Here is Stuart’s own account of the fight as given in a letter to his
wife, which she has kindly allowed us to copy:
“Very few of the company horses were fleet enough after the march,
besides my own Brave Dan, to keep in reach of the Indians mounted on
fresh ponies.... As long as Dan held out I was foremost, but after a
chase of five miles he failed and I had to mount a private’s horse and
continue the pursuit.
“When I overtook the rear of the enemy again, I found Lomax in imminent
danger from an Indian who was on foot and in the act of shooting him. I
rushed to the rescue, and succeeded in firing at him in time, wounding
him in his thigh. He fired at me in return with an Allen’s revolver, but
missed. My shots were now exhausted, and I called on some men
approaching to rush up with their pistols and kill him. They rushed up,
but fired without hitting.
“About this time I observed Stanley and McIntyre close by; the former
said, ‘Wait, I’ll fetch him,’ and dismounted from his horse so as to aim
deliberately, but in dismounting, his pistol accidentally discharged the
last load he had. He began, however, to snap the empty barrels at the
Indian who was walking deliberately up to him with his revolver pointed.
“I could not stand that, but drawing my saber rushed on the monster,
inflicting a severe wound across his head, that I think would have
severed any other man’s, but simultaneous with that he fired his last
barrel within a foot of me, the ball taking effect in the breast, but by
the mercy of God glancing to the left and lodging so far inside that it
cannot be felt. I rejoice to inform you that it is not regarded as at
all fatal or dangerous, though I may be confined to my bed for weeks.”
After this battle, all of the force pursued the Indians, except a small
detachment under Captain Foote, which was left behind to guard the
wounded for whom the surgeon established rough hospital quarters on the
banks of a beautiful, winding creek. Here Stuart spent nearly a week
confined to his cot, and as he wrote his wife at the time, the only
books that he had to read during the long, weary days were his _Prayer
Book_ which was not neglected—and his _Army Regulations_. A few pages of
_Harper’s Weekly_ that some one happened to have were considered quite a
treasure.
At the end of about ten days, some Pawnee guides who had been attached
to the expedition brought orders for this little detachment to leave the
camp where it was exposed to attacks from the wandering bands of
Cheyenne Indians and go back to Fort Kearny a hundred miles away.
Stuart was just able to sit on his horse again, yet we shall see that in
spite of his wound he was the life and salvation of the little party.
The Pawnees said they were only four days distant from the fort, but the
second day these unreliable guides deserted and the soldiers were lost
in a heavy fog, without a compass. They were forced to depend on a
Cheyenne prisoner for information. After four days’ fruitless and
difficult marching through the forest, Stuart, who believed that the
guard was willfully misleading them, volunteered to go ahead with a
small force, find the fort, and send back help for those who were still
suffering too seriously from their wounds to keep up on a rapid and
uncertain march.
[Illustration: From McClure’s Magazine
INDIANS OF THE PLAINS]
After many dangers and deep anxiety on his part, taking his course by
the stars when the fog lifted at night and working his way through it as
best he could by day, he finally reached Fort Kearny. The Pawnees had
come in three days before, and scouting parties had been searching for
Captain Foote’s command about which much anxiety was felt. Help was
immediately sent them, and as a result of Stuart’s indomitable will and
able services, the little party was rescued and brought safely to the
fort.
From the autumn of 1857 until the summer of 1860, Stuart was stationed
at Fort Riley. During these three years, there were few skirmishes with
the Indians and Stuart had leisure to perfect the invention of a saber
attachment that he had been thinking of ever since his student days at
West Point. This invention was bought and patented by the government in
October, 1859, while the inventor was on leave of absence in Virginia,
visiting his mother and his friends.
It was on the night of the sixteenth of this same October that a band of
twenty men, under the leadership of John Brown, seized the United States
arsenal at Harper’s Ferry. Brown was a fanatic who believed that all
slaves should be set free and who had taken an active part in the recent
disturbances in Kansas. After seizing the arsenal at Harper’s Ferry, he
sent out his followers during the night to arrest certain citizens and
to call to arms the slaves on the surrounding plantations. About sixty
citizens were arrested and imprisoned in the engine house, within the
confines of the armory, but the slaves, either through fear or through
distrust of Brown and his schemes, refused to obey his summons.
[Illustration: ARSENAL AT HARPER’S FERRY]
The next morning as soon as news of the seizure of Harper’s Ferry spread
over the country, armed men came against Brown from all directions.
Before night he and his followers took refuge in the engine house, but
it was so crowded that he was obliged to release all but ten of his
prisoners.
When the news of Brown’s raid was telegraphed to Washington, Lieutenant
Stuart, who was at the capital attending to the sale of his patent saber
attachment, was requested to bear a secret order to Lieutenant-Colonel
Robert E. Lee, his old superintendent at West Point, who was then at his
home, Arlington, near Washington city. Stuart learned that Colonel Lee
had been ordered to command the marines who were being sent to suppress
the insurrection at Harper’s Ferry, and he at once offered to act as
aid-de-camp. Colonel Lee, who remembered Stuart well as a cadet,
immediately accepted his offer of service.
Upon arriving at Harper’s Ferry on the night of October 17, they found
that John Brown and his men were still in the engine house, defying the
citizen soldiers who surrounded the building. Colonel Lee proceeded to
surround the engine house with the marines; at daylight, wishing to
avoid bloodshed, he sent Lieutenant Stuart to demand the surrender of
the fanatical men, promising to protect them from the fury of the
citizens until he could give them up to the United States government.
When Lieutenant Stuart advanced to the parley, Brown, who had assumed
the name of Smith, opened the door four or five inches only, placed his
body against it, and held a loaded carbine in such a position that, as
he stated afterward, he might have “wiped Stuart out like a mosquito.”
Immediately the young officer recognized in the so-called Smith the
identical John, or “Ossawatomie,” Brown who had caused so much trouble
in Kansas. Brown refused Colonel Lee’s terms and demanded permission to
march out with his men and prisoners and proceed as far as the second
tollgate. Here, he declared, he would free his prisoners and if Colonel
Lee wished to pursue he would fight to the bitter end.
Stuart said that these terms could not be accepted and urged him to
surrender at once. When Brown refused, Stuart waved his cap, the signal
agreed upon, and the marines advanced, battered down the doors, and
engaged in a hand-to-hand fight with the insurgents. Ten of Brown’s men
were killed by the marines and all the rest, including Brown himself,
were wounded.
That same day, Lieutenant Stuart, under Colonel Lee’s orders, went to a
farm about four miles and a half away that Brown had rented and brought
back a number of pikes with which Brown had intended to arm the negroes.
Colonel Lee was then ordered back to Washington and Stuart went with
him. John Brown and seven of his men were tried, were found guilty of
treason, and were hanged.
The John Brown Raid cast a great gloom over the country. While many
people in the North regarded Brown as a martyr to the cause of
emancipation, the southern people were justly indignant at the thought
that their lives and property were no longer safe from the plots of the
Abolition party which Brown had represented. The bitter feelings aroused
by this affair culminated, in 1861, in the bloody War of Secession.
CHAPTER III
A COLONEL OF CONFEDERATE CAVALRY
1861
There seems to have been no doubt in the mind of Lieutenant Stuart as to
what he should do in the event of Virginia’s withdrawal from the Union.
As soon as he heard that the Old Dominion had seceded, he forwarded to
the War Department his resignation as an officer in the United States
army, and hastening to Richmond, he enlisted in the militia of his
native state. Like most other southerners, he preferred poverty and
hardships in defense of the South to all the honors and wealth which the
United States government could bestow.
On May 10, 1861, Stuart was commissioned as lieutenant colonel of
infantry, and was ordered to report to Colonel T. J. Jackson at Harper’s
Ferry. While he was at Harper’s Ferry, Stuart organized several troops
of cavalry to assist the infantry and he was soon transferred to this
branch of the service.
On May 15, General Joseph E. Johnston was sent by the Confederate
government to take command of all the forces at Harper’s Ferry; while
Colonel Jackson, who had previously been in command of the place, was
assigned charge of the Virginia regiments afterwards famous as the
“Stonewall Brigade.” General Johnston found that he was unable to hold
the town against the advancing Federal force; so he destroyed the
railway bridge and retired with his guns and stores to Bunker Hill,
twelve miles from Winchester, where he offered battle to the Federals.
They declined to fight and withdrew to the north bank of the Potomac
river.
When the Federals under General Patterson again crossed the river,
General Jackson with his brigade was sent forward to support the cavalry
under Stuart and to destroy the railway engines and cars at Martinsburg.
Jackson then remained with his brigade near Martinsburg, while his front
was protected by Colonel Stuart with a regiment of cavalry.
On July 1, General Patterson advanced toward General Jackson, who went
forward to meet him, with only the Fifth Regiment, several companies of
cavalry, and one piece of artillery. The Confederate general posted his
men behind a farm house and barn, and held back Patterson so well that
he threw forward an entire division to overpower the small force of
Jackson. The latter then fell back slowly to the main body of his
troops, with the trifling loss of two men wounded and nine missing.
While supporting Jackson in this first battle in the Shenandoah valley,
known as the battle of Haines’ Farm or Falling Waters, Colonel Stuart
had a remarkable adventure. Riding alone in advance of his men, he came
suddenly out of a piece of woods at a point where he could see a force
of Federal infantry on the other side of the fence. Without a moment’s
hesitation, he rode boldly forward and ordered the Federal soldiers to
pull down the bars.
They obeyed and he immediately rode through to the other side, and in
peremptory tones said, “Throw down your arms or you are dead men.”
The raw troops were so overcome by Stuart’s boldness and commanding
tones that they obeyed at once and then marched as he directed through
the gap in the fence. Before they recovered from their astonishment,
Stuart had them surrounded by his own force which had come up in the
meantime, thus capturing over forty men—almost an entire company.
After some marching backward and forward, General Johnston retired to
Winchester; while General Patterson moved farther south to Smithfield as
if he intended to attack in that direction. Stuart with his small force
was now compelled to watch a front of over fifty miles, in order to
report promptly the movements of the Federals, yet he did this so
efficiently that later on when General Johnston was ordered west, he
wrote to Stuart:
“How can I eat, sleep, or rest in peace, without you upon the outpost?”
General Johnston now received a call for help from General Beauregard
who commanded a Confederate army of twenty thousand men at Manassas
Junction. Beauregard was confronted by a Federal army of thirty-five
thousand men, including nearly all of the United States regulars east of
the Rocky Mountains. This army, commanded by General McDowell, was
equipped with improved firearms and had fine uniforms, good tents, and
everything that money could buy to make good soldiers. The North was
very proud of this fine army and fully expected it to crush Beauregard
and to sweep on to Richmond.
Beauregard was indeed in danger. He had a smaller army and his infantry
was armed, for the most part, with old-fashioned smooth-bore muskets,
and his cavalry with sabers and shotguns. One company of cavalry was
armed only with the pikes of John Brown, which had been stored at
Harper’s Ferry. Beauregard stationed his forces in line of battle along
the banks of Bull Run from the Stone Bridge to Union Mills, a distance
of eight miles. On July 18, the Federals tried to force Blackburn’s Ford
on Bull Run, but were repulsed with heavy loss. Beauregard, knowing that
the attack would be renewed the next day, sent a message to Johnston at
Winchester, sixty miles away.
“If you are going to help me, now is the time,” was Beauregard’s
message.
Two days before, Stuart had been transferred to the cavalry, with a
commission as colonel, and he entered at once upon his arduous labors.
At first he had in his command only twenty-one officers and three
hundred and thirteen men, raw to military discipline and poorly armed
with the guns they had used in hunting, but all were fine horsemen and
good shots.
General Johnston, leaving Stuart with a little band of troopers to
conceal his movements, immediately commenced his march from Winchester
to Manassas. So skillfully did Colonel Stuart do his work that General
Patterson was not aware of General Johnston’s departure until Sunday,
July 21, when the great battle of Manassas was fought. Owing to a
collision which had blocked the railway, some of the infantry did not
reach Manassas until near the close of the battle, but the cavalry and
the artillery marched all the way and arrived in time to render
effective service during the entire battle.
It was at Manassas that General Jackson won his name of “Stonewall”
because of the wonderful stand that his brigade made, just when it
seemed that the Federals were about to overcome the Confederates. But we
are concerned particularly with the movements of the cavalry which
rendered fine service, protecting each flank of the army. Colonel
Stuart, with only two companies of cavalry, protected the left flank
from assault after assault. At one time Stuart boldly charged the
Federal right and drove back a company of Zouaves resplendent in their
blue and scarlet uniforms and white turbans.
General Early, who arrived on the field about three o’clock in the
afternoon and assisted in holding the left flank, said, “But for
Stuart’s presence there, I am of the opinion that my brigade would have
arrived too late to be of any use. Stuart did as much toward saving the
First Manassas as any subordinate who participated in it.”
General Jackson, in his report of the battle, said: “Apprehensive lest
my flanks be turned, I sent orders to Colonels Stuart and Radford of the
cavalry to secure them. Colonel Stuart and that part of his command with
him deserve great praise for the promptness with which they moved to my
left and secured my flank from the enemy, and by driving them back.”
Thus we see at the very crisis of the battle, Stuart with only a small
force aided largely in gaining the great victory. When he saw the
Federals fleeing from all parts of the field, he pursued them for twelve
miles, taking many prisoners and securing much booty.
After the battle of First Manassas, the main armies were inactive for
many months; but the Confederate cavalry was kept busy in frequent
skirmishes with the Federal pickets and in raids toward the Potomac
river. Stuart took possession of Munson’s Hill, near Washington, and for
several weeks sent out his pickets within sight of the dome of the
Capitol.
In a letter from General F. E. Paxton, of the Stonewall Brigade, we find
this interesting mention of Colonel Stuart and his life at the outpost:
“Yesterday I was down the road about ten miles, and, from a hill in the
possession of our troops, had a good view of the dome of the Capitol,
some five or six miles distant. The city was not visible, because of the
woods coming between. I saw the sentinel of the enemy in the field below
me, and about half a mile off and not far on this side, our own
sentinels. They fire sometimes at each other. Mrs. Stuart, wife of the
colonel who has charge of our outpost, visits him occasionally—having a
room with friends a few miles inside the outpost. Whilst there looking
at the Capitol, I saw two of his little children playing as carelessly
as if they were at home. A dangerous place, you will think, for women
and children.”
[Illustration: PICKETED CAVALRY HORSE]
Mrs. Stuart, however, was a soldier’s daughter and a soldier’s wife, and
she took advantage of every opportunity to be with her husband at his
headquarters. During the beginning of the war, before the engagements
with the Federals became frequent, she was often able to be with her
husband or to board at some home near which he was stationed. Although
he was a favorite with women, there was no woman who, in General
Stuart’s eyes, could compare with his wife, and he was never happier
than when with her and his children. When the general’s duties compelled
him to be away from her, two days seldom passed that Mrs. Stuart did not
hear from him by letter or telegram.
On September 11, Stuart’s forces encountered a raiding party which was
forced to retire with a loss of two killed and thirteen wounded, while
Stuart lost neither man nor horse.
During the summer, Stuart had been ordered to report to General James
Longstreet who commanded the advance of the Confederate army.
General Longstreet in a letter to President Davis said of Stuart: “He is
a rare man, wonderfully endowed by nature with the qualities necessary
for an officer of light cavalry. Calm, firm, acute, active, and
enterprising, I know no one more competent than he to estimate events at
their true value. If you add a brigade of cavalry to this army, you will
find no better brigadier general to command it.”
CHAPTER IV
A BRIGADIER GENERAL: THE PENINSULAR CAMPAIGN AND THE CHICKAHOMINY RAID
1861-’62
On September 24, 1861, Stuart received his promotion as brigadier
general. His brigade included four Virginia regiments, one North
Carolina regiment, and the Jeff Davis Legion of Cavalry. These regiments
were composed of high-spirited, brave young men who could ride dashingly
and shoot with the skill of backwoodsmen, but who were for the most part
untrained in military affairs. Stuart, however, was an untiring
drillmaster and by his personal efforts he developed his brigade into a
command of capable and devoted soldiers.
[Illustration: STUART’S GAUNTLETS
From originals in Confederate Museum, Richmond, Va.]
The young general was not yet twenty-nine years old. He was of medium
height, had winning blue eyes, long silken bronze beard and mustache,
and a musical voice. He usually wore gauntlets, high cavalry boots, a
broad-brimmed felt hat caught up on one side by a black ostrich plume,
and a tight-fitting cavalry coat that he called his “fighting jacket.”
He rode as if he had been born in the saddle.
Fitz Lee, who served under him, said: “His strong figure, his big brown
beard, his piercing, laughing blue eyes, the drooping hat and black
feather, the ‘fighting jacket’ as he termed it, the tall cavalry boots,
formed one of the most jubilant and striking pictures in the war.”
[Illustration: STUART’S CAVALRY BOOTS
From originals in Confederate Museum, Richmond, Va.]
Later on, John Esten Cooke described Stuart thus: “His ‘fighting jacket’
shone with dazzling buttons, and was covered with gold braid; his hat
was looped up with a golden star and decorated with a black ostrich
plume; his fine buff gauntlets reached to the elbow; around his waist
was tied a splendid yellow sash and his spurs were of pure gold.”
One who formed an opinion of him from a casual glance might have thought
that he was merely a gay young fop, fond of handsome and even showy
dress. But his friends and his enemies knew better. Gay and even boyish
as he was when off duty, loving music and good cheer, his men knew that
the instant the bugles called him he would become the calm, daring,
farsighted commander, leading them to glorious deeds. No leader of the
southern army was more feared by the Federal troops or more admired by
the commanders of the Federal cavalry—Sheridan, Pleasanton, Buford, and
others—than Stuart whom they nicknamed “the Yellow Jacket.” He seemed to
fly from place to place, guarding the Confederate line and charging the
Federals at the most unexpected times and places; gayly dressed as that
brilliant-colored insect, he was as sharp and sudden in attack.
Possessing the daring courage that is necessary for a great cavalry
leader, he was so wary and farsighted that he won the respect of
conservative leaders as well as the confidence of his men. And in
victory or defeat he was the soul of good cheer. His mellow musical
voice could be heard above the din of battle singing,
“If you want to have a good time
Jine the cavalry.”
Once General Longstreet laughingly ordered General Stuart to leave camp,
saying he made the cavalrymen’s life seem so attractive that all the
infantrymen wanted to desert and “jine the cavalry.”
On December 20, 1861, while the army was in winter quarters at Manassas,
Stuart was placed in command of about 1,500 infantry, a battery of
artillery, and a small body of cavalry, for the purpose of covering the
movements of General J. E. Johnston’s wagon train which had been sent to
procure forage for the Confederate troops. It was most important that
this wagon train should be protected and the pickets had advanced to
Dranesville with the cavalry following closely, when a Federal force of
nearly 4,000 men, supported by two other brigades, attacked the pickets.
The pickets were driven back, and the Federal artillery and infantry
occupied the town, where they posted themselves in a favorable position.
Stuart, when informed that the Federals held the town, sent at once to
recall the wagons and advanced as quickly as possible with the rest of
his force to engage the Federals while the wagons were gaining a place
of safety. The Federals had a much larger force of infantry and had a
good position for their artillery; so Stuart, after two hours of unequal
combat, was forced to retire with heavy loss in killed and wounded. The
wagons, however, were saved from capture; and the next morning when
Stuart returned to renew the attack, he found that the Federals had
retired.
In this battle of Dranesville, the Confederate loss was nearly 200 and
that of the Federals was only 68. This was the first serious check that
Stuart had received, but he had displayed so much prudence and skill in
extricating the wagons and his small force from the sudden danger that
he retained the entire confidence of his men.
Writing about this battle to his wife, Stuart said, “The enemy’s force
was at least four times larger than mine. Never was I in greater
personal danger. Horses and men fell about me like tenpins, but thanks
to God neither I nor my horse was touched.”
In the meanwhile, the Federal commander, General McClellan, had been
organizing his forces and by March, 1862, he had under him in front of
Washington a large army splendidly armed and equipped. General Johnston
had too small an army to engage the Federal hosts; and so late in March
he fell back from Manassas and encamped on the south side of the
Rappahannock river.
General McClellan moved his large army to Fortress Monroe, and it was
then seen that he intended to advance to Richmond by way of the
Peninsula,—that is, the portion of tidewater Virginia lying between the
James and York rivers.
The brave Confederate general, Magruder, stationed at Yorktown, was
joined by General Johnston with his whole army. They saw, however, that
it would be impossible to hold that position against McClellan, and so
the Confederates gave up the town and retired toward Richmond.
The cavalry under Stuart skillfully guarded the rear of the army and
concealed its movements from the Federals. At Williamsburg a stubborn
and brilliant battle was fought, in which Johnston’s rear guard repelled
the Federals. After the battle, the cavalry and the Stuart Horse
Artillery protected the rear of the Confederate army as it withdrew
toward Richmond and screened the infantry as it took position along the
southern bank of the Chickahominy river.
McClellan placed his army on the north bank of the same river, and on
May 31 and June 1, he threw a large force across the river and engaged
the army of Johnston in the battle of Seven Pines. This battle was only
a partial victory for the Confederates, and as the river was bordered by
wide marshes and dense woods, neither side could make use of cavalry in
the conflict. General Stuart, however, was actively engaged in giving
personal assistance to General Longstreet on the field.
In his report of the battle, General Longstreet said: “Brigadier J. E.
B. Stuart, in the absence of any opportunity to use his cavalry, was of
material service by his presence with me on the field.”
In this battle of Seven Pines, General Johnston was severely wounded and
gave place to General R. E. Lee, who was thus put in command of the army
defending Richmond and of all of the other Confederate forces in
Virginia. McClellan’s magnificent army, now numbering 115,000 men,
stretched from Meadow Bridge on the right to the Williamsburg Road on
the left, having in front the marshes of the Chickahominy as natural
barriers. By entrenching his army behind positions which he secured from
time to time, he advanced until at one point he was only five miles from
Richmond and could see the spires of the churches and hear the bells
ringing for services.
General Lee had a much smaller army with which to repel this large
entrenched army and he withdrew to the south side of the Chickahominy.
It was very important to him to learn the position and strength of the
Union forces, so that he might be able to attack them at the weakest
point. In order to gain this information, he resolved to send General
Stuart with 1,200 cavalry to make a raid toward the White House on the
Pamunkey river, which was the base of supplies for the Federal troops.
General Lee wrote to General Stuart, giving definite instructions about
this scouting expedition.
The letter said: “You are desired to make a scout movement, to the rear
of the enemy now posted on the Chickahominy river, with a view of
gaining intelligence of his operations, communications, etc., of driving
in his foraging parties, and securing such grain and cattle for
ourselves as you can make arrangements to have driven in.
“Another object is to destroy his wagon trains said to be daily passing
from the Piping-Tree road to his camp on the Chickahominy. The utmost
vigilance on your part will be necessary to prevent any surprise to
yourself, and the greatest caution must be practiced in keeping well in
your front and flanks reliable scouts to give you information.
“You will return as soon as the object of your expedition is
accomplished, and you must bear in mind while endeavoring to execute the
general purpose of your mission, not to hazard unnecessarily your
command. Be content to accomplish all the good you can, without feeling
it necessary to obtain all that might be desired.”
Such a raid demanded great daring and skill, coupled with cool judgment,
and General Lee knew that these qualities were possessed by the man to
whom he entrusted this responsible and dangerous undertaking. As we are
to see, Stuart carried out his instructions in an able and brilliant
manner and accomplished even more than was hoped by General Lee.
In the first place, Stuart chose for the enterprise men and horses
picked to stand the strain of rapid movement. Colonel Fitzhugh Lee,
Colonel W. H. F. Lee, and Colonel W. T. Martin were in command of the
cavalry and Colonel James Breathed commanded the one battery of
artillery.
[Illustration: MAP OF THE CHICKAHOMINY RAID]
Early on the morning of June 12, Stuart and his chosen troopers started
on the famous “Chickahominy Raid,” or “Pamunkey Expedition” as it is
sometimes called. In order to mask his real purpose, Stuart marched
directly northward twenty-two miles. At sunrise the next morning, the
little band of horsemen mounted and turned abruptly eastward toward
Hanover Courthouse. They found the town in possession of a body of
Federal cavalry that retired as the Confederate troopers advanced. The
Confederates then passed on without serious trouble as far as Totopotomy
Creek. Here, however, Stuart’s advance guard was attacked by a company
of Federal troopers. Finding themselves outnumbered and almost
surrounded, these troopers retired to the main body of Federal troops
commanded by Captain Royall, who at once drew up his forces to receive
the attack. Stuart immediately ordered a squadron to charge with sabers,
in columns of fours. Captain Latané, a gallant young officer who was
that day commanding the squadron, met Captain Royall in a hand-to-hand
encounter. Royall was seriously wounded by a thrust from Latané’s saber.
Latané fell dead, pierced by a bullet from Royall’s pistol. The Federals
fled in dismay, but soon rallied and returned to the charge, only to be
again repulsed, whereupon they retired to the Union lines.
Fitz Lee learned from some of the prisoners that the Federal camp was
not far away and, having obtained from Stuart permission to pursue the
Union troops, he pushed onto Old Church, repelled the cavalry, and
destroyed the camp.
[Illustration: From a painting by W. D.
Washington
THE BURIAL OF LATANÉ]
General Stuart had now carried out the chief order given by General
Lee,—that is, he had ridden to the rear of McClellan’s army and had
discovered that the Federal right wing did not extend toward the railway
and Hanover Courthouse—but it was a vexing problem how to bring this
valuable information to his commanding general. The route the young
officer had just passed was doubtless by this time swarming with
Federals. The best way to return to Richmond would probably be to ride
quickly around the entire Federal army and cross the Chickahominy river
to the left of McClellan, before troops were sent to cut him off.
Without halting or consulting with any of his officers, Stuart decided
that there was less risk in following this circuitous route, especially
as he had with him for a guide Lieutenant James Christian whose home was
on the Chickahominy and who said that the command could safely cross a
private ford on his farm.
The Federals were under the impression that there was a very large force
of Confederates on the raid; and so they were collecting infantry and
cavalry at Totopotomy Bridge to cut off the return of the raiders.
Stuart, however, passed on toward Tunstall’s Station, on the York River
Railroad, four miles from the White House which was the principal supply
station of the Federal army.
He now proceeded to carry out the second part of Lee’s
instructions,—namely, to destroy whatever supplies he might find on the
way. As he passed on, numbers of wagons fell into his hands. He sent two
squadrons to Putney’s Ferry and burned two large transports and numbers
of wagons laden with supplies. Approaching Tunstall’s Station, one of
the supply depots of the Federals, he sent forward a body of picked men
to cut the telegraph wires and obstruct the railroad. Before they could
perform the latter task, a train approached bearing soldiers and
supplies to McClellan’s army. The Confederates fired on it, but instead
of stopping the brave engineer stood at his post and carried the train
by at full speed. He was struck by a shot and fell dying at his post,
while the Confederates gave a cheer for his courage in risking his life
to save his charge from their hands.
Vast quantities of Federal stores were destroyed by the Confederates
whose men and horses reveled in an unusual supply of good rations and
provender. It was now nearly dark and Stuart’s position was exceedingly
dangerous. Behind him were regiments of cavalry in hot pursuit. Not more
than four or five miles distant were the entrenchments of McClellan,
whence in a short time troops could be sent by rail to cut off his
progress to the James river. Before him was the Chickahominy, now a
raging torrent from the spring rains. His chief guides through this maze
of swamps and forest roads were Private Richard Frayser and Lieutenant
Christian whose homes were near and who knew every part of the country
through which they were passing. Stuart had the advantage also of
knowing from his scouts just where the enemy was located.
[Illustration: From a war-time photograph
THE CHICKAHOMINY RIVER]
Having formed his plans, swiftness and boldness were his watchwords.
After he had destroyed the Federal supplies at Tunstall’s Station and
burned the railroad bridge over Black Creek, he set out about dark for
Talleysville, four miles distant, where he halted for three hours and a
half, in order to allow men and horses to rest and scattered troopers to
come up.
Colonel John S. Mosby, later one of Stuart’s chief scouts, was at that
time his aide. In describing the raid, Mosby said that one who had never
taken part in such an expedition could form no idea of the careless
gayety of the men that night. When they had set out the day before, they
did not know where they were going. Now they were aware they were riding
around McClellan and the boldness of the movement fired their
imaginations, quickened their pulses, and roused their courage to any
deed of daring. Therefore, in the midst of danger, they sang and laughed
and feasted; and at midnight when the bugle sounded “Boots and Saddles,”
every horseman was ready for whatever might come.
At daybreak on June 14, the Confederates reached the ford on Sycamore
Springs, Christian’s farm,—a ford no longer for the river swollen by the
heavy rains had overflowed its banks and become a raging torrent.
Colonel Lee and a few men swam their horses across the stream and back
again; but it was evident that the weaker horses and the artillery could
not cross at that point. The Confederates then cut down trees tall
enough to span the stream, and attempted to build a rough bridge, but
the trees were swept down the rapid current as soon as they touched the
water.
Stuart rode up and sat on his horse, calmly stroking his long silken
beard as he watched his cavalrymen’s bootless efforts. Every other face
betrayed keen anxiety. Learning there was the remains of an old bridge a
few miles below, he moved the command thither with all speed. A deserted
warehouse was near the old bridge, and a large force of men was set at
work to tear down the house in order to secure material to rebuild the
bridge. While the work was going on, Stuart laughed and jested with his
officers.
The men worked with such swiftness that within three hours the bridge
was ready for the cavalry and artillery to pass over; and at one o’clock
that afternoon, the whole command had crossed. During those hours of
anxiety, Fitz Lee, in command of the rear guard, had driven off several
parties of Federal cavalry. After all the Confederates gained the
southern shore—Fitz Lee being the last man to cross—, the bridge was
burned to prevent pursuit. The men were exultant and happy at having
crossed the river, but they were by no means out of danger, being
thirty-five miles from Richmond and still far within the lines of
McClellan. Stuart, who knew that every moment was precious to General
Lee, hastened on at sunset with only one courier and his trusty guide
Frayser and arrived at Richmond about sunrise on the morning of June 15.
The men rested several hours and then were led by Colonel Fitz Lee
safely back to their own camp where they were greeted with enthusiastic
cheers by their comrades.
As soon as General Stuart reached Richmond, he sent Frayser to inform
Mrs. Stuart of his safe return, while he himself rode to General Lee’s
headquarters with his wonderful report.
He had been sent to find out the position of the right wing of
McClellan’s army. He had not only located that, but he had destroyed a
large amount of United States property, brought off one hundred and
sixty-five prisoners and two hundred and sixty horses and mules. With
only twelve hundred men, he had ridden around the great Federal army—a
distance of about ninety miles in about fifty-six hours—with the loss of
only one man, the lamented young Latané. By that dashing ride, Stuart
gained for himself world-wide fame and an honorable place among the
great cavalry leaders of all time. The Chickahominy Raid was one of the
most brilliant cavalry achievements in history, and it inspired the
Confederates with fresh courage and excited Federal dread of the bold
cavalrymen who attempted and accomplished seemingly impossible things.
The information gained was invaluable for it made it possible for
General Lee to send Jackson against the right flank of McClellan and to
defeat the Federals at Cold Harbor.
In the Seven Days’ Battle around Richmond, which began on June 26,
Stuart at first guarded the left of Jackson’s march. In the battle of
Gaines’s Mill, he found a suitable position for the artillery. He sent
forward two guns under Pelham, a gallant young gunner from Alabama, who
kept up an unequal combat for hours with two Federal batteries. When the
Federal lines had been forced at Gaines’s Mill and Cold Harbor, Stuart
advanced three miles to the left; but finding no trace of the Federals,
he returned that night to Cold Harbor. On June 28, he proceeded toward
the White House on the Pamunkey river, which the Federals had abandoned
and burned. They had also set fire to many valuable stores and munitions
of war. The illustration on this page is from a war-time photograph,
showing the railroad bridge across the Pamunkey river which was
destroyed in order to render the road useless to the Confederates. When
McClellan changed his base from the White House to James river, he had
two trains loaded with food and ammunition run at full speed off the
embankment in the left foreground into the river, in order to keep these
stores from falling into the hands of the southern troops.
[Illustration: From a war-time photograph
RUINS OF RAILROAD BRIDGE ACROSS PAMUNKEY RIVER]
An interesting account of this campaign is given by Heros Von Borcke.
Von Borcke was a noble young Prussian officer who gave his services as a
volunteer to the Confederacy, just as LaFayette had given his services
to the Colonies in the War of the Revolution; Von Borcke served the
South so loyally that near the close of the war the Confederate Congress
drew up a resolution of thanks for his services in just the same form
that the Colonies had thanked LaFayette.
Von Borcke was one of Stuart’s aides and he distinguished himself by his
gallantry during the Chickahominy raid. He tells us that when the
Confederates arrived at the White House they found burning pyramids
built of barrels of eggs, bacon and hams, and barrels of sugar. There
were also boxes of oranges and lemons and other luxuries. Many of these
luxuries were rescued by the Confederates, and when Von Borcke reached
the plantation, shortly after it had been taken, he found General Stuart
seated under a tree drinking a big glass of iced lemonade, an unusual
treat for a Confederate soldier. All of Stuart’s troops had such a feast
as was seldom enjoyed during the war, and large quantities of supplies
and equipments were forwarded to the Confederate quartermaster at
Richmond.
The Federal gunboat, _Marblehead_, was still in sight on the river. The
soldiers at that period had an almost superstitious fear of the bombs
thrown by the big guns of the gunboats, which made an awful whizzing
noise and burst into many fragments. Stuart decided that he would teach
his troopers a lesson and show them how little harm the dreaded shells
did at short range. He selected seventy-five men whom he armed with
carbines and placed under command of Colonel W. H. F. Lee who led them
down to the landing. They fired at the boat and skirmishers were sent
ashore from the boat to meet them. A brisk skirmish followed, during
which Stuart brought up one gun of Pelham’s battery. This threw shells
upon the decks of the _Marblehead_, while the screeching bombs of the
big guns of the boat went over the heads of Pelham’s battery, far away
into the depths of the swamps. The skirmishers hurried back to the
_Marblehead_, and it steamed away down the river, pursued as far as
possible by shells from Pelham’s plucky little howitzer.
Stuart sent General Lee the important news that McClellan was seeking a
base upon the James river, and then stayed the remainder of the day at
the White House, where he found enough undestroyed provisions to satisfy
the hunger of the men and horses of his command.
After severe engagements with the Confederates at Savage Station and
Frayser’s Farm, the Union forces were forced to retreat, closely
followed by Jackson and Stuart. On the evening of July 1, was fought the
bloody battle of Malvern Hill, after which McClellan retreated by night
down the James to Harrison’s Landing where he was protected by the
gunboats.
Early on the morning of July 2, Stuart started in pursuit and found the
Federals in position at Westover. The next day he took possession of
Evelington Heights, a tableland overlooking McClellan’s encampment and
protecting his line of retreat. Here Stuart expected to be supported by
Longstreet and Jackson, and he opened fire with Pelham’s howitzer.
The Federal infantry and artillery at once moved forward to storm the
heights. Jackson and Longstreet were delayed by terrific storms, and
Stuart unsupported held his position until two o’clock in the afternoon
when his ammunition gave out. He then retired and joined the main body
of the infantry, which did not arrive until after the Federals had taken
possession of Evelington Heights and were fortifying it strongly.
The two armies now had a breathing spell of about one month. McClellan’s
defeated hosts remained in their protected position at Harrison’s
Landing until the middle of August, when they were recalled to join
General Pope at Manassas. General Lee’s army was withdrawn nearer to
Richmond which was saved from immediate danger.
CHAPTER V
A MAJOR GENERAL: CAMP LIFE AND THE SECOND BATTLE OF MANASSAS
1862
As a reward for his faithful and efficient services in the Peninsular
Campaign, Stuart received his commission as major general of cavalry on
July 25, 1862. His forces were now organized into two brigades, with
Brigadier-General Wade Hampton in command of the first and
Brigadier-General Fitzhugh Lee in command of the second. During the
month following the defeat of McClellan, these two brigades were placed
by turns on picket duty on the Charles City road to guard Richmond and
in the camp of instruction at Hanover Courthouse.
While conducting this camp of instruction where he drilled his men in
the cavalry tactics that were later to win them such honor, Stuart and
his staff were often pleasantly entertained at neighboring plantations.
Mrs. Stuart with her two little children, Flora, five years of age, and
“Jimmy,” aged two, was able to be near the general once more. The time
passed pleasantly, enlivened by cavalry drills, visits from the young
officers to the ladies of the vicinity, serenades and dances, and visits
from the ladies to the general’s headquarters.
One Sunday evening as the general and most of his staff were visiting at
Dundee, the plantation near which their camp was situated, a stable in
the yard caught fire and the visitors proved themselves as good firemen
as they were soldiers. The young Prussian officer, Von Borcke, an
unusually large and heavily-built man, was so energetic in his efforts,
that after the fire was out, the general, who was always fond of a joke,
insisted that he had seen the young officer rush from the burning
building with a mule under one arm and two little pigs under the other.
Stuart was soon called away from this pleasant life to make an
inspection of all the Confederate cavalry forces. It was evident that
General Lee’s army would soon be engaged against a new Federal
commander, General Pope, who was concentrating a large army on the
Rapidan river. General Jackson, who had been sent to hold General Pope
in check, had his headquarters at Gordonsville.
Major Von Borcke tells us that the cars carrying the Confederate troops
to Gordonsville were so crowded that General Stuart rode on the tender
of the engine, rather than take a seat away from one of the soldiers. It
was a hot night in July and there was a dense smoke from the engine, but
it was so dark that it was not until they reached Gordonsville that the
general discovered that both Von Borcke and himself were so black with
soot that their best friends would not have recognized them. Indeed, it
took a great deal of soap and water to make them presentable once more.
Stuart reached Jackson’s headquarters on August 10, the day after the
Federal advance guard had been defeated in the battle of Cedar Run. At
Jackson’s request, Stuart took command of a reconnaissance to find out
the position and strength of the enemy. Upon hearing his report, Jackson
decided to remain for the present on the defensive.
In the meantime, General Lee, who was watching General McClellan’s army
still encamped at Harrison’s Landing, received information that the
latter had been ordered to withdraw his forces and join General Pope at
Manassas.
Leaving a small force in front of Richmond, Lee hastened to join Jackson
so that they could engage Pope before his already large army was
reenforced by McClellan. The cavalry was kept very busy at this time as
it was necessary to defend the Central Road, now the Chesapeake and
Ohio, from Federal raids.
On the night of August 17, Stuart himself barely escaped capture. He
wrote an interesting account of this adventure to his wife, and Mrs.
Stuart has kindly allowed us to use the letter in this book. Here it is:
Rapidan Valley, August 19, 1862.
My Dear Wife—I had a very narrow escape yesterday morning. I had made
arrangement for Lee’s Brigade to move across from Davenport’s bridge
to Raccoon ford where I was to meet it, but Lee went by Louisa Court
House. His dispatch informing me of the fact did not reach me,
consequently I went down the Plank road to the place of rendezvous.
Hearing nothing of him, I stopped for the night and sent Major
Fitzhugh with a guide across to meet General Lee. At sunrise yesterday
a large body of cavalry from the very direction from which Lee was
expected, approached crossing the Plank road just below me and going
directly towards Raccoon ford. Of course I thought it was Lee—as no
Yankees had been seen about for a month, but as a measure of prudence
I sent down two men to ascertain. They had not gone 100 yards before
they were fired on and pursued rapidly by a squadron.
[Illustration: FACSIMILE OF PAGE OF LETTER FROM GENERAL STUART TO HIS
WIFE]
I was in the yard bareheaded, my hat being in the porch. I just had
time to mount my horse and clear the back fence, having no time to get
my hat or anything else. I lost my haversack, blanket, talma, cloak,
and _hat_, with that _palmetto star_—too bad, wasn’t it? I am all
right again, however, and I am greeted, on all sides with
congratulations and “_where’s your hat!_” I intend to make the Yankees
pay for that hat.
Poor Fitzhugh was not so fortunate. He was captured four miles off
under similar circumstances, with his fine grey. He will be exchanged
in ten days, however. Von Borcke and Dabney were with me (five
altogether) and their escape was equally miraculous. Dundee is the
best place for you at present. We will have hot work I think
to-morrow. My cavalry has an important part to play.
Love to all, my two sweethearts included.
God bless you.
J. E. B. Stuart.
A few days later, as you will hear, General Stuart collected payment for
his lost hat from General Pope himself. But before this took place, the
Confederate cavalry was engaged in several skirmishes with the Federals.
There was a severe encounter at Brandy Station on August 20 when
sixty-five prisoners were captured. The regiments which had fought under
Ashby, a gallant young officer who had been killed in the Valley, were
now added to Stuart’s division as Robertson’s Brigade. At Brandy
Station, these troopers fought under Stuart for the first time and he
was much pleased at their dash and bravery.
While Lee, who had now joined Jackson, was waiting a favorable
opportunity to attack the Federals, Stuart begged permission to pass to
the rear of Pope’s army and cut his line of communication at Catlett’s
Station where there was a large depot of supplies. General Lee gave his
consent, and on the morning of August 22, General Stuart crossed the
Rappahannock at Waterloo Bridge, to make a second raid to the rear of
the Federal army.
By nightfall the Confederates reached Auburn near Catlett’s Station,
where they captured the Federal pickets. Just as they reached the
station, however, a violent storm arose; and amid the wind and the rain
and the darkness, it seemed impossible to find their way. Fortunately,
they captured a negro who knew Stuart and who offered to show them the
way to Pope’s headquarters. They accepted his guidance and soon the
Confederate cavalry surprised the unsuspecting enemy, attacked the camp,
and captured a number of officers belonging to Pope’s staff, as well as
his horses, baggage, a large sum of money, and his dispatch book which
contained copies of the letters he had written to the government,
telling the location and plans of his army. But for the fact that
General Pope was out on a tour of inspection, he himself would have been
captured.
[Illustration: From a war-time sketch by
Harper’s Artist
CATLETT’S STATION
_Catlett’s Station where Stuart made a raid and captured Pope’s baggage,
Au-R. Ward_]
In the meantime, two of Stuart’s regiments had gained another part of
the camp, and an attempt was made to destroy the railroad bridge over
Cedar Run. But on account of the heavy rain it was impossible to fire
it, and, in the dense darkness, it was equally hard to cut asunder the
heavy timbers with the few axes which they found. Therefore, with more
than three hundred prisoners and valuable spoils, Stuart retired before
daybreak and regained in safety the Confederate lines.
Major Von Borcke gives an interesting incident of their return march. As
the troops—wet, cold, and hungry—passed through Warrenton, coffee was
served them by a number of young girls. One of the girls recognized
among the prisoners General Pope’s quartermaster. He had boasted several
days before, when at her father’s house, that he would enter Richmond
within a month. She had promptly bet him a bottle of wine that he would
not be able to do it, but as he was now a prisoner he would be obliged
to enter the city even earlier than he had hoped. She, therefore, asked
General Stuart’s permission to offer the quartermaster a bottle of wine
from his own captured supplies. The general readily granted her request,
and the Yankee prisoner entered good-naturedly into the jest, saying
that he would always be willing to drink the health of so charming a
person.
In retaliation for the loss of his hat and cloak, General Stuart sent
General Pope’s uniform to Richmond where for some days it hung in one of
the shop windows, to the delight of the populace who especially disliked
Pope on account of his bombast and cruelty. He had boasted that he had
come from the West where his soldiers always saw the backs of their
enemies, and he had authorized his soldiers to take whatever they wished
from the citizens of Virginia, whom he held responsible for damage done
by raiding parties of the Confederate army.
Two weeks later, General Stuart wrote his wife that Parson Landstreet, a
member of his staff who had been captured by the Federals, brought him a
message from General Pope. Pope said that he would send back Stuart’s
hat if Stuart would return his coat.
“But,” wrote Stuart, “I have got to see my hat first.”
It was against General Pope that the second Battle of Manassas was
fought, August 28, 29, and 30, 1862. General Stuart and his cavalry in
the maneuvers preceding the battle, screened the flank march of
Jackson’s troops to Grovetown, by which movement they placed themselves
between the Federal rear and Washington. It took two days for Jackson’s
“foot cavalry” to make this march, and so perfectly did Stuart do his
work that as late as August 28, Pope did not know to what place Jackson
had marched from Manassas.
In the three days’ battle that followed, the cavalry was ever on the
flank of the army, observing the Federals and guarding against attacks.
On the morning of August 29, after a sharp skirmish, Stuart met Lee and
Longstreet and opened the way for them to advance to the support of
Jackson whose forces on the right wing were engaged in unequal and
critical combat. Later on the same day, Stuart saw that the Federals
were massing in front of Jackson, and with a small detachment of cavalry
aided by Pelham and his guns, he gallantly held large forces in check
and protected Jackson’s captured wagon train of supplies. On the
afternoon of August 30, the cavalry did most effectual service,
following the retreating Federals and protecting the exposed Confederate
flank against heavy cavalry attacks. During the engagements, the
Confederate infantry could not have held its position but for the
assistance of the cavalry under the able direction of Stuart.
In these battles, Pope had forces largely superior in number and
equipment to Lee’s, but Pope’s losses in killed and wounded were much
the heavier. Finally he was forced to retreat toward Washington, leaving
in the hands of the Confederates many prisoners as well as captured
artillery, arms, and a large amount of stores. The North seemed
panic-stricken, as Washington was now directly exposed to the attacks of
the Confederates.
CHAPTER VI
THE MARYLAND CAMPAIGN
1862
General Lee knew, however, that he did not have men enough to take by
assault the strong fortifications around Washington, and he, therefore,
planned to cross over into Maryland before the Federal army had
recovered from its defeat, when its commanders were least expecting him.
In order that he might completely mislead them and make it appear that
he was beginning a general attack on Washington, he ordered Stuart and
his troops to advance toward that city.
In their advance, they engaged in several sharp skirmishes with the
Federals, finally driving them from Fairfax Courthouse, where, amid the
cheers of the inhabitants, Major Von Borcke planted the beloved
Confederate flag on a little common in the center of the village.
The people of this section had been under Federal control for several
months and their joy at seeing Stuart and his troops was unbounded. They
flocked to the roadside to get a glimpse of the great cavalry leader.
One lady, who had lost two sons in battle, came forward as the troops
passed her home and asked permission to kiss the general’s battle flag.
She held by the hand her only surviving son, a lad of fifteen years, and
declared herself ready if it were needed to give his life too for her
country.
On September 5, General Stuart and his forces crossed the Potomac. Four
days later, General Lee moved his entire army across the river, encamped
at Frederick, Maryland, and sent General Jackson to capture the strongly
fortified Federal arsenal at Harper’s Ferry.
Major Von Borcke, from whose _Memoirs of the Confederate War for
Independence_ we shall borrow several interesting incidents of this
Maryland campaign, tells us that the crossing of the cavalry at White’s
Ford was one of the most picturesque scenes of the war. The river is
very wide at this point, and its steep banks, rising to the height of
sixty feet, are overshadowed by large trees that trail from their
branches a perfect network of graceful and luxuriant vines. A sandy
island about midstream broke the passage of the horsemen and artillery,
and as a column of a thousand troops passed over, the rays of the
setting sun made the water look like burnished gold. The hearts of the
soldiers crossing the river thrilled at the sound of the familiar and
inspiring strains of “Maryland, my Maryland,” which greeted them from
the northern bank.
[Illustration: Copyright, 1914, by E. O.
Wiggins
From photograph owned by Gen. T. T. Munford
MAJOR HEROS VON BORCKE]
The enthusiasm of the Maryland people at Poolesville, where Stuart first
stopped, was boundless. Two young merchants of the village suddenly
resolved to enlist in the cavalry and they put up all their goods at
auction. The soldiers with the eagerness and carelessness of children
cleared out both establishments in less than an hour. Many other
recruits were made in this village, all the young men seeming to feel
the inspiration of General Stuart’s favorite song,
“If you want to have a good time
Jine the cavalry.”
At Urbana, a pretty little village on the road to Frederick, where
General Stuart with one division of his forces camped for several days,
a most exciting ball was held on the evening of September 8. There were
many charming families living in the neighborhood, and General Stuart
and his staff decided to give a dance at an old, unused academy located
on a hill just outside of the town. The young ladies of the neighborhood
willingly lent their help, and evening found the halls of the academy
lighted by tallow candles and draped with garlands of roses and with
battle flags borrowed from the regiments of the brigades. Music was
furnished by the band of a Mississippi regiment. The ball, which had
opened to the rousing strains of “Dixie,” was at its height, when a
young orderly rushed in and to the accompaniment of distant shots
reported that the Federals had driven in the pickets and were attacking
the camp.
Wild confusion prevailed. The officers got rapidly to horse and anxious
mammas collected their daughters. Upon reaching the scene of action,
General Stuart found that the danger had been overestimated and the
Federals were already beginning to retreat. In a short while, they had
been driven back; and by one o’clock, the staff officers had brought the
young ladies back to the academy and the ball had a second and more
auspicious opening. Dancing continued until dawn, when some soldiers
wounded in the skirmish were brought in, and the ball room was soon
converted into a hospital and the fair dancers into willing if
inexperienced nurses.
The next day, General Fitz Lee’s brigade was engaged in a skirmish, and
the day following Colonel Munford, who was commanding Robertson’s
Brigade, had a sharp encounter with Federals at Sugar Loaf Mountain. By
Sept. 11, the Federal cavalry was attacking in such force that General
Stuart saw that it was necessary to order a retreat toward Frederick.
General Fitz Lee commanded the advance; Colonel Munford protected the
rear, which as it approached Urbana had a sharp skirmish with the
closely-following Federal cavalry. General Stuart and his staff,
however, did not tear themselves away from their friends in this
hospitable little village until the Union troops were within half a mile
of the place and several shells had exploded in the street. From Urbana
the cavalry went to Frederick. Many years after the war was over, Mrs.
Stuart received a letter from a New York physician, who at the time of
the Maryland campaign had just won his title and a position on the staff
of one of the Union hospitals in Frederick.
He told about meeting General Stuart and then said, “I wish to bear
testimony to the fact that not only myself, but all the friends of the
Union cause in Frederick, so far as I could learn, were kindly treated
by both officers and private soldiers. I do not remember of a single
instance where private property was molested, nor was any taunt,
indignity, or insult offered to any person. Whittier’s ‘Barbara
Frietchie,’ which has attracted so much attention,—even that is
fiction.”
At Frederick, Stuart found that General Lee had already retreated across
South Mountain and taken a position at Sharpsburg on Antietam Creek,
while Jackson was investing Harper’s Ferry. Look at the map on page 95
and you will see that southwest of Frederick rises a small spur of the
Blue Ridge, called Catoctin Mountain on the other side of which is a
broad, fertile valley extending for about six miles to the base of South
Mountain. On the opposite side of South Mountain is Sharpsburg, and
across the same mountain to the south is Harper’s Ferry which Jackson
had been ordered to capture before he marched north to join Lee and
Longstreet at Sharpsburg.
Now you can see that until Harper’s Ferry fell it was necessary that the
cavalry should hinder the advance of the Federal army under McClellan
until Jackson could join Lee. This was especially difficult, because an
order from General Lee to General D. H. Hill, explaining fully the
commanding general’s plans and the location of all his forces, had
fallen into the hands of General McClellan and he was advancing a
tremendous army toward Sharpsburg as rapidly as possible.
As General McClellan’s forces advanced, General Stuart retreated slowly,
contesting every inch of ground. His retreat across Catoctin Mountain
was through Braddock’s Gap, along the same road where eighty-seven years
before, the young patriot, George Washington, had accompanied General
Braddock on the fatal expedition against Fort Duquesne. In this gap,
Stuart had a sharp encounter with the Federals. He and Major Von Borcke
who was commanding a gun on the height above the pass, narrowly escaped
being captured by Federal skirmishers who, under cover of the dense
forest, had worked their way around behind the gun.
Another sharp encounter took place on Kittochtan creek at Middletown,
half way across the valley, where General Stuart delayed the retreat of
his forces so long that they barely escaped capture and reached the foot
of South Mountain just in time to protect the two principal
passes,—Turner’s Gap which led directly through Boonsboro to Sharpsburg,
and Crampton’s Gap which led through Pleasant Valley to Harper’s Ferry.
It was necessary to hold these gaps and delay the enemy until Jackson
could capture Harper’s Ferry and unite his division with the remainder
of the army under General Lee. A heavy part of this work fell on the
cavalry and the artillery. The retreat of Generals Longstreet and Hill,
who had held Turner’s Gap until the afternoon of Sept. 14, was covered
by General Fitz Lee’s brigade which held the Federals in check at every
possible point. There was a sharp encounter at Boonsboro, where, in
charging, General W. H. F. Lee was ridden down by his own men and
narrowly escaped capture.
At Crampton’s Gap, which led through Pleasant Valley to Harper’s Ferry,
Colonel Munford gallantly checked the Federal advance until the evening
of Sept. 14, when the troops sent to assist him broke and retreated in
bad order through Pleasant Valley. General Stuart had been at Harper’s
Ferry conferring with General McLaws; when they heard of the engagement
at Crampton’s Gap, both generals rode quickly forward to meet the routed
and panic-stricken troops which they rallied and formed into line of
battle. The position that they held the next morning was so strong that
the advancing Federals hesitated to attack; just as the first shots were
being exchanged, the news of the surrender of Harper’s Ferry caused the
attacking party to begin a hasty retreat along the road that they had
come.
General Stuart at once reported to General Jackson, who requested him to
convey the news to General Lee at Sharpsburg. But even now Lee was in
great peril. He had with him, on the evening of Sept. 14 when the gaps
were stormed, only about 20,000 men; and McClellan’s army of more than
87,000 was advancing rapidly to attack him. Lee had now either to
recross the Potomac or to fight a battle north of that river.
He decided to make a stand, and on the night of Sept. 14, drew his army
across Antietam creek and took a strong position on a range of hills
east of the Hagerstown turnpike. Here he waited for Jackson who, by a
forced march, came up in time to take position on the left wing on the
morning of September 16. Even when reenforced by Jackson, Lee had a much
smaller force than McClellan.
On the evening of Sept. 16, McClellan attacked Jackson’s wing at the
left of Lee’s army, but was repulsed. At early dawn the next day, the
attack was renewed and the combat raged all day. When night ended the
bloody contest, the Confederates not only held their position, but had
advanced their lines on a part of the field. During the entire battle,
Stuart with his horse artillery and a small cavalry escort had guarded
the open hilly space between Jackson’s left and the Potomac river.
General Jackson in his report of this battle said: “This officer
(General Stuart) rendered valuable service throughout the day. His bold
use of artillery secured for us an important position which, had the
enemy possessed, might have commanded our left.”
The next day, Lee waited for McClellan to attack, but no movement came
from the hostile camp. Finding out through Stuart’s scouts that large
bodies of fresh troops were being sent to McClellan, Lee withdrew that
night to the south side of the Potomac, and by eleven o’clock the next
morning, he was again ready to give battle should the Federals pursue.
He had brought off nearly everything of value, leaving behind only
several disabled cannon and some of his wounded.
While Fitz Lee’s and Munford’s troops were left to protect the retreat
of the army, Stuart with a small force had gone up the Potomac to
Williamsport, hoping to divert the attention of the Federals from the
main body of the army and so enable it to cross the river unhindered.
This movement was successful, for large Federal forces were sent against
him, yet he maintained his position without reenforcements until the
night of September 20, when he recrossed the Potomac in safety.
During this short campaign, several interesting incidents occurred. On
one occasion, when the Federals were advancing toward Williamsport, a
young lady of the town obtained permission to fire a cannon that was
about to be discharged. After this, the soldiers always called that
cannon “the girl of Williamsport.”
Another time, Major Von Borcke tells us that he accompanied the general
on one of his favorite, yet dangerous reconnoitering expeditions outside
of the Confederate lines. They tried to keep themselves concealed by the
dense undergrowth, but they must have been observed by the pickets, for
in a short while Major Von Borcke heard the “little clicking sound that
a saber scabbard often makes in knocking against a tree,” and, looking
quickly around, he saw a long line of Federal cavalry. A few whispered
words to the general were enough; he and his aide put spurs to their
horses and once more justified their reputations as expert horsemen, for
they were soon hidden by the friendly trees, while their pursuers were
firing wildly in vain search for the escaped prey.
There were no serious engagements for the next few weeks and General
Lee’s army enjoyed a well deserved rest. The cavalry watched the
movements of the Federals and protected the camps from alarms. The
cavalry headquarters were delightfully situated near Charlestown on the
plantation of Mr. A. S. Dandridge. Because of its beautiful grove of
huge oak trees, this plantation was called The Bower. A comfortable old
brick mansion crowned the summit of a sloping hill on the sides of which
the tents of the camp were located under oak trees. At the foot of the
hill wound the sparkling little Opequan river. Here provisions were
plentiful once more, and the soldiers enjoyed fishing and hunting the
small game,—squirrels, rabbits, and partridges,—that abounded in the
nearby woods.
General Stuart had attached to his staff a remarkable young banjo
player, Bob Sweeny, who, with the assistance of two fiddlers and
Stuart’s mulatto servant Bob who rattled the bones unusually well,
furnished music around the camp fire for the men and served also on
serenades and at dances given to the officers at the hospitable
Dandridge mansion.
General Stuart was very fond of dancing, and when some of the young
officers of his staff were occasionally too tired and sleepy to want to
join in the fun, he would have them awakened and ordered to attend. Yet
they complained that when they did come the general would always get the
prettiest girl for his own partner.
But in spite of his joyous, fun-loving disposition, General Stuart was
always ready when duty called him. In his book, _Christ in the Camp_,
the Rev. J. William Jones says, “Stuart was an humble and earnest
Christian who took Christ as his personal Saviour, lived a stainless
life, and died a triumphant death.”
He tells us that General Stuart often came to get his advice in planning
services for the soldiers. Once when General Stuart wanted Dr. Jones to
recommend a chaplain for the cavalry outposts, the general said, “I do
not want a man who is not able to endure hardness as a good soldier. The
man who can not endure the hardships and privations of our rough riding
and hard service and be in place when needed would be of no earthly use
to us and is not wanted at my headquarters.”
CHAPTER VII
THE CHAMBERSBURG RAID
1862
On October 8, after a final dance and serenade to the ladies at The
Bower, Stuart started out to join the forces that he had ordered to
assemble at Darkesville, from which point he was to lead them on the
famous “Chambersburg Raid.”
The purpose of this raid, which had been ordered by General Lee, was to
march into Pennsylvania and Maryland and to secure information
concerning the location of McClellan’s army, and also to secure
provisions and horses for the Confederate forces.
Not a soldier of the 1,800 picked cavalrymen from the brigades of
Hampton, Fitz Lee, and Robertson or the gunners under Pelham, knew
whither they were going or for what purpose. Most of them, however, had
been with Stuart on his Chickahominy Raid, and all were content to
follow wherever he led.
[Illustration: MAP SHOWING THE ROUTES OF STUART’S CAVALRY IN GETTYSBURG
CAMPAIGN AND CHAMBERSBURG RAID]
In his address to his men at the beginning of the expedition, Stuart
said that the enterprise on which they were about to start demanded
coolness, decision, and bravery, implicit obedience and the strictest
order and sobriety in the camp and on the bivouac, but that with the
hearty coöperation of his officers and men he had no doubt of a success
which would reflect credit on them in the highest degree.
The men in fine spirits reached the Potomac after dark. The next
morning, they crossed the river at McCoy’s Ford, west of McClellan’s
army which was posted north of the Potomac between Shepherdstown and
Harper’s Ferry. A heavy fog hung over the river valley and hid them from
the Federal infantry which had just passed by.
A signal station on Fairview Heights was taken by twenty men detailed
for the purpose and then the column passed on toward Mercersburg. By
this time, the Federal pickets were aware of the raid; but as there was
no large force of cavalry at hand, its progress was unchecked. On and on
the little band of horsemen rode until at nightfall they reached
Chambersburg in Pennsylvania. As Maryland was regarded as a southern
State, nothing belonging to its citizens had been disturbed; but when
Pennsylvania was reached, soldiers detached from the commands for that
purpose, seized all suitable horses, giving each owner a receipt, so
that he could call upon the United States government for payment,—thus
forcing the administration at Washington either to help equip the
Confederate army or to make its own citizens suffer. Stuart, with his
usual gallantry, gave orders that the men should not take the horses of
ladies whom they might meet along the highway.
As the command approached Chambersburg on the night of October 10, a
cold drizzling rain set in. Two pieces of artillery were posted so as to
command the town, and Lieutenant Thomas Lee with nine men was sent into
the town to demand its surrender. No resistance was made and the troops
were at once marched into the town and drawn up on the public square.
Strict discipline was observed and only Federal property was used or
destroyed.
During the night, the rain came down in torrents on the weary, hungry
Confederates. Surrounded by increasing dangers, Stuart with his staff
neither rested nor slept. By that time, cavalry and infantry were on his
track and every ford of the Potomac was strongly guarded. At any time,
the heavy rains might cause the river to rise and cut off retreat. His
only hope was to move boldly and swiftly to a crossing before the water
could descend from the mountains and flood the streams. Stuart decided,
however, not to return the way he had come, as large forces of Federal
cavalry, like hornets, would be awaiting him there. He resolved to make
another ride around McClellan’s army and to cross at White’s Ford some
distance to the east, so close to the Federals that they would not be
looking for him there. The very boldness of the plan was its best
guarantee of success and the next morning the general started his men on
their dangerous march around the enemy.
[Illustration: STUART’S SWORD
From Original in Confederate Museum, Richmond, Va.]
Colonel A. K. McClure of the Philadelphia _Times_, then a colonel in the
Federal army and a resident of Chambersburg, gives the following account
of Stuart as he was preparing to leave Chambersburg: “General Stuart sat
on his horse in the center of the town, surrounded by his staff, and his
command was coming in from the country in large squads, leading their
old horses and riding the new ones which they had found in the stables
hereabout. General Stuart is of medium stature, has a keen eye, and wore
immense sandy whiskers and mustache. His demeanor to our people is that
of a humane soldier. In several instances his soldiers began to take
property from stores, but they were arrested by Stuart’s provost guard.”
This evidence as to the discipline of Stuart’s men comes from a Federal
officer, and shows fully the control that the general exercised over his
command.
The wounded in the Chambersburg hospital were paroled, the telegraph
wires were cut, and the ordnance storehouse was blown up by brave
Captain M. C. Butler of South Carolina, who now commanded the rear
guard. He notified the people near the ordnance storehouse that he was
about to set fire to it and then applied a slow fuse. There was a loud
explosion and then the flames burst forth. Satisfied that his work was
well done, Colonel Butler and his escort set out at a trot to rejoin the
command.
[Illustration: STUART’S PISTOL
From Original in Confederate Museum, Richmond, Va.]
[Illustration: STUART’s CARBINE
From Original in Confederate Museum, Richmond, Va.]
On the outskirts of the town, there came galloping up from the rear a
young soldier in gray, riding a big black horse. He wore no hat and one
boot was gone. He was covered with mud and was soaking wet, for he had
come into town with the rear guard about midnight in the darkness and
pouring rain. The command had halted for a few hours in a quiet side
street and had set out at break of day as the advance guard.
The young soldier’s foot had been hurt, so he dismounted and pulled off
his boot, in order to ease the pain. He then concluded to lie down for
awhile and perhaps take a nap, for he was very tired. Tying the bridle
rein to his foot, he lay down in the pouring rain and went to sleep.
When he awoke, it was broad daylight and he was all alone. In the
darkness of the cloudy dawn, his comrades had left him sleeping. His big
black horse was still tied to his foot, but his hat, his haversack, and
one of his boots were gone. Rising quickly, he mounted his horse and was
trying to decide which way to go when an old lady raised a window near
by and called out, “Sonny, your folks have gone that way.” With a
lighter heart he thanked her, and set off at a gallop along the
Gettysburg road to which she had pointed. As he sped along, the people
called out, “Go it, Johnny! Goodby, Johnny! Hurry, Johnny!” All seemed
to be in a good humor over the speedy departure of the Confederates. It
was not many minutes before he reached the rear of Butler’s detachment,
and was safe.
Soon after the break of day, the advance column under General Fitz Lee
started towards Gettysburg, but at Cashtown the column turned south
toward Emmitsburg in Maryland. When Stuart arrived at the latter place,
the people received him with great joy and the young ladies of the town
threw flowers at the troops. But in spite of this hearty welcome, the
Confederates could not linger, for they learned that a party of Federals
in search of them, had passed only a short time before.
Going in a steady trot without halting, Stuart passed on to the woods of
Frederick, and captured a courier with a dispatch from the commander of
the party sent out to find him. From this dispatch, he learned the
arrangements which had been made to capture him, and learned also that
the Federals did not know just where he was.
In the meantime, the Federal cavalry was hurrying to overtake him, but
Stuart, aware of his extreme danger, aimed straight for the Potomac. His
tired men and horses marched all night, and by dawn on October 13, they
reached Hyattstown where a few wagons were captured. On the march,
Stuart had learned that a division of five thousand men was guarding the
fords in front of him. Knowing that delay would increase his peril, he
hastened on in the direction of Poolesville where a body of Federal
cavalry was located.
When within two miles of that town, guided by Captain White who was
familiar with the region, he turned abruptly through some woods which
concealed his movements and gained the road leading to the river about
two miles distant. Hardly had the Confederates entered this road when
the advance squadron met the head of the Federal column coming from
Poolesville. General Stuart, who was at the head of the squadron,
ordered a charge and drove the Federals back upon the main body half a
mile away. Thinking that Stuart was aiming to cross the strongly-guarded
ford at the mouth of the Monocacy river, the Federals, instead of
seizing this favorable opportunity to make an advance and crush the
Confederate cavalry, waited for their infantry to come up.
In the meanwhile, General Fitz Lee’s sharpshooters leaped from their
horses and went forward while one of Pelham’s guns was brought up. Under
cover of its fire and screened from view by the ridge upon which it was
placed, General Lee’s command moved on by a farm road to White’s Ford.
When General Lee reached White’s Ford, he found a force of two hundred
Federal infantry so strongly posted on the steep bank overlooking the
ford that a crossing seemed impossible. Infantry in front and cavalry in
the rear! Would it be possible to escape from the snare by which they
were surrounded? Nothing but boldness and swiftness could save them.
General Lee sent a courier to General Stuart who was on the Poolesville
road with Pelham’s guns and the skirmishers keeping back Federal
troopers until the rear guard should come up.
“I do not believe that the ford can be crossed,” said General Lee.
Stuart replied, “I am occupied in the rear, but the ford must be crossed
at all hazards.”
General Lee, therefore, prepared to attack the Federal infantry in its
strong position on the bluff. One part of his force was to assail it in
front and on the left flank, while a strong body of cavalry endeavored
to cross and hold the ford. Lee hoped to be able to get one gun placed
on the opposite bank and then to fire on the Federal rear.
While making his hurried preparations, it occurred to General Lee to try
a game of “bluff.” Under flag of truce, he sent a note to the Federal
commander, saying that General Stuart’s whole command was in his front
and needless bloodshed would be avoided if he would surrender. Fifteen
minutes was allowed him to consider this demand.
After fifteen minutes’ anxious waiting and no reply, General Fitz Lee
opened with his artillery and was preparing to advance his horsemen,
when it was seen that the Federals, with flags flying and band playing,
were retreating in perfect order down the river.
A wild cheer broke from the Confederates as some of their men rushed
across the ford to place a piece of artillery at the top of the steep
bank on the Virginia side of the Potomac. Another gun was hurried
forward and placed so as to sweep the tow-path and the approaches to the
ford, While the long line of cavalrymen and captured horses passed
rapidly across to safety. Once more Stuart had slipped through the hands
of his enemy.
In the meanwhile, Pelham held the Federals in check until all but the
rear guard under Colonel Butler had passed. Then he began to withdraw,
making his last stand on the Maryland side of the ford, where he fired
up and down the river at the Federal cavalry now advancing in both
directions. But the rear guard was still far behind. Major McClellan
tells us that General Stuart had sent back four couriers to hurry up
Colonel Butler; still he did not come. In this dilemma, Captain
Blackford volunteered to find him.
Stuart paused a moment and then extending his hand said, “All right! and
if we do not meet again, good-by, old fellow.”
Blackford galloped off and found Butler with his own regiment and the
North Carolina detachment and one gun, engaged in delaying the advance
of the enemy in the Poolesville road. Blackford rode rapidly toward him
and shouted, “General Stuart says, ‘Withdraw at a gallop, or you will be
cut off.’”
“But,” replied Butler, with great coolness, “I don’t think I can bring
off that gun. The horses can’t move it.”
“Leave the gun and save your men!” replied Blackford.
“Well, we’ll see what can be done,” said Butler, and then he ordered the
drivers to make one more effort. That time they were successful. The
weary horses pulled the wheels out of the mudhole and the gun went
rattling down the road, followed by the tardy but gallant rear guard.
The Federal cavalry and artillery were following and infantry was
approaching in two directions; but the rear guard slipped through the
net, dashed rapidly across the ford, and soon was safe in Virginia.
The joy of the men and their commander at the success of their
expedition was unbounded. The Federals were near enough to hear the
Confederate cheers that greeted General Stuart as he rode along his
lines on the Virginia side.
In the official report of the expedition, Stuart claimed no personal
credit, but closed the report by saying, “Believing that the hand of God
was clearly manifested in the deliverance of my command from danger and
the crowning success attending it, I ascribe to him the praise, the
honor, and the glory.”
The march of the Confederate cavalry from Chambersburg is one of the
most remarkable in history. In thirty-six hours, the Confederates rode
ninety miles, going completely around the Union army. They carried off
hundreds of horses, and recrossed the Potomac in the presence of vastly
superior forces of the Federals. Only one man was wounded and two
stragglers were captured.
[Illustration: GENERAL STUART IN 1862
From an original negative by Cooke, the only negative from life that is
extant]
General Stuart himself, however, suffered a heavy personal loss, for his
servant Bob who rattled the bones so well, got separated from the
column, with two of the general’s favorite horses, Skylark and Lady
Margaret. He wrote his wife that he hoped that they had fallen into the
hands of the good secessionists at Emmitsburg, for he could not bear to
think of the Federals having his favorite horses.
The horses of the Federal cavalry had been so worn out in pursuit of the
wily Stuart that remounts were necessary before the cavalry could again
advance into Virginia. The whole North was astonished and indignant that
Stuart had again ridden completely around the Union army and had again
made his escape.
To the South, Stuart was a peerless hero and he was welcomed with great
acclamation. A lady of Baltimore, as a token of her appreciation of his
gallantry, sent him a pair of gold spurs. He was very proud of these and
in his intimate letters after this, he sometimes signed himself, “K. G.
S.”, or “Knight of the Golden Spurs.”
CHAPTER VIII
THE CAVALRY AT CULPEPER AND FREDERICKSBURG
1862-’63
The brief space of two days was all the time given to the men and horses
of Stuart’s command to rest and enjoy life at The Bower, before they
were again called out to active service. General McClellan had sent two
large forces of infantry and cavalry across the river to find out
whether General Lee’s army was still in the Valley or whether it had
moved east of the Blue Ridge mountains. After several skirmishes with
Stuart’s cavalry, these troops retired, convinced that Lee was still in
the Valley.
On October 26, McClellan crossed the Potomac and the weather continuing
fine, he advanced his entire army to begin an autumn campaign against
Lee. A week later, his forces began to advance toward Washington, a
little village northwest of Culpeper and near the headwaters of the
Rappahannock. This position was desirable because it would give an easy
route toward Richmond. General Lee, however, sent Longstreet at once
with some of the cavalry to head off the Federals at Culpeper, while
Jackson was to remain in the Valley and threaten their rear.
[Illustration: MAJOR JOHN PELHAM]
In the meantime, Stuart bade a final farewell to his pleasant camp
quarters and his friends at the Dandridge mansion. His force fell slowly
back toward Culpeper, contesting every inch of ground against the
overwhelming numbers of the Federal cavalry. Sharp encounters took place
at Union, Middleburg, and Upperville, in which the artillery under
Pelham did wonderfully daring and effective work. In these encounters,
the Federals lost nearly twice as many men as did the Confederates, but
it was impossible for Stuart’s small forces to hold any permanent ground
against the greatly superior numbers now marching against him.
At Ashby’s Gap, General Stuart came near being cut off from his own
forces. He had commanded Colonel Rosser to hold this gap while he,
accompanied by a few members of his staff, rode across the mountain for
a conference with General Jackson. When Stuart returned the next day,
after a hard ride over a little-used mountain trail, what was his
surprise on reaching a point just above what had been his own camp, to
find the place literally swarming with blue-coats.
Rosser had found it necessary to withdraw before the superior numbers of
the Federals and his couriers who went to inform Stuart of this fact had
missed the general who had returned by a short cut across the mountain.
He and his men were indeed in a serious predicament, and had they not
found a mountaineer, who knew the trails on the other side of the
mountain, there is no telling when or where General Stuart would have
joined his command. He was guided safely to Barber’s Cross Roads where
his forces had retreated and he made the simple and faithful mountaineer
happy with a fifty-dollar note.
On November 10, there was an engagement at Barber’s Cross Roads, and the
Confederate cavalry was forced to retreat through Orleans and across the
Rappahannock at Waterloo Bridge. That night Stuart received the news of
the death of his dear little daughter, Flora. For some time he had known
of her serious illness, and the doctor had written that he must come
home if he wished to see her, but he knew that his country needed him to
hold the Federal cavalry in check.
When the second urgent call reached him on the field of battle near
Union, he wrote Mrs. Stuart: “I was at no loss to decide that it was my
duty to you and to Flora to remain here. I am entrusted with the conduct
of affairs, the issue of which will affect you, her, and the mothers and
children of our whole country much more seriously than we can believe.
“If my darling’s case is hopeless, there are ten chances to one that I
will get to Lynchburg too late; if she is convalescent, why should my
presence be necessary? She was sick nine days before I knew it. Let us
trust in the good God who has blessed us so much, that He will spare our
child to us, but if it should please Him to take her from us, let us
bear it with Christian fortitude and resignation.”
Major Von Borcke, who opened the telegram telling of the child’s death,
says that when the general read it he was completely overcome, but that
he bore his loss most bravely, especially when Mrs. Stuart came to visit
him a few days later at Culpeper.
He never forgot his “little darling” and often talked of her to Von
Borcke, who says very prettily: “Light blue flowers recalled her eyes to
him; in the glancing sunbeams he caught the golden tinge of her hair,
and whenever he saw a child with such eyes and hair he could not help
tenderly embracing it. He thought of her on his deathbed, and drawing me
to him he whispered, ‘My dear friend, I shall soon be with my little
Flora again.’”
Yet such a father could put aside his own feelings when he felt that his
country needed him. Duty to God and his country were his watchwords, and
this high and unselfish sense of duty and patriotism was the foundation
of his greatness both as a man and a soldier.
The cavalry fell back from Waterloo Bridge to join Longstreet at
Culpeper, but every day it was engaged in sharp skirmishes with the
Federal cavalry. In one of these engagements, General Stuart had an
amusing experience that narrowly escaped being a serious one. Major Von
Borcke tells us that while his cavalry was being forced back under a
very heavy fire, Stuart in endeavoring to make it hold its position,
uselessly but according to his custom, exposed his own person on
horseback by riding out of the wood into an open field where he and his
aide were excellent targets for their enemies. Von Borcke remonstrated,
but the general, who could not bear to have the day go against him,
curtly said to his young aide, “If it is too hot for you, you can
retire.”
Of course, Von Borcke remained in his position at the general’s side,
but he did shelter himself from the rain of bullets, behind a convenient
tree. From this position, a few moments later he saw Stuart raise his
hand quickly to his beloved mustache, one half of which had been neatly
cut away by a whistling bullet.
As a result of their heavy and continuous marching, the horses of
Stuart’s troops were in bad condition, many of them having sore tongues
and a disease known as “grease heel”; in spite of this and the absence
of many men who had gone home to procure fresh horses, the services now
rendered by the cavalry were invaluable. General Lee said in his report
of this campaign that the vigilance, activity, and courage of the
cavalry were conspicuous, and to its assistance was due in a great
measure the success of some of the army’s most important operations.
While General Lee was awaiting the movements of the Federal army, an
event happened which changed the entire aspect of military affairs.
General McClellan was removed from command and General Burnside was put
in his place. General McClellan had been too slow and cautious to suit
the authorities at Washington; so, much to the delight of the
Confederate government, this able general was removed just as his
campaign had begun.
General Burnside remained at Warrenton ten days in order to reorganize
his army into three divisions. Then he began to move his forces toward
Fredericksburg on the Rappahannock river. This movement was at once
observed by Stuart and reported to General Lee who immediately began to
move troops toward Fredericksburg. When Burnside’s forces reached the
northern bank of the river, they found the town in Lee’s possession and
the heights to the south of it crowned by his artillery.
General Lee now ordered General Jackson to come from the Valley to join
him. While waiting for this reenforcement, he began to construct
earthworks for his artillery and to dig rifle-pits for his infantry on
the range of hills extending in a semicircle for five miles south of the
river. Here with Hampton guarding the left wing of the army and Stuart
the right, the Confederates camped in comparative quiet until early in
December.
During this period, there were several heavy snowstorms which the
soldiers enjoyed like so many schoolboys. Major Von Borcke tells of a
snow battle when several hundred men of McLaws’ division charged across
a snow-covered plain half a mile wide, on the quarters of Hood’s
division. Suddenly Hood’s whole division, led by its officers with
colors flying, advanced against the attacking party which was driven
back some distance. Then receiving reenforcements from their own
division, the men rallied and threw up entrenchments behind which they
made a stand. The air was white with flying snowballs, and the contest
waxed hottest just at Stuart’s headquarters where he stood on a box and
cheered the contestants. Hood’s men finally drove their opponents from
the snow entrenchments, and would have routed them utterly, had not
Anderson’s division come up to assist their fleeing comrades. With these
reenforcements, McLaws’ men suddenly turned and drove Hood’s division
back home. From these sham battles, the army turned soon to real
warfare.
General Burnside had posted guns on Stafford Heights opposite
Fredericksburg and on December 10, he shelled the town. Then his
splendid army of 116,000 men crossed the river on pontoon bridges, and
on the morning of December 13, it stormed Lee’s position. The battle
raged all day, but the Federals were repulsed at all points and when
night closed, the Confederates were still holding their position.
This battle of Fredericksburg offered little opportunity for cavalry
charges, but General Fitz Lee kept watch over the fords on the
Confederate left, while General W. H. F. Lee was posted on the right.
Stuart also remained on the right as it was the weakest part of the
line, and was in constant conference with Lee and Jackson.
As the Federals made their first advance against the troops of Jackson
at Hamilton’s Crossing near the extreme right, Major Pelham of the
Stuart Horse Artillery in an exposed position opened a cross fire with
one gun and caused them to halt for over an hour. Five Federal batteries
opened upon him, but he continued to fire until withdrawn by Stuart.
Both General Lee and General Jackson were on the extreme right and
witnessed the wonderful work done by Major Pelham’s gun. Both of them in
their reports of this battle mentioned the genius and bravery of the
young Alabamian.
General Jackson asked General Stuart, “Have you another Pelham, general?
If so, I wish that you would give him to me.”
General Lee expected the battle to be renewed the next morning, but
Burnside remained quiet, and, on the night of December 15, in a violent
storm of wind and rain, he withdrew to the opposite bank.
It soon became evident that Burnside had no intention of renewing the
combat, but was preparing to pass the winter on the Stafford hills on
the northern side of the river. General Lee’s army, therefore, went into
winter quarters along the south bank of the Rappahannock. The infantry
and artillery built snug log huts, and began, in spite of the want of
good rations and warm clothes, to enjoy the rest from marching and
fighting.
The cavalry, however, had no rest, for upon its vigilance depended the
safety of the army. It observed the Federal movements, watched the fords
of the river, and made continual raids to the rear of Burnside’s army.
On December 20, General Stuart set out with 1,800 men under the command
of his tried and true generals, Hampton, Fitz Lee, and W. H. F. Lee, on
what is known as the “Dumfries Raid.” They were to pass by different
routes to the rear of Burnside’s army, to cut his line of communication
with Washington city, and to destroy all wagons and stores that they
could not bring off.
[Illustration: From a war-time photograph
CONFEDERATES DESTROYING RAILROAD]
Stuart led his forces between various army-posts that guarded the rear
of Burnside’s army, avoiding the strongest and attacking others which he
knew to be weak or ignorant of his approach. He at last marched north to
Burke’s Station, where his keen sense of humor caused him to play a joke
on the authorities at Washington.
He surprised the telegraph operator at the instrument, just as he was
receiving a message from headquarters at the capital, telling of
measures which were being taken to capture Stuart’s command. Having thus
gained important information, Stuart put one of his own men in the
operator’s place and sent a message to Meigs, the quartermaster general
at Washington.
“I am much satisfied with the transport of mules lately sent, which I
have taken possession of, and request that you send me a fresh supply.
J. E. B. Stuart.”
This message produced great consternation in Washington, where the
people were as afraid of Stuart and his cavalry as they were of the
whole Confederate army.
After thus revealing his whereabouts, Stuart marched quickly back to
Culpeper Courthouse, which he reached on December 30, having lost on the
raid, one killed, thirteen wounded, and fourteen missing. About twenty
wagons and some stores had been captured. This was the fourth raid that
Stuart had made around or to the rear of the Federals, without capture
or serious loss.
[Illustration: From a war-time photograph
FEDERALS REPAIRING RAILROAD WHICH CONFEDERATES HAD DESTROYED]
The Rev. Dr. Dabney in his _Life of Stonewall Jackson_ tells us that
during this winter, General Jackson had for his headquarters a hunting
lodge near Moss Neck. Here he was often visited by General Stuart on his
rounds of official duty. These visits were always welcome to Jackson who
admired and loved the young cavalry leader and they were the signal of
fun for the young men of the staff. While Stuart poured out “quips and
cranks,” often at Jackson’s expense, the latter sat by, silent and
blushing, but enjoying the jests with a quiet laugh.
The walls of the lodge were ornamented with pictures which gave Stuart
many a topic for jokes. Pretending to believe that they had been
selected by Jackson himself, he would point now to the portrait of a
famous race horse and now to the print of a dog noted for his hunting
feats, and remark that they showed queer taste for a devout
Presbyterian. Once Jackson, with a smile, replied that perhaps in his
youth he had been fonder of race horses than his friends suspected.
One day, in the midst of a gay conversation, dinner was announced and
the two generals with their aides passed to the mess table. The center
of the table was graced by a print of butter upon which was impressed
the image of a rooster. It had been presented to Jackson by a lady of
the neighborhood and had been placed upon the table in honor of Stuart.
As the eyes of the gay young general fell upon it, they sparkled with
glee and he exclaimed, “See there, gentlemen! We have the crowning
evidence of our host’s sporting tastes. He even puts his favorite
gamecock upon his butter!”
The dinner, of course, began with merry laughter in which General
Jackson joined with much zest.
In patriotism, in bravery, and in military skill, says Dr. Dabney, these
two men were kindred spirits, but Stuart’s cheerfulness and humor were
the opposites of Jackson’s serious and diffident temper.
Though bitter cold weather had now set in, General Burnside resolved to
make an effort to turn the right of General Lee’s army and drive him
from his winter quarters at Fredericksburg. This attempt, however, was
unsuccessful, and General Burnside’s failure at Fredericksburg caused
him to be replaced by General Joseph Hooker, called “Fighting Joe
Hooker.”
Hooker reorganized the army into corps; and made one corps of the
cavalry, with tried and skillful officers. He also provided the cavalry
with the best horses and equipments that money could procure. He
realized that the Federal cavalry had never been fit to contend
successfully with Stuart and the forces under his command, and so now
did all in his power to strengthen this branch of the Federal service.
By the early spring, Hooker had his army completely reorganized and
ready to begin a campaign against General Lee.
CHAPTER IX
CHANCELLORSVILLE
1863
In the meanwhile, General Lee’s soldiers across the Rappahannock river
suffered greatly for want of proper food and clothing during the long
cold winter. The appeals of their beloved commander to the Confederate
government were not heeded; but the soldiers endured their privations
with great fortitude and when spring arrived, they were ready for the
coming great battle with the army of “Fighting Joe Hooker.”
On March 17, St. Patrick’s Day, there was a cavalry engagement at
Kelly’s Ford, near Culpeper, where General Fitz Lee won a remarkable
victory over a large force of Federal cavalry under Brigadier-General
Averell. Lee, who was stationed at Culpeper, had only about 800 men to
meet more than 2,000 Federals, but he disposed his forces with such
skill and fought so stubbornly that Averell, in spite of the fact that
he had a large force in reserve, was unable to break Lee’s thin lines
and retreated across the river.
General Stuart happened to be at Culpeper, attending a court martial,
when this engagement occurred. He saw how skillfully Lee was handling
the situation and unselfishly refused to assume command, wishing his
able brigadier general to win all the glory of repulsing such a large
force.
In this battle, John Pelham, Stuart’s young chief of artillery of whom
we have so often spoken, was killed. He had accompanied Stuart to
Culpeper, merely on a visit of pleasure, but when he heard the call of
Confederate artillery, even though it was not his own guns, he
immediately went forward to take part in the engagement. Borrowing a
horse from Bob Sweeny, he hurried to the battle ground. He rushed into
the thickest of the fray, to rally a regiment that was beginning to
waver.
Just as he shouted, “Forward, boys! forward to victory and glory!” he
was mortally wounded by a fragment of a shell.
The whole South mourned the death of this young hero. James R. Randall,
the author of “Maryland, My Maryland,” said of him:
“Gentlest and bravest in the battle brunt,
The Champion of the Truth,
He bore the banner to the very front
Of our immortal youth.”
His body was carried to Richmond and lay in state in the Capitol, until
it could be borne under proper military escort to his native state,
Alabama. Stuart, who loved Pelham like a son, went to Richmond to be
present at the funeral.
When he wrote Mrs. Stuart of the young hero’s death, he said, “His
record is complete and it is spotless and noble. His character pure and
his disposition as sweet and innocent as our child.” The general had a
strong personal affection for the young men of his staff and the death
of Pelham was as great a grief to Stuart as it was a loss to the army.
Stuart’s men and horses were greatly weakened by the heavy and almost
constant skirmishes, picket duty, and raids in which they had been
engaged since the fall. On the other hand, the Federal cavalry, just
reorganized into one splendid corps under the command of Major-General
George Stoneman, was in better condition than ever before. General
Hooker depended upon this large and finely-equipped force to open a
campaign which would prove fatal to General Lee’s army.
General Stoneman was ordered to cross the Rappahannock river at one of
the fords in Culpeper county and, after dispersing the small force of
Confederate cavalry in that vicinity, to proceed toward Richmond,
destroying the Central Railroad, capturing all supply stations, and
doing all possible damage along the Pamunkey river. He was then to
proceed to the Richmond and Fredericksburg Railroad, and by breaking up
that road and burning certain bridges, to cut General Lee’s army off
from Richmond. As soon as Stoneman started on his raid, the “Grand
Army,” as it was called, under General Hooker himself, was to move to
Chancellorsville about ten miles southwest of Fredericksburg. Thus
General Lee was to be forced to come out of his entrenched position and
to give battle on ground of Hooker’s own choosing.
Several bodies of Federal cavalry tried to cross at various fords on the
Rappahannock and Rapidan rivers, but were repulsed by small bodies of
watchful Confederate pickets. The rivers were now rising rapidly from
the usual spring rains, and the Rappahannock became so swollen that the
advance of Stoneman was checked for two weeks. Many of Stuart’s troopers
were absent for various reasons and he had only about two thousand men
with whom to guard the fords and to cover a front of more than fifty
miles.
On the afternoon of April 24, three corps of Federal infantry appeared
at Kelly’s Ford. A strong party crossed in boats and drove the pickets
from the ford. They then laid a pontoon bridge; and during the night,
the Twelfth Army Corps passed to the southern shore. The next morning,
Stuart learned that the entire Grand Army was on the move. He
telegraphed this information to General Lee who ordered Stuart at once
to swing around the Federal divisions that had crossed the river and
join him at Fredericksburg. General W. H. F. Lee with only two
regiments—a small force but all that could be spared—was sent to protect
the Central Railroad from Stoneman’s cavalry.
[Illustration: From a war-time photograph
A PONTOON BRIDGE
Made by laying timbers on wooden or canvas boats]
Stuart, skirmishing day and night with the Federal cavalry, marched
rapidly to the help of Lee. As the cavalry passed at night through the
dark forest lighted only by the faint rays of a crescent moon, they had
frequent alarms and several encounters with small forces of the Federal
cavalry already posted in the woods.
At one time, Stuart, accompanied by only a few officers of his staff,
was riding some distance ahead of his brigade, and met such a large
Federal force that he was compelled to take flight. Later, when riding
at the head of a regiment that he had called up as an advance guard, he
suddenly encountered several regiments of hostile cavalry drawn up
across a field in line of battle. Stuart’s small force became
panic-stricken. All efforts of the general to rally his men were in vain
and he was compelled a second time to retreat hastily. It seemed for a
time that he would be cut off from his forces, but Colonel Munford came
up with his regiment, charged gallantly, captured most of the attacking
Federals, and left the road again open. Several such skirmishes occurred
and the troops were rendered almost panic-stricken by these unlooked-for
attacks. In the darkness, they often fired on each other instead of on
their foe, and they feared an ambush at each turn of the road.
Altogether, it was a march of doubt and danger, but they finally reached
Lee’s army without serious loss.
Chancellorsville, to which place the main army of General Hooker was
being moved, was not a town, but merely a large farmhouse surrounded by
the usual outbuildings. Toward Fredericksburg ten miles distant, the
country was somewhat open; but in every other direction it was covered
with tall pines and with dense thickets of scrub oaks and many other
kinds of trees and flowering plants. This forest, called “the
Wilderness,” was about twenty miles long and fifteen broad. It was
traversed by two good roads, the Plank road and the old Turnpike; it was
along these roads, the possession of which would, of course, be hotly
contested by the Federal troops, that General Lee would have to send his
forces to attack General Hooker in his strong position at
Chancellorsville.
But on the night of the first of May, just after the first skirmishing
had occurred along these two roads, Stuart brought information that
changed the situation decidedly. He rode up about eleven o’clock to an
old fallen tree where Lee and Jackson were talking over the plans for
the next day, and reported that while Hooker had fortified his position
at Chancellorsville on the east, the south, and the southwest, upon the
north and the west he had no defences. At the same time, information had
been secured concerning an old road by which a circuit could be made
around Hooker’s army. Jackson at once conceived the idea of making a
forced march by this road so as to attack Hooker in the rear on the next
day. Lee agreed, as on this plan seemed to depend their one chance of
success.
The next morning, General Lee with about 14,000 men remained in front of
the Federals on the Plank and Turnpike roads, while Jackson with three
divisions marched fifteen miles through the forest and about three
o’clock in the afternoon reached the rear of Hooker’s army on the west.
General Fitz Lee with the First Virginia cavalry led the advance while
the other regiments of cavalry protected the right of Jackson’s line of
march. Colonel Munford, commander of one of these regiments, was
familiar with this part of the country and rendered valuable service as
a guide to Jackson.
As Jackson’s command marched first directly south by the Furnace road,
Federal scouts, who were spying from the tops of tall pine trees,
thought that Lee’s army was in full retreat. They carried this report to
Hooker who sent forward two divisions to attack the marching column. By
that time, Jackson had turned to the west and, completely screened by
trees and undergrowth, was marching rapidly along the old road. The rear
of his column, however, was attacked near Catherine Furnace. This attack
was soon checked by McLaws, whom Lee sent forward from his small force,
and by two regiments sent back by Jackson when he heard the firing in
his rear.
While the infantry was swinging along the forest road, the cavalry had
reached the Plank road, near Chancellorsville, and was awaiting General
Jackson. Fitz Lee, impatient at the delay, rode toward the Federal line,
and found to his surprise that it was near at hand and in full view from
his post of observation. The Federals did not dream that the
Confederates could reach the road at this point and so had no guards
stationed there.
Afterwards Fitz Lee thus described the scene: “Below and but a few
hundred yards distant, ran the Federal line of battle. There was the
line of defense and long lines of stacked arms in the rear. Two cannons
were visible in the part of the line seen. The soldiers were in groups
in the rear, laughing, chatting, smoking; probably engaged, here and
there, in a game of cards and other amusements indulged in when feeling
safe and awaiting orders. In the rear were other persons driving up and
butchering beeves.”
Realizing the importance of his discovery, Lee rode back to meet Jackson
and guided him to the same place of observation. Jackson immediately
placed his troops in position on the turnpike and ordered them to
advance and attack the unsuspecting enemy. As long as the dense growth
and rough ground permitted, Stuart and his cavalry guarded the left
flank. After a rapid march through the tangled thickets, the men rushed
forward with wild cheers and dashed upon the unsuspecting Federals as
they were cooking their suppers. The panic-stricken Federal soldiers
rushed back upon their center, and as the terror spread, after them went
horses, wagons, cannon, men—speeding to recross the Rappahannock. The
officers tried in vain to stop the fleeing men. For a while, the panic
was so great that the destruction of Hooker’s army seemed certain.
After pursuing the Federals for two hours until they were within half a
mile of Hooker’s headquarters at the Chancellor house, the Confederates
stopped in the darkness to reform. Just at this critical moment, General
Hooker succeeded in bringing up reenforcements and posted fresh
artillery in the edge of the woods on Hazel Grove, a small hill in front
of General Jackson’s assaulting column. Still, however, the soldiers in
gray advanced. General A. P. Hill’s division was now ordered to the
front to take charge of the pursuit. While he was engaged in forming his
lines, General Jackson with several aides and couriers rode down the
Plank road nearly to the defenses around Chancellorsville. As they were
returning, they were fired upon by some of their own men who had been
posted in the thickets and who, in the moonlight, mistook Jackson and
his escort for Federal cavalry.
General Jackson was wounded and was borne from the field. A little
later, General Hill also was wounded. Jackson then sent for Stuart who
had been ordered to hold the road to Ely’s Ford, one of the Federal
lines of retreat.
As soon as Stuart received the sad news that Jackson had been wounded,
he placed Fitz Lee in command of the force holding the road and hastened
into the heart of the Wilderness. It was midnight when he arrived at the
front and according to Jackson’s orders assumed command of the
victorious but wearied corps.
[Illustration: GENERAL STONEWALL JACKSON
From an original negative by Cooke, the last photograph made of General
Jackson]
Stuart, not knowing Jackson’s plans for completing the movement, sent an
aide to Jackson to request instructions.
General Jackson replied, “Tell General Stuart to act upon his own
judgment and do what he thinks best. I have implicit trust in him.”
Such a message from his loved chieftain must have meant much to the
young general who found himself suddenly confronted with such a serious
situation, and the next day he proved that Jackson had not trusted him
in vain.
First of all, it was necessary that Stuart, who had been absent from the
front sometime, should have a clear idea of the position of his men and
of the Federals. He, therefore, at once called a meeting of the infantry
commanders. As a result of this consultation, it was decided to defer
until the next morning the attack upon the strong fortifications around
Chancellorsville. The rest of the night was spent by the officers in
preparations for the coming assault; the men lay upon their arms and
took a brief rest.
When morning dawned, the guns of Lee, who was working his way along the
two main roads to join Jackson, thundered on the east and the south, and
those of Stuart answered on the west. In both wings of Lee’s army, the
battle raged furiously. After many assaults, Hazel Grove where the
Federal artillery and infantry were posted in force, was taken by
Stuart. Then arose a mighty struggle for the clearing around the
Chancellor house. Stuart ordered thirty pieces of artillery to be posted
so as to sweep the clearing with canister and grapeshot. Under this
fire, his own men advanced, Stuart himself leading two of the charges.
One of his officers said that he “looked like a very god of battle.” As
he rode forward at the head of his forces, he sang at the top of his
clear voice which could be heard above the din of battle,
“Old Joe Hooker,
Won’t you come out of the wilderness?”
At the third assault, the works were carried and connection was made
with General Lee’s force. By ten o’clock, the Chancellor house and the
woods around it, full of wounded men, were on fire from the bursting
shells. The Confederate flag floated proudly in the clearing around the
house and the Confederate army was again united, while Hooker’s forces
in full retreat were swept back into the woods north of
Chancellorsville.
A great southern historian and military critic, General Alexander, says
“the promptness and boldness with which Stuart assumed command, and led
the ranks of Jackson, thinned by their hard day’s march and fighting to
not more than 20,000 men, against Hooker’s 80,000 soldiers was one of
the most brilliant deeds of the war.”
While the battle of Chancellorsville was in progress, Stoneman, the
Federal cavalry leader, had crossed the Rappahannock and was marching
toward Richmond. General W. H. F. Lee followed him with two regiments
and so hindered his line of march that the Federal general, in spite of
his excellent cavalry, was forced to retire with few spoils and little
glory. Stoneman was soon after relieved of his command, and Pleasanton
was put in his place as major general of the Federal cavalry.
CHAPTER X
THE BATTLE OF BRANDY STATION
1863
Soon after the battle of Chancellorsville, Lee’s army was reenforced by
the return of Longstreet’s corps, which had been for some time at
Suffolk, Va., and the cavalry was increased by the addition of new
regiments from North Carolina and the Shenandoah Valley. Lee’s total
forces were now about 80,000 and his men, encouraged by their recent
victory, were in good fighting trim. Lee decided to carry the scene of
war once more into northern territory. He hoped to form a line of battle
near the Susquehanna river in the fertile fields of Pennsylvania, where
he could force the Federals to fight on ground of his own choosing. The
next weeks were spent in preparation for this northward movement.
On June 6, there was a cavalry review on the open plain between Culpeper
Courthouse and Brandy Station. Great preparations had been made for this
review. Each trooper had burnished his weapons and trappings and rubbed
down his much-enduring charger, in order that they might make the best
appearance possible. Visitors, especially many ladies, from all the
country round attended the magnificent spectacle.
Stuart and his entire staff took their position on a little grassy
knoll. Eight thousand troopers and sixteen pieces of horse artillery
passed before him in columns of squadrons,—first at a walk, then at a
gallop—while the guns of a battery on a hill opposite the reviewing
stand fired at regular intervals.
An eyewitness of the scene tells us that Stuart “was superbly mounted.
The trappings on his proud, prancing horse all looked bright and new and
his sidearms gleamed in the morning sun like burnished silver. A long
black ostrich plume waved gracefully from a drab slouch hat cocked up on
one side and held by a clasp which also stayed the plume.”
The same authority, Gunner Neese, tells an amusing story about himself
during this review. He says that, as acting first sergeant of his
battery, he was riding at the head of the horse artillery, mounted on a
mule with ears about a foot long. Just before the artillery arrived at
the reviewing stand, the searching eye of General Stuart, who was very
fastidious in all things, spied the waving ears of the mule and he
quickly dispatched an aide to tell the captain to order the mule and his
rider off the field. Neese says that he was not greatly surprised at the
order, but that the mule was.
For sometime General Hooker had wanted to know what was going on behind
the dense screen of cavalry that Stuart had collected at Culpeper, for
it was evident that General Lee was planning an important movement. Just
two days after the big review, Hooker sent to find out, and for once the
Federal cavalry took Stuart by surprise. General Pleasanton marched
cautiously to the north bank of the Rappahannock, at Beverly’s Ford,
with three divisions of cavalry and five brigades of infantry. No fires
were allowed in the Federal camp, and every precaution was taken to
prevent the Confederate pickets on the south bank from discovering the
presence of the large force.
Stuart’s brigades, under Fitz Lee, Robertson, W. H. F. Lee, and Jones,
were encamped near the fords of the Rappahannock in readiness to cross
the river the next morning and protect the flank of Lee’s army which was
already beginning its northward movement. Four batteries of horse
artillery were encamped in the edge of the woods, in advance of Jones’s
brigade, near St. James Church. This church was about two hundred yards
to the west of the direct road to Beverly’s Ford and was about two miles
from the ford.
Stuart himself camped on Fleetwood Hill, half a mile east of Brandy
Station and four miles from Beverly’s Ford. As an early start was
ordered for the next morning, all of Stuart’s camp equipage was packed
in wagons in readiness for the move. Pickets were placed at all fords
and the weary men slept, unaware of the lurking enemy.
At dawn on June 9, General Pleasanton divided his command into two
columns and sent one, under Brigadier-General Gregg, to cross the river
at Kelly’s Ford, four miles below the railroad bridge, and to gain the
road to Culpeper Courthouse. The other column, under General Buford, was
ordered to cross at Beverly’s Ford and proceed toward Brandy Station.
This advance was gallantly disputed by the Confederate pickets at the
ford, but being greatly outnumbered they were retiring slowly toward St.
James Church when Major Flournoy with about one hundred men charged down
the road upon the advancing regiments. The colonel who was leading the
Federal charge was killed and the troops were driven back.
But the skirmishes of the picket force and the charge of Major Flournoy
had given General Jones time to draw up his men in line of battle and to
withdraw the artillery from its exposed position. General Jones then
charged to the support of Major Flournoy. This charge was repelled by
the Federals, and Jones retired to his line of battle at St. James
Church where he was soon joined by the brigades of Hampton and W. H. F.
Lee.
[Illustration: MAP OF BATTLE OF BRANDY STATION]
From ten o’clock in the morning, the battle raged furiously. The
Confederates advanced, but were met by Federal troops that charged
gallantly across an open field up to the very muzzles of the cannon
which were sending forth shell and canister into their midst. They
advanced, however, too far beyond their guns and, being attacked on both
flanks, they retreated with heavy loss.
Stuart, who had hastened to the front to dispute the march of Buford,
was suddenly threatened by more serious danger in the rear.
The gallant Colonel Butler had been left with a regiment of South
Carolina cavalry to guard Brandy Station, two miles in the rear of St.
James Church and just half a mile from Fleetwood Hill where Stuart’s
headquarters had been located for several weeks. While on duty at Brandy
Station, Colonel Butler was informed by a scout that a body of Federal
cavalry was moving toward Stevensburg. This was a part of the column
that had been sent to Kelly’s Ford early in the morning. General Gregg
had driven in the Confederate pickets at the ford, and although General
Robertson moved at once to the help of his pickets, he was too late to
prevent General Gregg from sending a considerable force toward
Stevensburg which was on the direct road to Culpeper Courthouse where
General Lee was encamped. General Gregg himself, with the remainder of
his force, marched on toward Brandy Station.
[Illustration: THE BATTLE OF BRANDY STATION]
Colonel Butler knew that it was most important to keep the Federals from
finding out that Lee’s army was at Culpeper, and as soon as he heard
that they were marching along the Stevensburg road, he advanced without
orders down that road. After a fierce fight, he stopped the advance of
the Federals who turned back to join Gregg at Brandy Station.
In the meantime, General Gregg had marched to the station where, Colonel
Butler being absent, he met no opposing force. From this point, he
immediately passed on to Fleetwood Hill which that morning had been
vacated by General Stuart as headquarters. Stuart had left there Major
H. B. McClellan and several couriers, with orders for all brigades and
regiments to communicate with him at that place. These staff officers
saw Gregg’s large forces approaching and knew that they must hold the
hill at any cost, as it was the key to Stuart’s whole position.
In Major McClellan’s _Life of Stuart_ he gives us a very vivid and
accurate account of the combats which raged up and down and over the
crest of Fleetwood Hill. He says that every vestige of the camp had been
removed and there remained upon the hill only McClellan and the
couriers. A six-pound howitzer, which for want of ammunition had been
sent back from the fight going on at St. James Church, was halted at the
foot of the hill and later proved their salvation. As soon as the young
major saw the long Federal columns approaching, he dispatched a courier
to General Stuart with information of this movement. For fear that some
accident might befall the first courier, he sent a second, praying for
help lest the entire force be enclosed between the divisions of Buford
and Gregg.
Finding some round shot and imperfect shells in the limber chest, Major
McClellan ordered the howitzer to be brought up the hill and a slow fire
to be opened upon the rapidly-advancing Federals. The fire caused
surprise and a halt. It seemed to indicate the presence of a
considerable force.
General Gregg, therefore, made preparations for a serious attack upon
the hill, and opened fire with three rifled guns. But Major McClellan
and the men with their one gun, held the hill until help came.
Reenforcements promptly sent by General Stuart arrived just as the
lieutenant in charge of the gun had fired his last cartridge and the
Federal cavalry was advancing “in magnificent order of columns of
squadrons, with flags and guidons flying.”
There now followed a number of combats which for dash and bravery have
rarely been equaled. First the Confederates, then the Federals, seemed
to have possession of the hill. Stuart himself soon arrived, bringing
Hampton and Jones from the other firing line to help hold this important
position. Back and forth swept the blue and the gray, each fighting
stubbornly and well. For a brief space of time, the New Jersey cavalry
held the hill. Soon they were repulsed by a charge led by the Virginia
cavalry. There was a fierce contest at the foot of the hill over three
Federal guns. The Confederates charged and took the guns, but were
driven back by overwhelming numbers and forced to cut their way out.
About this time, Hampton came up with his four regiments formed in
columns of squadrons with a battery of four guns. As they advanced at a
gallop, they saw the crest of Fleetwood Hill covered with Federal
cavalry. Passing the eastern side of the hill, they struck the column
just beyond the railroad and there followed a fierce hand-to-hand fight.
When the smoke and dust of the conflict lifted, it was seen that Hampton
had won. The Federals were retiring. At the same time, a charge had been
made straight up the hill on the northeast side by Georgia and South
Carolina cavalry. A saber charge was made and the hill was cleared of
the opposing troops. As soon as the Confederates gained the summit of
the hill, three batteries were placed in position there.
Fleetwood Hill was now in the possession of the Confederates, but the
Federals still held Brandy Station. Stuart at once brought up a regiment
which charged on both sides of the road to the station, drove out the
Federals and pursued them for some distance.
While the battle was raging at Fleetwood Hill, W. H. F. Lee with a small
force held the Confederate lines near St. James Church. There was a lull
in the fighting while Buford was retiring some of his cavalry and
bringing up fresh troops, and so Stuart was able to withdraw both
Hampton and Jones, in order to repel the attack on Fleetwood Hill.
As soon as the Federals were driven from Brandy Station, Stuart formed a
new line of battle between the church and the station, where he received
a heavy Federal onset. This battle was waged with varied success, but at
last Gregg joined Buford and late in the evening the Federals retired
across the river,—defeated in spite of their superior numbers.
The losses in the battle of Brandy Station were heavy on both sides. The
Federal loss was nearly 1,000 officers and men, while the Confederate
loss was over 500. The Federals were forced to leave in the hands of the
Confederates three cannon, six flags, and nearly 500 prisoners.
Pleasanton was really driven back by Stuart and the cavalry, but he
claimed that as he had found out that there was a force of infantry at
Culpeper Courthouse, which was the information he had been sent to
obtain, he retired as soon as possible after he had been joined by
Gregg.
Gunner Neese tells us that several times during the day he saw General
Stuart, when the battle raged fiercest, dash with his staff across the
field and pass from point to point along the line, perfectly heedless of
the surrounding danger. During the engagement, Neese fired his faithful
gun one hundred and sixty times. Just before the battle closed in the
evening he saw the fire flash from the cascabel of his gun and found
that it was disabled forever—burnt out entirely at the breech.
We have described this battle at length because it is considered one of
the greatest cavalry combats of the nineteenth century.
CHAPTER XI
THE GETTYSBURG CAMPAIGN
1863
Stuart did not attempt to follow Pleasanton, because Lee’s plan for the
invasion of the North would not allow the useless sacrifice of men and
horses. Indeed, all of the cavalry was needed to screen his army as it
marched through the Blue Ridge gaps into the Valley, from which point it
was to cross the Potomac into Maryland.
While Longstreet’s corps, which was the last to move from Culpeper, was
advancing to the Valley, Stuart and his cavalry had a hard time trying
to protect Ashby’s and Snicker’s gaps, through which Longstreet’s forces
would have to pass. The battles of Aldie, Middleburg, and Upperville,
severe cavalry engagements in which Stuart’s forces were slowly forced
back to the foot of the Blue Ridge, were all fought to protect these
gaps until Longstreet could pass through them on his northward march.
On June 22, General Pleasanton, who had forced General Stuart back from
Upperville to Ashby’s Gap, withdrew, and Stuart moved forward to
Rector’s Cross Roads, where he could better watch the Federal movements.
On that same day, General Ewell, who commanded the advance division of
General Lee’s army, crossed the Potomac. By June 27, Lee’s entire army
had reached Chambersburg, Pennsylvania.
In the meantime, Stuart was in Virginia watching the Federals, in order
to report to Lee the moment that Hooker began to move. He wrote General
Lee that he thought he could move with some of his cavalry around
General Hooker’s rear into Maryland, thus throwing himself between the
Federals and Washington, and so probably delay Hooker’s northward
movement. General Lee wanted General Stuart and his cavalry to join
General Early and guard his flank as he marched toward York,
Pennsylvania; he thought that Stuart could reach him in this way just as
easily as by crossing at Shepherdstown where the rest of the army
crossed. Therefore, he gave Stuart permission to cross at one of the
lower fords, telling him to annoy the Federals in the rear and collect
all possible supplies for the army.
Major Von Borcke, the young Prussian officer, had been severely wounded
and Major McClellan was now Stuart’s adjutant general. He tells us that
on the night before General Stuart started, a cold drizzling rain was
falling, but the general insisted on sleeping on the ground under a
tree, because he said his men were exposed to the rain and he would not
fare better than they. He could have had more comfortable quarters on
the porch of a deserted house near by, where McClellan, by the light of
a tallow “dip,” was receiving and writing dispatches. When General Lee’s
letter, containing instructions for Stuart’s march, came, McClellan
carried it to the general, who quietly read it, and then turned to go to
sleep on his hard, cold bed.
It was by such an example as this, as well as by his bravery in battle,
that Stuart won the undying love of his soldiers. I am going to quote
for you a beautiful tribute paid him by Mosby, his chief scout, who
guided Stuart past the Federal lines on the first part of this
expedition.
Mosby says that when he went to the general for instructions before
starting, “he was in his usual gay humor. I never saw him at any time in
any other. Always buoyant in spirits, he inspired with his own high
hopes all who came in contact with him. I felt the deepest affection for
him. My chief ambition was to serve him. He was the rare combination of
the Puritan and the knight-errant,—he felt intensely the joy of battle
and he loved the praise of fair women and brave men.
“I served under him from the beginning of the war until he closed his
life, like Sidney, leading a squadron on the field of honor. Yet I do
not remember that he ever gave me an order. There was always so much
sympathy between us and I felt so much affection for him that he had
only to express a wish, that was an order for me.”
In making their plans, neither Lee nor Stuart had counted on an
immediate northward movement of the Federal army. Yet when Stuart with
three brigades passed eastward through a gap in Bull Run Mountain, he
found Hooker’s army already moving northward. He at once sent General
Lee a dispatch conveying this valuable information, but the courier
bearing it never reached headquarters, and so Lee did not know of this
important movement until Hooker’s whole army had crossed the Potomac and
moved toward Frederick, Maryland.
It was now impossible for Stuart to cross the river where he had
intended, and it would take too much time to retrace his steps and cross
at Shepherdstown, so he determined on the bold move of crossing at
Rowser’s Ford, or Seneca, only thirteen miles from Washington city. At
this point, the water was very deep and swift, and the artillery had
difficulty in crossing, but time was too precious for them to seek a
better ford.
The caissons and limber chests were emptied and dragged through the
water, and the ammunition was carried over in the hands of troopers. By
three o’clock on the morning of June 28, Stuart’s command was on the
Maryland side of the river, but the whole Federal army now lay between
the cavalry and General Lee. Stuart would have to march around this army
before he could obey Lee’s order to join Early at York.
But General Lee had also told Stuart to collect all the supplies that he
could get for the use of the army. He now had an opportunity to carry
out these instructions, for he met and captured a long line of Federal
supply wagons.
Fitz Lee’s brigade tore up the track of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad,
burned the bridge, and cut the telegraph wires, thus destroying the line
of communication between Washington city and General Meade who had taken
Hooker’s place as commander of the Federal forces. At one time, Stuart’s
troopers were so near Washington that they could see the dome of the
Capitol, and the whole North was in a panic lest the dreaded Stuart
should attack the city. General Stuart, however, was hastening northward
in order to join General Early at York.
His long train of captured wagons seriously hindered the rapid movement
of his horsemen, but he was unwilling to abandon these supplies that he
knew were so greatly needed by Lee’s army.
If, however, he could have foreseen the events of the next few days he
would have burned the wagons and hurried by forced marches to join
General Lee who had to fight the first two days’ battle at Gettysburg
without the valuable aid of Stuart and his cavalry. But Stuart acted in
the light of what he knew and did what seemed best at the time, holding
on to his valuable prize in spite of the fact that it delayed his march
to York nearly two days.
On the morning of June 30, Stuart had a sharp encounter with cavalry, at
Hanover, Pennsylvania, and at one time it seemed that he would have to
give up his captured wagons. He already had them parked, so that they
could easily be burned if he was compelled to leave them, but Hampton’s
and Fitz Lee’s brigades, which had been guarding the wagons in the rear,
came up and the Federals were dislodged. Stuart remained at Hanover
until night, in order to hold the Federals in check, while the wagon
trains were sent toward York under the protection of Fitz Lee’s brigade.
[Illustration: A FEDERAL WAGON PARK
Wagons containing valuable supplies for which Stuart risked so much in
his daring raids]
Major McClellan tells us that this night’s march was terrible to both
the troopers and the drivers of the wagons. The men were hungry and
exhausted, and so were the mules. Every time a wagon stopped, it caused
a halt along the whole line, and as the drivers were constantly falling
asleep, these halts occurred very frequently. It required the utmost
vigilance on the part of every officer on Stuart’s staff to keep the
train in motion.
When Fitz Lee reached the road leading from York to Gettysburg, he
learned that Early had already marched westward. When Stuart arrived at
this point, he sent out couriers to find Early and locate the other
Confederate forces. He then pushed immediately on to Carlisle where he
hoped to obtain provisions for his weary and hungry troops, but when he
reached Carlisle, he found it already in possession of the Federals.
Smith, the Federal general in command, was summoned to surrender, but he
replied, “If you want the city, come and take it.”
Stuart was preparing to storm the city when he received orders from
General Lee to move at once toward Gettysburg.
For eight days and nights, Stuart’s men had been almost continually on
the march and had been surrounded by superior cavalry forces, but he
reached Gettysburg on the evening of the second of July, in time to take
part in the third day’s battle. He delivered to the quartermaster one
hundred and twenty-five captured wagons and teams. He would willingly
have sacrificed this valuable prize could he have been on hand two days
earlier to assist his beloved chief in the battle that had been
unexpectedly forced at this point, but in which he held his ground
during two days of stubborn fighting.
General Lee’s plan for the third day’s battle was to have General
Longstreet’s corps storm the Federal center in its strongly-fortified
position upon Cemetery Ridge. Stuart’s cavalry was to march unobserved
to the Federal rear. Here it was to attack, thus protecting the
Confederate left flank and drawing attention away from the forces which
were to storm Cemetery Ridge.
About noon on the third of July, Stuart led two brigades along the York
turnpike and took position on Cross Ridge in the rear of the Federal
line of battle. Hampton and Fitz Lee were ordered to follow as soon as
they were supplied with ammunition.
On the slope of Cross Ridge stood a stone dairy, and farther down in the
valley was a barn belonging to a farmer named Rummel. Concealing his men
in the woods on the top of the hill, Stuart pushed forward a gun and
fired a number of shots, probably to notify General Lee that he had
gained a good position on the left flank. He then sent word for Hampton
and Fitz Lee to hasten, as he wished to attack the Federal rear. While
waiting for them, he sent some dismounted cavalry to hold the Rummel
barn and a fence to the right of it.
[Illustration: From a war-time photograph
THE TOLL OF WAR
Dead Confederate sharpshooters on the battlefield of Gettysburg]
Before Fitz Lee and Hampton came up, Stuart saw that he had stirred up a
hornet’s nest. The Federal cavalry had discovered his movements and were
ready for him. A battery of six guns opened fire upon his gun and soon
disabled it. Then a strong line of sharpshooters advanced and a fierce
fight took place near the barn. On the left, the Confederate
sharpshooters drove the Federals for some distance across the field.
Just then a large force of Federal cavalry appeared and drove back the
Confederate dismounted men almost to the Rummel barn. There the Federals
were met and driven back by the Confederates, but the Federals were
reenforced and returned. Hampton advanced to the charge, and the battle
surged back and forth over the open field in a hand-to-hand fight with
pistols and sabers, until nearly all of Hampton’s and Fitz Lee’s
regiments were engaged.
At last the Federals retired to the line held at the beginning of the
fight and the Confederates held the Rummel barn. There followed an
artillery duel which lasted until night. Then Stuart withdrew to the
York turnpike, leaving a regiment of cavalry picketed around the barn
which was full of wounded Confederates.
Stuart encamped that night on the York road. Early the next morning, he
withdrew in the rain and rejoined the main army on the heights west of
Gettysburg. The Confederates under Pickett had stormed the Federal
heights opposite and had taken the guns, but as Hood, who was to support
the charge was detained by the Federal cavalry, they could not hold
their position, and finally had to retreat with the loss of many lives.
The Federals did not pursue the Confederates, but remained the whole of
the next day upon their entrenched heights.
Being now nearly out of ammunition and supplies for his men, General Lee
ordered a retreat on the night of July 4. He had a difficult task to
perform. But happily his army had not been routed nor had the men lost
confidence in him. As long as he was leading, they were willing to go
anywhere and to endure anything.
He had now before him a long march, and he was encumbered with four
thousand prisoners and a wagon train fifteen miles long. It would take
great skill and courage to conduct his army safely back into Virginia.
In this extremity, he relied on his cavalry for aid. Both men and horses
were by this time reduced in numbers and were worn out by hunger and
fatigue. They, however, took promptly the position assigned by General
Lee and guarded the army and its trains from the attacks of the Federal
cavalry. General Stuart’s command guarded both wings of the army,—Stuart
himself being on one side and Fitz Lee on the other. They, of course,
were pursued by the Federal cavalry, and before they reached the fords
of the Potomac, both Stuart and Fitz Lee had been engaged in several
skirmishes.
The wagon train reached Williamsport on July 6, and found the river too
much swollen to cross. The wagons were massed in a narrow space near the
river and were guarded by a small force. Here they were attacked by
General Buford. This engagement is called “the Teamsters’ Battle,”
because the teamsters assisted the troopers so well in holding the
Federals in check. Together they succeeded in resisting the attack of
Buford until the arrival of Stuart who had been engaged in driving the
Federal cavalry from Hagerstown. A little later, Fitz Lee came
thundering down the Greencastle road. Buford then retired without having
taken or destroyed the trains so important to Lee.
On July 7, when the infantry and artillery arrived at Hagerstown from
which Stuart had driven the Federal cavalry the day before, General Lee
was not able to cross the Potomac. He, therefore, selected a strong
position and fortified it while waiting for the waters to fall. From
July 8 to 12, Stuart protected the front of Lee’s army, fighting a
number of battles. Then, all the Federal forces having come up, Stuart
retired to the main body of the army and General Lee prepared for
battle. But Meade, who was very cautious, thought Lee’s position too
strong to attack.
Major McClellan, General Stuart’s adjutant general, says in his _Life of
Stuart_ that those days will be remembered by the cavalry leader’s staff
as days of great hardship. The country had been swept bare of provisions
and nothing could be purchased. Scanty rations had been issued to the
men, but none to the officers. For four or five days, they received all
the food that they had from a young lady in Hagerstown, whose father, a
Southerner, loved the Confederacy. After a day of incessant fighting,
Stuart and his officers reached the house of this friend about nine
o’clock at night. While food was being prepared, Stuart fell asleep on
the sofa in the parlor. When supper was announced, he refused to rise.
Knowing that he had eaten nothing for twenty-four hours, Major McClellan
took him by the arm and compelled him to take his place at the table. He
ate sparingly and without relish.
Thinking that the supper did not suit him, their kind hostess inquired:
“General, perhaps you would like to have a hard-boiled egg?”
“Yes,” he replied, “I’ll take four or five.”
This singular reply caused a good deal of astonishment, but nothing was
said at the time. The eggs were brought in; Stuart broke one and ate it,
and rose from the table.
When they returned to the parlor, Major McClellan sat down at the piano
and commenced singing,
“If you want to have a good time
Jine the cavalry.”
The circumstances hardly made the song appropriate, but the chorus
roused the general and he joined in it with a right good will. During
all that time, he had been unconscious of his surroundings, and when
told of his seeming rudeness to his hostess he hastened to make
apologies.
This little incident shows how greatly Stuart was exhausted by the
strain and fatigue of sleepless days and nights during this unfortunate
campaign. For more than two weeks, he had been almost constantly in the
saddle, using both mind and body in the effort to save his command and
to bring the Confederate army back to Virginia without serious disaster.
On July 13, the waters had subsided so much that General Lee gave orders
for the army to cross the river that night. By one o’clock the next
afternoon, the southern army was again in Virginia, General Stuart’s
command bringing up the rear.
The Federals, strange to say, offered little opposition and the crossing
was a complete success. The Federal government and the northern people
were much disappointed when they learned that General Lee had so
skillfully led his army out of its perilous position. They had expected
that General Meade would destroy it, hemmed in between the flooded
Potomac and the Federal army so superior in numbers. Lee now moved back
to Bunker Hill near Winchester. Stuart repelled an advance of the
Federal cavalry and drove it steadily back to within a mile of
Shepherdstown. Here a large number of the troopers were dismounted and
advanced in line of battle. The Federals retreated slowly until dark
when they withdrew from the contest in the direction of Harper’s Ferry,
having lost heavily in killed and wounded.
CHAPTER XII
FINAL CAMPAIGNS AND DEATH
1863-’64
General Meade now advanced into Virginia and attempted to follow General
Lee and cut him off from Richmond. Lee being at once informed by Stuart
of the movement, skillfully eluded his foe and by the first of August,
had placed his army behind the Rappahannock river, between Meade and
Richmond.
The cavalry now had a short period of rest. The whole force was
reorganized, and Hampton and Fitz Lee were promoted to the rank of major
general. This much-needed rest was broken on September 13, by the
advance of the Federals into Culpeper county. Stuart had been warned of
their forward movement, and at once started his wagons and disabled
horses toward Rapidan Station. General Lee supposing that General Meade
was advancing in force, had already retired behind the Rapidan river and
placed his army in a very strong position.
Early on the morning of Sept. 13, the Federal cavalry advanced in large
numbers to the fords of the Rappahannock. As Lee did not intend to hold
Culpeper county, Stuart retired toward Rapidan Station, keeping up a
running fight as he withdrew.
A few days later, Stuart came in touch with Buford’s cavalry near Jack’s
Shop in Madison county, and attacked them in several spirited charges.
He was unable, however, to drive back these forces. Unwilling to
retreat, he advanced and was engaged in a furious combat when he was
informed that Kilpatrick’s command was in his rear. As he withdrew to
meet this unexpected foe, Buford pressed forward and it seemed for a
time that Stuart had at last been caught in a place from which he could
not escape.
Kilpatrick had already thrown a large force of dismounted men between
Stuart and the river, and he was thus enclosed between two large forces
of finely-mounted men. Buford pressed forward until the battle was
brought into a field in the center of which a small hill afforded a good
position for Stuart’s artillery. He now divided his regiments and
guns—some to fight Buford, some to fight Kilpatrick. At last,
Kilpatrick’s main force was driven back and one of Stuart’s regiments
dashed up to the fence behind which Kilpatrick’s dismounted men were
firing, threw it down, and made way for Stuart to retire. Withdrawing
rapidly, Stuart then crossed the ford at Liberty Mills where he was very
soon reenforced.
On October 9, General Lee commenced the movement around the right of
General Meade’s army which is called the “Bristoe Campaign.” In this
campaign, the cavalry was sorely tried. Fitz Lee—who, as you have been
told, had been promoted to the rank of major general—was left at Raccoon
Ford, supported by two brigades of infantry, to hold Lee’s line and to
make Meade believe that Lee’s whole army was still encamped at that
place. Stuart with Hampton’s division moved to the right of Lee’s army
as it again marched northward; it was his duty to prevent the Federals
from finding out Lee’s movements and to protect the army from attacks.
Now followed a series of sharp engagements between the cavalry of the
two armies. There was a skirmish near James City after which the
Federals retired toward Culpeper Courthouse. The next morning, Stuart
followed them. Three miles from the Courthouse, he met and drove in the
Federal pickets. But he now found out that Meade was retreating from the
Rappahannock and that Fitz Lee, who had fought a battle at Raccoon Ford,
was advancing towards Brandy Station,—fighting Buford as he marched.
Stuart knew that Kilpatrick was at Culpeper Courthouse awaiting his
attack, but on receiving this news he turned at once northward toward
Brandy Station, hoping to join Fitz Lee and get possession of Fleetwood
Hill from which he had driven the Federal cavalry in June. If he could
carry out this plan, he would cut off Kilpatrick from Buford.
Kilpatrick, who had massed his force of about four thousand men on the
open space east of the Courthouse at Culpeper waiting the attack of
Stuart, soon found out that the latter had eluded him and was hurrying
toward Brandy Station. He, therefore, began a race for the same
position.
Unfortunately, Stuart was delayed by a skirmish with Federal forces and
when he came in sight of Brandy Station, he saw that Kilpatrick had
beaten him in the race. Buford, who was being pursued by Fitz Lee, had
already taken possession of Fleetwood Hill and placed his artillery upon
its crest. Stuart had moved so rapidly that he had left his artillery
far behind, but Fitz Lee’s guns were booming as he came into position.
Fitz Lee joined Stuart and they at once attacked Kilpatrick’s and
Buford’s forces, now under the command of Major-General Pleasanton. The
Federals fought bravely, but they were steadily pushed toward their
position on Fleetwood Hill. It was now late in the afternoon, and
Stuart, declining to attack them in their strong position, sent Fitz Lee
to the left as if to cut off the Federals from the river. As soon as
Pleasanton perceived this flanking movement, he withdrew from Fleetwood
Hill and, protected by his artillery, crossed the river. Stuart’s weary
troopers camped that night once more around Brandy Station, well pleased
at having gained a decided victory over such large forces.
Two days later, Stuart reached Warrenton where the whole army was
encamped and he immediately received orders to proceed toward Catlett’s
Station with two thousand men and seven guns, for the purpose of gaining
accurate information about the position of Meade’s army.
General Meade had started his forces back toward Culpeper Courthouse to
engage General Lee in battle, but he found out that Lee was marching
around his right, so as to get between him and Washington city. On
receiving this information, Meade at once recalled his forces. These
movements and countermovements came near resulting disastrously to
Stuart who was caught between the advancing and retreating divisions of
the Federals.
When he reached Catlett’s Station, he found that a column of Federal
infantry was moving toward that place. He at once fell back on the road
to Warrenton and found another Federal corps in his rear. His situation
was now one of great peril. It seemed that his force would either be
captured or cut to pieces.
Fortunately, when Stuart perceived his danger he was emerging from a
piece of woods and night was closing in. He at once retired his command
to the depths of the woods and called a council of his officers. They
were so near the enemy that the neighing of a horse or the clash of a
saber could be heard, and to make retreat impossible, they were hemmed
in on one side by a swollen stream and on the other side by a forest. At
first, it was proposed to leave the seven guns and cut their way out.
Stuart, however, would not agree to abandon his artillery. At last,
officers went through the command and ordered each man to stand by his
horse’s head, and to make no sound himself nor let his horse make any.
As soon as it was dark, Stuart ordered four trusted men to make their
way to General Lee at Culpeper Courthouse. They were to inform him of
the dangerous position of the cavalry and ask him to send aid as soon as
possible. Then followed long hours of anxious waiting. During the night,
a Federal corps marched past the front of Stuart’s position, but
fortunately the noise of the moving column prevented the Federals from
detecting the presence of the Confederates within the woods.
At the first peep of day, the Confederates discovered that a large force
of Federal infantry had halted near, had stacked arms, and were getting
breakfast. They were so near the Confederates that several of their
officers who strayed into the woods were captured. In the dim light of
morning, each soldier in gray tightened the girth of his hungry, weary
steed and mounted silently, with weapons ready for the charge. The seven
guns were parked near the west of the hill, just opposite the feasting
Federals. Then the men waited,—waited either to be discovered by the
Federals when the bright sunlight should flash upon their gray coats or
to hear Lee’s guns as a signal for them to attack.
At last! There was firing from toward Warrenton. Aid was approaching and
the time had come to cut their way out. In an instant, the seven guns
were pouring shot and shell upon the surprised Federals. The horsemen
then charged upon the infantry regiments which had hastily formed in
line of battle and were advancing upon the guns. A fierce combat now
ensued in which the Federals were driven back. The artillery and wagons,
followed closely by the horsemen, passed behind the rear of the Federals
and thus the whole command escaped from its perilous position.
General Meade now fell back to Centerville and General Lee, having
failed to cut off General Meade from Washington, retired again to the
line of the Rappahannock. Stuart continued to follow the Federal
cavalry, having skirmishes at Bull Run, Groveton, and Frying Pan Church.
A few days later, the Confederate cavalry defeated a large force of
infantry near Buckland, in a battle that is known as the “Buckland
Races.” After a sharp skirmish, Stuart fell back slowly toward Warrenton
in order to draw the Federals after him; for Fitz Lee was moving forward
from Warrenton to attack them in the rear. Stuart, as soon as he heard
the sound of Fitz Lee’s guns, turned suddenly upon the Federals with so
furious a charge that their lines were broken and put to flight. Stuart
chased them for five miles and captured two hundred and fifty prisoners
and eight wagons and ambulances. Thus he may be said to have fairly won
the race back to Buckland.
Soon after this, both armies went into winter quarters. The Federal
soldiers had comforts and even luxuries, while the Confederates were
poorly clothed and fed. Their sufferings during this bitter cold winter
could not have been endured but for the food and clothing sent from
their homes. Officers and men fared alike; the resources of the
Confederacy were at a low ebb.
Mrs. Stuart was boarding at Orange Courthouse, and, as General Stuart’s
headquarters were near by, he was able to spend some time with his
family again. And a very happy family it was now, for on the ninth of
the previous October, the very day that began Stuart’s heavy work in the
Bristoe Campaign, a daughter had come to comfort him and Mrs. Stuart for
the loss of their little Flora. The devoted father named this little
baby Virginia Pelham, in honor of his beloved state and in memory of the
gallant young leader of the Stuart Horse Artillery whom he had loved so
well. The members of General Stuart’s staff were all devoted to this new
member of the family, and General Lee, whose headquarters were not far
distant, came more than once to visit Mrs. Stuart and “Miss Virginia,”
as he called the little lady. The admiration paid his little daughter
gave Stuart great delight.
Late in February, 1864, the Federal cavalry made an attempt to take
Richmond. This movement was known as “Dahlgren’s Raid” and the large
Federal forces were fitted out with great care. But in spite of their
superior numbers, they were driven back by Stuart’s cavalry.
On March 17, General U. S. Grant was placed in command of all the
Federal armies. As it was evident that the great struggle of the year
would take place in Virginia, he took charge of General Meade’s army and
prepared it for the coming campaign. He had an army of 125,000 men,
fully equipped, and with all that money could buy.
At midnight on May 3, the Federal army began to advance. General Lee
permitted it to cross the Rapidan and march into the Wilderness where
the battle of Chancellorsville had been fought the year before. In this
jungle, it would be difficult for the Federals to use their artillery
and they would be compelled to fight at a disadvantage. General Grant
expected General Lee to retreat to a line nearer Richmond, and he was
surprised when his troops plunged into the dense woods and thickets of
the Wilderness to find General Lee ready to fight on ground of his own
choosing.
As soon as the news was received at the cavalry headquarters that the
Federals had crossed the fords of the Rapidan, Stuart set out for his
picket line. He conducted in person the advances of the infantry until
the lines of the enemy were reached, and on May 6 and 7 the great Battle
of the Wilderness raged furiously.
The cavalry did heavy work on the Confederate right. Gunner Neese, in
his diary, tells an interesting anecdote of Stuart on the morning of the
second day’s battle.
He says: “Our orders to hasten to the front this morning at daylight
were pressing and urgent, and we had no time to prepare or eat
breakfast, which greatly ruffled some of our drivers. When we drew near
to the enemy’s line we awaited orders, and one of our drivers was still
going through baby acts about something to eat and having no breakfast.
Just then General Stuart and staff came along and halted a moment right
in the road where we were and heard the grumbling and childish murmuring
of our hungry man, and the general rode up to him and gave him two
biscuits out of his own haversack.”
On the night of May 7, Grant began to move his army by the left flank to
get between Lee and Richmond, but the movement was discovered at once
and Fitz Lee’s cavalry was sent forward to delay the Federals until
Longstreet’s infantry could come up. Fitz Lee’s men were at times
dismounted, and they fought so stubbornly that Grant’s forces were held
in check until the infantry by a rapid night march reached the
entrenchments which had been hastily thrown up near Spotsylvania
Courthouse.
I am going to tell you about the arrival of the infantry and the
beginning of the next morning’s battle in the words of a private of the
First Virginia cavalry.
He says: “We had been fighting and retreating all night, and at last,
when near Spotsylvania Courthouse had thrown up slight entrenchments.
Protected by Breathed’s guns, we were awaiting another attack. Suddenly
we heard the steady march of infantry coming in our rear. The old
fellows came swinging along in the moonlight, each one with his
camp-kettle on his back and his long musket with its gleaming bayonet
resting easily on his shoulder. Each man settled down by a dismounted
trooper, glad to rest a little while, but full of quips and jokes. ‘Look
here sonny,’ said one to me, picking up my carbine, ‘what’s this here
thing for? Ef I was you I’d be feared of it; it might hurt somebody!’
But even talking was not permitted. Officers passed along, enjoining
silence and ordering us not to fire until we could see the whites of the
Yankees’ eyes.
“About daylight we heard loud cheering. Major Breathed had brought off
one of his guns in the face of thousands of the enemy, and they were
cheering! On came a blue line of battle eight deep calling out, ‘Come
out, you dismounted cavalry! We know you are there.’
“Silence reigned behind the earthworks, but every gun was ready. When
the Federals were well over the crest of the hill, the order rang along
the line—‘Steady, aim, fire!’ Bang! went the carbines and muskets, and
with piercing yells the Confederates leaped out of the works and rushed
with gleaming bayonets upon the already retreating foe. The veterans had
delivered so fierce and so well-directed a fire that the attack was not
renewed at that position.”
A short while afterward, Stuart arrived with reenforcements. Major
McClellan was the only member of General Stuart’s staff present during
the brisk skirmishes of the morning. He says that Stuart exposed himself
recklessly to the fire of the Federals, in spite of the earnest request
of the infantry officers that he would retire to a safer position.
He sent Major McClellan on such seemingly unnecessary messages that
after a while that officer thought that General Stuart was trying to
shield him from danger, so he said, “General, my horse is weary. You are
exposing yourself and you are alone. Please let me remain with you.”
But Stuart merely smiled kindly and sent him with another message.
When Grant reached Spotsylvania Courthouse, he decided to send a corps
of cavalry forward on a raid toward Richmond. This force was to cut
Lee’s communication, take Richmond, and be in position to attack the
rear of Lee’s army after Grant crushed him at Spotsylvania. General
Sheridan commanded these troops that started for Richmond, along the
Telegraph Road.
General Fitz Lee who saw them, says: “Ten thousand horsemen riding in a
single road in column of fours made a column thirteen miles in length;
and with flashing sabers and fluttering guidons were an imposing array.”
To contend with this force, Stuart had only three small brigades, yet on
him depended the safety of Richmond and the protection of the rear of
Lee’s army. At Jarrold’s Mill, Wickham’s brigade had a sharp skirmish
with Sheridan’s rear guard and captured a number of prisoners. Yet on
and on marched Sheridan, leaving the Telegraph Road, and going toward
Beaver Dam Station. At Mitchell’s Shop, Sheridan’s rear guard having
been reenforced, made another stand. Wickham attacked again, but would
have been forced back by the greatly-superior numbers of the Federals
had not Stuart and Fitz Lee come up with reenforcements and the Federals
passed on.
At Beaver Dam Station, Stuart left his command a short while to see if
his wife and children, who were near by at the home of Mr. Edmund
Fontaine, had escaped annoyance from the Federals. Having found them
safe and well, he pressed on toward Hanover Junction to place his forces
between Sheridan and Richmond.
Hanover Junction was reached after dark and Stuart proposed an all-night
march. Fitz Lee’s men, however, were worn out with fighting and marching
and, at the request of their commander, Stuart at last consented that
the troopers should rest until one o’clock. He directed that his trusted
adjutant, Major McClellan, should remain awake to arouse the sleeping
men, and to see them mounted and on the march at the time mentioned.
Major McClellan in his _Life of Stuart_, says: “When the troops had
moved out, I returned to Stuart and awoke him and his staff. While they
were preparing to move, I lay down to catch, if possible, a few moments’
rest. The party rode off as I lay in a half-conscious condition, and I
heard some one say, ‘General, here’s McClellan fast asleep. Must I wake
him?’ ‘No’ he replied, ‘he has been watching while we were asleep. Leave
a courier with him and tell him to come on when his nap is out.’”
After taking a short rest, Major McClellan rejoined General Stuart just
as he passed the road leading to Ashland. A squadron of Confederate
cavalry had come upon a force of Federal cavalry in that town, and had
dispersed it with great loss to the latter.
Stuart reached Yellow Tavern, about eight miles from Richmond, about ten
o’clock on the morning of May 11. He had beaten Sheridan in the race to
Richmond and placed himself between that city and Sheridan’s forces. He
at once posted his small force to meet the Federal advance. Wickham was
placed on the right of the Telegraph Road and Lomax on the left. Two
guns were placed in the road and one farther to the left. The whole
force was dismounted, except a portion of the cavalry which was held in
reserve.
General Stuart then sent Major McClellan into Richmond to find out the
condition of affairs in the city. General Bragg, in charge of the
defense, replied that he had enough men to hold the trenches and that he
was hourly expecting reenforcements from Petersburg—that he wished
General Stuart to remain on the Federal flank and to retard its progress
as much as possible.
General Stuart’s last official dispatch written on the morning of May
11, the day that he was wounded, showed his wonderful determination and
unfailing cheerfulness in the face of danger and difficulty, and was
also a tribute to the men who fought under him.
He wrote: “May 11th, 1864, 6:30 A. M. Fighting against immense odds of
Sheridan—my men and horses are tired, hungry, and jaded, _but all
right_.”
About four o’clock that same day, Sheridan attacked the whole line,
throwing a brigade of cavalry upon the left. Stuart galloped to this
point, and found that the Federals had captured his two guns and had
driven back almost the entire left. He at once ordered a reserve
squadron to charge the advancing Federals. Just as the latter were being
driven back in a hand-to-hand combat, General Stuart rode up to where
Captain Dorsey and about eighty dismounted men who had collected on the
Telegraph Road, were firing at the retreating Federals. As the
struggling mass fell back, one of the Federals who had been unhorsed in
the fight, turned and fired his pistol directly at General Stuart. The
fatal shot entered his body just above the sword-belt.
Captain Dorsey saw that the general was wounded and hurried to his
assistance. He tried to lead the general’s horse to a safer place, but
it became very unruly. General Stuart insisted on being lifted off and
allowed to rest against a tree. Then he ordered the captain to go back
to his men, but Captain Dorsey refused to do so until his general had
been taken to the rear. There were now only a few of Stuart’s men
between him and the Federals and for a few moments there was great
danger of his being captured.
But soon another horse was brought, and the general was taken to a safer
place by Captain Dorsey and put in charge of Private Wheatley. Wheatley
speedily procured an ambulance, and took the general to the rear. Here
Dr. Fontaine and two of the general’s aides, Venable and Hullihen, took
charge of their wounded chief and started at once to Richmond.
As the ambulance passed through the disordered Confederate ranks the
general called to his men, “Go back! go back and do your duty as I have
done, and our country will be safe. Go back! go back! I had rather die
than be whipped.”
These were his last words upon the battlefield, and they carried to his
men a message, full of the spirit of their beloved chief. They did ‘go
back,’ and fought so well that Sheridan was finally driven from
Richmond.
The ambulance had to take a rough and roundabout way, in order to avoid
the Federals, and it did not reach Richmond until after dark. The
general was taken to the home of his brother-in-law, Dr. Charles Brewer.
He had suffered greatly on the trip, but had borne the pain with
fortitude and cheerfulness.
The next morning, Major McClellan, who according to Stuart’s orders had
remained on the battlefield, rode into the city to deliver to General
Bragg a message from General Fitz Lee now in command of the cavalry. As
soon as he had delivered his message, he went at once to the bedside of
his wounded general. Inflammation had set in, and the doctors said there
was no hope of Stuart’s recovery. I shall let McClellan tell you in his
own words about the general’s last hours.
He says: “After delivering General Fitz Lee’s message to General Bragg,
I repaired to the bedside of my dying chief. He was calm and composed,
in the full possession of his mind. Our conversation was, however,
interrupted by paroxysms of suffering. He directed me to make the proper
disposal of his official papers, and to send his personal effects to his
wife.
[Illustration: THE HOUSE IN WHICH STUART DIED
This house has been torn down. The building erected on its site bears a
tablet in memory of Stuart.]
“He then said: ‘I wish you to take one of my horses and Venable the
other. Which is the heavier rider?’
“I replied that I thought Venable was.
“‘Then,’ he said, ‘let Venable have the gray horse and you take the
bay.’
“Soon he spoke again: ‘You will find in my hat a small Confederate flag,
which a lady of Columbia, South Carolina, sent me, with the request that
I would wear it upon my horse in a battle and then return it to her.
Send it to her.’”
Later, Major McClellan found the flag inside the lining of the general’s
hat. Among his papers was the letter conveying the lady’s request.
“Again he said: ‘My spurs which I have always worn in battle, I promised
to give to Mrs. Lilly Lee, of Shepherdstown, Virginia. My sword I leave
to my son.’
“While I sat by his bed, the sound of cannon outside the city was heard.
He turned to me eagerly and inquired what it meant. I explained that
Gracey’s brigade and other troops had moved out against the rear of the
enemy on the Brooke turnpike and that Fitz Lee would endeavor to oppose
their advance at Meadow Bridge.
“He turned his eyes upward, and exclaimed earnestly, ‘God grant that
they may be successful.’ Then turning his head aside, he said with a
sigh: ‘But I must be prepared for another world.’
“The thought of duty was ever uppermost in his mind, and after listening
to the distant cannonading for a few moments, he said, ‘Major, Fitz Lee
may need you.’ I understood his meaning and pressed his hand in a last
farewell. As I left his chamber, President Davis entered.
“Taking the general’s hand he asked: ‘General, how do you feel?’
“He replied: ‘Easy, but willing to die if God and my country think I
have fulfilled my destiny, and done my duty.’
“The Rev. Dr. Peterkin visited him, and prayed with him. He requested
Dr. Peterkin to sing ‘Rock of Ages,’ and joined in the singing of the
hymn.
“During the afternoon, he asked Dr. Brewer whether it were not possible
for him to survive the night. The doctor frankly told him that death was
close at hand.
“He then said: ‘I am resigned if it be God’s will; but I would like to
see my wife. But God’s will be done.’
“Again he said to Dr. Brewer: ‘I am going fast now; I am resigned. God’s
will be done.’”
Major Von Borcke, General Stuart’s former aide who had not yet recovered
from his severe wound, was also in Richmond. After McClellan went away,
Von Borcke remained at his chieftain’s side. He tells us that he sat on
the bed, holding the general’s hand and handing him crushed ice which he
ate in great abundance and which was applied to cool his burning wound.
Everyone was hoping that Mrs. Stuart would arrive in time to be with him
before he passed from earth.
Finally the general drew Von Borcke to him, and after bidding him
farewell said, “Look after my family after I am gone and be the same
true friend to my wife and children that you have been to me.” These
were his last connected words.
At eight o’clock the end came, and it was three hours later before Mrs.
Stuart arrived. The destruction of bridges and a fearful storm had
caused delay in the trip from Beaver Dam. Owing to the telegraph lines
being broken, the tidings that General Stuart was wounded did not reach
his wife until noon on May 12.
At the time of his death, May 12, Stuart was just thirty-one years old.
Yet through his high ideals, his devotion to duty, and his military
genius, he had risen to a position of great trust and honor in the
service of his country for which he laid down his life. Such a death,
crowning such a life, is glorious and inspiring. One feels that
Horatius, the noble Roman, indeed spoke truly when he said:
“And how can man die better,
Than by facing fearful odds,
For the ashes of his fathers
And the temples of his gods?”
CHAPTER XIII
SOME TRIBUTES TO STUART
While General Stuart’s life was ebbing away, General Sheridan retired
from the attack on Richmond. The delay at Ashland and the all-day fight
at Yellow Tavern in which two brigades of Stuart’s cavalry had detained
the ten thousand men of Sheridan’s command, had given the authorities at
Richmond time to collect forces for the defense of the city.
General Fitz Lee who now commanded the cavalry, harassed the retreat of
Sheridan for a while, but his men and horses were too worn-out to
attempt to cut off so large a force. Sheridan, therefore, marched
through the swamps of the Chickahominy river to the Pamunkey, and after
an absence of more than two weeks, rejoined Grant’s army which was still
vainly attempting to get between Lee and Richmond.
General Fitz Lee in his _Life of General Robert E. Lee_, says:
“Sheridan’s raid would have been the usual record of nothing
accomplished and a broken-down command except that at Yellow Tavern the
Confederate cavalry chieftain was mortally wounded and died the next day
in Richmond. This sad occurrence was of more value to the Federal cause
than anything that could have happened, and his loss to Lee was
irreparable. He was the army’s eyes and ears—vigilant always, bold to a
fault, of great vigor and ceaseless activity. He had a heart ever loyal
to his superior, and duty, was to him the ‘sublimest word in the
language.’”
In a letter to his wife a few days after General Stuart’s death, General
Robert E. Lee said: “As I write, I expect to hear the sound of guns
every moment. I grieve for the loss of the gallant officers and men, and
miss their aid and sympathy. A more zealous, ardent, brave, and devoted
soldier than Stuart the Confederacy cannot have.”
General Lee’s order to the army announcing the death of Stuart was as
follows: “Among the gallant soldiers who have fallen in the war, General
Stuart was second to none in valor, in zeal, and in unflinching devotion
to his country. His achievements form a conspicuous part of the history
of this army, with which his name and services will be forever
associated. To military capacity of a high order, he added the brighter
graces of a pure life guided and sustained by the Christian’s faith and
hope. The mysterious hand of an all-wise God has removed him from the
scene of his usefulness and fame. His grateful countrymen will mourn his
loss and cherish his memory. To his comrades in arms he has left the
proud recollection of his deeds and the inspiring influence of his
example.”
General Wade Hampton’s order to his cavalry corps was also an eloquent
tribute to the great cavalry leader. It was as follows:
“In the midst of rejoicing over the success of our arms, the sad tidings
come to us from Richmond of the death of our distinguished Chief of
Cavalry. Death has at last accepted the offering of a life, which before
the admiring eyes of the Army, has been so often, so freely and so nobly
offered, on almost every battlefield of Virginia. In the death of
Major-General J. E. B. Stuart the Army of Northern Virginia has lost one
of its most brilliant, enthusiastic and zealous military leaders, the
Southern cause one of its earliest, most untiring and devoted
supporters, and the Cavalry arm of the service a chieftain who first
gave it prominence and value, and whose dazzling achievements have
attracted the wonder and applause of distant nations. His spirit shone
as bright and brave in the still chamber of death, as amid the storm of
the battlefield, and he passed out of life the same buoyant hero he had
lived. Blessed through a short but glorious career with many instances
of almost miraculous good fortune, it was his great privilege to die
with the consciousness of having performed his whole duty to his
country. To his children he leaves the rich legacy of a name which has
become identified with the brightest acts of our military history and,
when the panorama of our battles shall be unfolded to posterity, in
almost every picture will be seen the form of our gallant leader. His
name will be associated with almost every scene of danger and of glory,
in which the Cavalry of the Virginia Army has borne a part, and they
will recount the exploits of Stuart with the pride which men feel in
their own honorable records.
“The Major General commanding hopes that this division will show by
their own noble conduct their high appreciation of the character of
their lost commander, and when the danger thickens around them and the
cause of their country calls for heroic efforts they will remember the
example of Stuart. No leader ever set a more glorious example to his
soldiers on the battlefield than he did, and it becomes the men he has
so often led, while they mourn his fall, to emulate his courage, to
imitate his heroic devotion to duty and to avenge his death.”
While General Lee and his army continued to wrestle with the hosts of
Grant, the city of Richmond was in deep gloom and mourning. Once more
the tide of battle had come near her gates; and this time the beloved
and gallant Stuart had fallen. He had been the pride of her heart, her
brave and chivalrous defender. But Stuart was to sleep his last long
sleep upon her bosom, in beautiful Hollywood around whose promontories
sweep the waters of the James as they rush onward to the Chesapeake and
where the tall pine trees whisper of the life eternal. The city aroused
herself from her grief to do homage to the noble dead.
The City Council of Richmond passed resolutions of respect and sympathy
for the family of General Stuart and asked that the body of him who
“yielded up his heroic spirit in the immediate defense of their city,
and the successful effort to purchase their safety by the sacrifice of
his own life,” might “be permitted to rest under the eye and
guardianship of the people of Richmond and that they might be allowed to
commemorate by a suitable monument their gratitude and his services.”
At five o’clock on the afternoon of May 13, the funeral of General
Stuart took place from old St. James Church in Richmond. The coffin
containing the remains of the brave soldier was carried up the aisle
and, covered with wreaths and flowers, was placed before the altar.
The funeral service was conducted by Reverend Dr. Peterkin who had been
with General Stuart during his last hours. The church was filled with
officials of the Confederate government and citizens of Richmond.
President Davis sat near the front, with a look of great sadness upon
his careworn face. His cabinet officers were around him and on either
side of the church were the senators and representatives of the
Confederate Congress. But the cavalry officers and soldiers who loved
and followed Stuart were all absent. They were on the firing line,
either in the Wilderness or on the Chickahominy,—fighting in defense of
Richmond which he had died to save.
[Illustration: MONUMENT
Marking Stuart’s grave in Hollywood Cemetery, Richmond, Va.]
No military escort could be spared from the front to accompany the
funeral procession to Hollywood or to fire the usual parting salute to
the dead commander. But as the body was lowered into the grave, the
earth trembled with the roar of artillery from the battlefield where his
old troops were obeying his last command and driving back the Federals.
No better salute could have been given the gallant leader.
Leaving the body of their brave defender beneath the pines of Hollywood,
the officials and citizens of Richmond returned to their homes to meet
other sorrows. Before a year passed, the devoted city was overtaken by
the fate which Stuart had so ably aided Lee in averting. Richmond fell
into the hands of the Federals, General Lee surrendered, and the
southern Confederacy was no more.
When the city arose from her ashes and again put on the garb of peace,
one of her first works was to erect memorials in honor of the men who
had fought so nobly in her defense.
In 1888, a monument was erected by some of Stuart’s comrades to mark the
place at Yellow Tavern where he received his mortal wound. Governor
Fitzhugh Lee was the orator of the occasion. He had been one of Stuart’s
most trusted brigadier generals, and had known him since they were
cadets together at West Point. In beautiful and touching language, he
reviewed the chief events of Stuart’s life, his brilliant campaigns, and
his last hours.
[Illustration: MONUMENT AT YELLOW TAVERN
Marking the place where Stuart was wounded]
The shaft at Yellow Tavern is twenty-two feet high and stands on a knoll
about thirty feet from the spot where Stuart was wounded. Upon it are
the following inscriptions:
_Face_: Upon this field, Major-Genl. J. E. B. Stuart, Commander
Confederate Cavalry A. N. Va., received his mortal wound, May
11, 1864.
_Right_: He was fearless and faithful, pure and powerful, tender and
true.
_Left_: This stone is erected by some of his comrades to commemorate
his valor.
_Rear_: He saved Richmond, but he gave his life. Born Feb. 6, 1833,
died May 12, 1864.
In 1891, the “Veteran Cavalry Association of the Army of Northern
Virginia” was organized for the purpose of marking the grave of General
Stuart with a suitable monument; but it was afterwards decided that,
with the aid of the city of Richmond, the association would erect an
equestrian statue. The city donated the site on Monument avenue, near
the equestrian statue of General Lee, and also contributed a large sum
of money, so that the association was enabled to erect the statue.
The sculptor, Mr. Fred Moynihan, designed and executed a statue, which
is an excellent likeness of General Stuart and a striking example of the
sculptor’s skill. In 1907, the memorial was unveiled in the presence of
an immense concourse of people, including large numbers of veterans from
all parts of the South. Chief among the guests of honor were Miss Mary
Custis Lee, Mrs. Stonewall Jackson, and Mrs. J. E. B. Stuart.
Fully ten thousand men marched in the column which took over an hour to
pass a given point. Veterans who were too feeble to endure the fatigue
of the march went early to the monument, and joined the great multitude
that crowded the sidewalks and even the housetops.
When the parade reached the monument, the crowd was so dense that it was
with difficulty that the police made way for the orator and
distinguished guests. The multitude was called to order by Major Andrew
R. Venable, of Farmville, Virginia, a member of the staff of General
Stuart, who introduced Rev. Walter Q. Hullihen, of Staunton, Virginia,
another member of Stuart’s staff, who made the dedicatory prayer. Major
Venable then introduced the orator of the day, Judge Theodore S. Garnett
of Norfolk, Virginia, another member of the staff of General Stuart.
It was indeed a remarkable incident that three of General Stuart’s staff
officers presided at the unveiling of his statue forty-three years after
his death.
Judge Garnett in an eloquent speech reviewed the life and campaigns of
Stuart, paying glowing tributes to the general, to the “ever-glorious
and gallant” Stuart Horse Artillery, and to his comrades of Mosby’s
Battalion. He closed with these words: “To the city of Richmond, as its
faithful guardian, we commit this monument, in whose care and keeping it
will henceforth stand in token of a people’s gratitude and in perpetual
memory of his heroic name.”
[Illustration: STUART STATUE
On Monument Avenue, Richmond, Va.]
The veil was then drawn from the monument by the hand of little Virginia
Stuart Waller, General Stuart’s granddaughter. As the canvas fell from
the heroic figure of General Stuart mounted on his powerful horse, the
guns of the Howitzers boomed a salute and the cheering of the vast
throng arose in billows of sound.
“Stuart was again riding with Lee.”
SUGGESTIVE QUESTIONS
Chapter I
Give three incidents to prove that Stuart inherited his spirit of
patriotism and devotion to duty.
Tell an interesting story connected with his grandmother, Bethenia
Letcher Pannill.
What do you know of Stuart’s life at Laurel Hill?
Tell what you can about his early education.
Give an account of his life at West Point.
What do you know of his religious feelings and convictions?
Tell about his choice of a profession and his equipment for it.
Chapter II
How did Stuart win distinction in his first military service?
What good qualities for a soldier and leader did he show in this
adventure?
What two events of deep personal interest happened to Stuart in the fall
of 1855?
Tell about the political trouble in Kansas at this time.
Who was “Ossawatomie” Brown?
Tell about Stuart’s being wounded in a fight with Indians.
What qualities did he show in leading the party back to Fort Kearny?
What was the reason for his visit to Washington in 1859?
What interesting and important outcome did this visit have?
What feelings were aroused in the country by the John Brown Raid and the
hanging of Brown?
Chapter III
What was Stuart’s first cavalry commission under the Confederate
government?
What kind of troops did he have, and what was his work?
Tell about his wonderful capture at Falling Waters.
What did General Joseph E. Johnston say about Stuart?
Tell about Stuart’s part in the First Battle of Manassas.
Tell about the visits paid Stuart by his family at his outpost near
Washington.
What did General Longstreet write President Davis about Stuart?
Chapter IV
See if you can paint a word-picture of Stuart when he was made a
brigadier general.
Why did the soldiers still keep their confidence in Stuart after his
defeat at the battle of Dranesville?
What was the Peninsular Campaign? What was Stuart’s part in it, up to
the time that General Lee was made commander of the Army of Northern
Virginia?
Describe the Chickahominy Raid. Why is this raid one of the most
wonderful cavalry achievements in history?
Tell two interesting incidents connected with the capture of the Federal
supply depot at the White House.
Tell about the close of the Peninsular Campaign.
Chapter V
What was Stuart’s reward for his services in the Peninsular Campaign?
Tell about the reörganization of the cavalry.
Give an account of life at Dundee. What brought it to a close?
Tell about the capture of Stuart’s hat.
Give an account of the adventure in which he “made the Yankees pay for
that hat.”
What was Stuart’s part in the Second Battle of Manassas?
Chapter VI
Tell about the capture of Fairfax Courthouse.
Tell a story to show how the people of this section felt toward General
Stuart and the cause for which he fought.
Describe the crossing of the cavalry into Maryland.
Do you think the Maryland people were glad to welcome the Confederates
into their State? Why?
Tell about the ball at Urbana.
How did the Confederates treat the Unionists in Frederick?
Describe Stuart’s retreat from Frederick to South Mountain.
What were the principal mountain passes and why was it necessary for the
cavalry to hold them until the capture of Harper’s Ferry?
What did General Jackson say about General Stuart at the battle of
Antietam?
How did the cavalry help General Lee to get his army back safely into
Virginia?
Tell about “the girl of Williamsport.”
Tell about Stuart and Von Borcke’s narrow escape from being captured on
a reconnoitering expedition.
Tell about Bob Sweeny and camp life at The Bower.
Chapter VII
Would you have been proud of being one of the soldiers chosen by Stuart
to accompany him on the Chambersburg Raid? Why?
Give a brief account of the raid.
To whom did Stuart assign all the glory and honor?
What was the effect of the raid on the North? On the South?
Why was Stuart sometimes called “Knight of the Golden Spurs?”
Chapter VIII
Tell about McClellan’s campaign in the autumn of 1862 and the retreat of
the cavalry toward Culpeper.
What exciting adventure did Stuart have at Ashby’s Gap?
What qualities as a man and a soldier did Stuart show during the illness
and after the death of his “little Flora”?
When and how did Stuart lose a part of his mustache?
What was the condition of Stuart’s cavalry at the time that Burnside
took McClellan’s place as commander of the Federal army?
Tell about the snowball fight in the Confederate camp at Fredericksburg.
What part did Stuart and his cavalry take in the battle of
Fredericksburg?
How did Pelham, the young chief of the Stuart Horse Artillery,
distinguish himself in this battle?
Tell about the Dumfries Raid and the joke that Stuart played on the
Federal quartermaster at Washington.
Tell about the friendship between Stuart and Jackson.
What changes took place in the Federal army in the early spring of 1863?
Chapter IX
Tell about the death of young Pelham and Stuart’s love for him.
Give an account of Stuart’s encounters with the Federal cavalry just
before the battle of Chancellorsville.
How did Stuart and his cavalry assist Jackson in surprising the Federal
left flank?
When Jackson was wounded, what did he say about Stuart?
How did Stuart fulfill Jackson’s trust?
Tell about Stoneman’s raid and its result.
Chapter X
Describe the Culpeper cavalry review.
Draw a diagram showing how the Federals gave Stuart a double surprise in
the battle of Fleetwood Hill, or Brandy Station, attacking him from both
the front and the rear.
Describe the final combat for the possession of the hill.
Chapter XI
Why did Lee’s plan prevent Stuart’s following up Pleasanton’s retreat?
Why did not Stuart follow the route of the remainder of the army when he
started into Pennsylvania to join Early at York?
Describe his march from Seneca Ford to Carlisle.
In the light of what he knew, would it have been wise for Stuart to
abandon his captured wagons? Give a reason for your opinion.
How long did his saving the wagons delay his march?
Do you think that he would have kept the wagons if he had known what was
happening at Gettysburg?
What part did Stuart and his cavalry take in the third day’s battle?
Tell about the work of Stuart and his cavalry in covering the retreat of
General Lee’s army.
Tell the incident about Stuart and the hard-boiled eggs. Explain his
conduct on this occasion.
Chapter XII
Tell about General Lee’s position and Stuart’s encounter with Buford and
Kilpatrick at Jack’s Shop.
What was the “Bristoe Campaign?”
Tell how Stuart drove the Federals a second time from Fleetwood Hill.
What narrow escape did Stuart and his cavalry have near Catlett’s
Station?
Tell about Virginia Pelham Stuart.
What northern general took command of all the Federal armies in the
spring of 1864?
Tell about the Battle of the Wilderness. What interesting anecdote is
told about Stuart when he was on his way to this battle?
Tell about the battle of Spotsylvania Courthouse.
How did General Stuart try to save Major McClellan from danger in this
battle?
Describe the cavalry raid that General Grant planned in order to take
Richmond.
How did Stuart beat Sheridan in the race to Yellow Tavern?
Tell about Stuart’s being wounded and borne from the field.
What was his last command to his men?
What impressed you most when you read the account of Stuart’s death?
Why is such a death as this glorious and inspiring?
Repeat the lines from “Horatius” that apply to the death of Stuart.
Chapter XIII
What tribute did Fitz Lee pay his dead commander?
What private and public tributes were paid by General Robert E. Lee?
How did the city of Richmond show her grief at the time of Stuart’s
death?
What later tributes has she given to her hero and defender?
THE ORGANIZATION OF AN ARMY
The Federal and Confederate armies in the War of Secession were
organized in practically the same way. There were a few points of
difference, and in active service the numbers and arrangement of
military forces varied and were changed.
INFANTRY
_Squad_: any small number of men, usually 7, under command of a
corporal.
_Platoon_: a subdivision, usually half, of a company under a
lieutenant.
_Company_: from 83 to 125 men under a captain.
_Battalion_: 2 or more, usually four, companies under a major.
_Regiment_: 10 companies—or 3 battalions of 4 companies each—under a
colonel or a lieutenant-colonel.
_Brigade_: 3 to 5 regiments under a brigadier-general.
_Division_: 2 to 5 brigades under a major-general.
_Army corps_: 2 or more divisions under a major-general or a
lieutenant-general,—organized as a complete army and
sufficient in itself for all the operations of war.
CAVALRY
_Squad_: any small number of men, usual 7, under a corporal.
_Platoon_: a sub-division, usually half, of a company under a
lieutenant.
_Troop_: 2 to 6 platoons, 76 to 100 men, under a captain.
_Squadron_: 2 to 4 troops under a senior captain or a major.
_Regiment_: 10 troops—or 4 to 6 squadrons—under a colonel.
_Brigade_: 3 or 4 regiments under a brigadier-general.
_Division_: 2 to 4 brigades under a major-general.
ARTILLERY
_Battery_: usually 144 men with 4 guns and 2 howitzers, under a
captain.
_Battalion_: 3 to 4 batteries under a major.
_Regiment_: 2 to 8 battalions under a colonel.
When infantry regiments are combined into brigades, brigades into
divisions, and divisions into army corps,—cavalry, artillery, and
certain other auxiliary troops, such as engineers, signal corps, etc.,
are joined with them in such proportions as are necessary. Every unit,
from the company up, has its own supply and ammunition wagons, field
hospitals, etc.
WORD LIST
Ab o li′tion party: a political party, founded by Garrison about 1833,
the object of which was to free all slaves in the United States.
ad vănçe′: forward movement of a military force.
advance guard: troops which march in front, in order to secure a
military force against surprise.
āid′-dē-cămp: an officer who assists a general by sending orders,
collecting information, etc.
āide: a military or naval officer who assists a superior officer.
A pä′che: a warlike Indian tribe originally located in New Mexico and
Arizona.
är′se nal: a place for the storage or manufacture of arms and military
equipment.
ar tĭl′ler y: cannon, large or small; that branch of the service which
handles the cannon.
as sa̤ult′: attack of a military force on the works or position of an
enemy, in the effort to carry it by a single charge.
bāse: a place from which the operations of an army proceed, forward
movements are made, supplies are furnished, etc.
bat tăl′ion: See page 210.
bat′ter y: See page 210.
bĭv′ouac (-wăk): a temporary encampment of soldiers, usually without
tents.
bri gāde′: See page 210.
brŭnt: the shock of an attack or onset.
bṳoy′ant: cheerful, light-hearted.
cāis′ son: a strong four-wheeled wagon, consisting of two parts, the
body and the limber, that carries ammunition chests or boxes.
căn′is ter: cannon shot consisting of a metal cylinder which bursts when
fired, discharging the bullets with which it is filled.
cär′bine: a short, light rifle used chiefly by cavalry.
căs′ca bel: a knob or projection in the rear of the breech of a
muzzle-loading cannon.
căv′al ry: that part of the army consisting of mounted soldiers.
Çheȳ ĕnne′: an Indian tribe formerly inhabiting South Dakota, Wyoming,
and Nevada.
com man dänt′: the commanding officer of a place or of a body of men.
cóm′pa ny: See page 210.
corps (cōr): See page 210.
coun′ter movement: a movement by which a body of troops marches back
over ground it has recently occupied or marched over.
cŭl′mi nat ed: reached a final result.
di vĭ′sion: See page 210.
en cămped: formed a camp.
en trĕnch′: fortify with defensive works as with a trench or ditch and a
wall.
en trĕnch′ments: fortifications consisting of a parapet of earth and the
ditch or trench from which the earth was taken.
flănk: the side of an army, either in column or in line.
grāpe′shot: a cluster of iron balls arranged in an iron framework to be
discharged from a cannon. Formerly grapeshot was inclosed in a
canvas bag so quilted as to look like a bunch of grapes.
guī′dons: small flags carried by cavalry and field artillery.
hăv′er sack: a bag or case in which a soldier carries provisions on a
march.
Ho rā′tius: a hero of ancient Rome who with two others defended the
bridge across the Tiber against an advancing army. Read Lord
Macaulay’s poem “Horatius.”
how′itz er: a cannon for throwing shells.
ĭm′ mi nent: threatening; dangerous and close at hand.
in dŏm′i ta ble: unyielding; unconquerable.
ĭn′fan try: foot soldiers armed with rifles and bayonets; one of the
three chief divisions of an army, the other two being cavalry and
artillery.
in vĕst′ing: surrounding with troops; laying siege to.
ir rĕp′a ra ble: not capable of being repaired or remedied.
lăr′i at: a long, small rope used for catching or for picketing cattle
or horses.
lĭm′ber: the fore part of a gun carriage, consisting of a chest mounted
on two wheels and having a pole for the horses. See _caisson_.
ma neū′vers: movements or changes of position of troops or war-vessels
for tactical purposes or for display.
ma rïnes′: naval troops; soldiers serving on war-vessels.
mär′tial law: the military administration which when proclaimed takes
the place of civil law in time of war or disorder.
mĭl′i ta ry law: the laws by which an army and its affairs are governed.
Military law differs from martial law in that the former is a
permanent code for the government of the army and the latter is
the application of the laws of war to all the people in a certain
district.
mīne: an explosive charge, sunken in the earth or under water, for the
purpose of destroying an enemy passing over it,—formerly exploded
by contact or by a fuse, but now usually exploded by electricity.
ôrd′nance: military supplies.
ŏr′i flămme: a standard or ensign in battle, especially the ancient
royal banner of France.
out′post: a post or station outside the limits of a camp, for
observation or to guard against surprise.
pa rōled′: set at liberty on parole, or word of honor not to bear arms
against the captors.
pĕr′emp to ry: authoritative; not admitting of debate or question.
pĭck′ets: soldiers stationed on the outskirts of a camp to warn against
the enemy’s approach.
pīkes: soldiers’ weapons, consisting of wooden staves with steel points.
In recent warfare, pikes have been superceded by bayonets.
pla tōōn′: See page 210.
pon tōōn′: a vessel, such as a flat-bottomed boat or a canvas-covered
frame, used in the construction of a floating bridge.
pre dĭc′a ment: a difficult or trying condition or situation.
prō′vost (vō) guard: a body of soldiers detailed for police duties.
qua̤r′ter master: a staff officer of a regiment or other body of troops,
whose duty it is to provide quarters, arrange transportation, and
provide and issue food, clothing, and other supplies.
rănk: grade of official standing in the army or navy.
rēar guard: troops which march in the rear of a body of forces in order
to protect it.
re᷵ cŏn′na᷵is sănçe: an examination of territory or of an enemy’s
position for the purpose of gaining information,—sometimes
involving an attack for the purpose of discovering the enemy’s
position and strength.
rĕg′i ment: See page 210.
re trēat′: the withdrawal, especially in an orderly manner, of troops
from an exposed or dangerous position.
rī′fled: having the bore rifled, or grooved spirally, in order to give a
rotary motion to the bullet.
shĕll: a hollow projectile for cannon, which contains an explosive
charge.
sīde arms: weapons worn at the side or in the belt, as sword, pistol,
bayonet, etc., especially sword.
Sĭd′ney, Sir Philip: a famous English soldier and author of the
sixteenth century, the model of unselfish courage. He was mortally
wounded in battle of Zulphen, in 1586.
sī mul tā′ne ous: happening at the same time.
spȳ: a soldier not in uniform who penetrates the enemy’s camp or zone of
operations, for the purpose of gaining information.
tăl′ma: a style of long cape or cloak worn by men and women during the
first half of the nineteenth century.
un lĭm′ber ed: removed from the limber. See _limber_ and _caisson_.
Zoṳ äves̝′: infantry wearing a brilliant oriental uniform, consisting
of leggins, baggy trousers, short jacket, and tasselled cap or
turban.
Transcriber’s Notes
--Copyright notice provided as in the original—this e-text is public
domain in the country of publication.
--Created cover and spine images based on elements of the printed book.
--In the text versions, delimited italics text in _underscores_ (the
HTML version reproduces the font form of the printed book.)
--This book contains unusual diacritical marks: diaeresis below; and
uptack both above and below. These UTF characters are omitted from the
Latin-1 versions and may not be supported by some UTF fonts.
--Silently corrected palpable typos; left non-standard spellings and
dialect unchanged.
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