Stuart was suited to high command. Well educated, he attended Emory and Henry College in Wytheville, Virginia before receiving a U. S. Military Academy (West Point) appointment. After entering West Point he became close friends with George Washington Custis Lee, also a cadet, and eldest son of the Academy's Superintendent, Lt. Col. Robert E. Lee. He finished in 1854, 13th in his class; family tradition maintains he purposely relaxed his studies in his senior year to avoid appointment as an engineer. He preferred duty with the Mounted Rifles and was not disappointed. Lieutenant Stuart immediately impressed his superiors, was given assignment in the newly created First Regular Cavalry and served as regimental quartermaster for a portion of his duty there. As a member of this elite force, he participated in managing Indian tribes in the West, and maintaining order in Kansas, where he met John Brown. He also married then Colonel Philip St. George Cooke's daughter Flora, the Cooke family also being from Virginia. In his off duty hours, Lt. Stuart developed new designs for a saber belt attachment and horse hitcher (6), bringing them back East in 1859 to sell to the War Department. During this period, he was offered the opportunity to accompany then Colonel Robert E. Lee to Harpers Ferry in order to put down John Brown's Raid. Lee, knowing Stuart had met Brown before and could identify him, assigned him the task of reading the terms of surrender to Brown and ascertain whether Brown would submit. Stuart's tip of his hat set the assault on Brown and his men in motion. He returned to his position with the First Cavalry, only to resign his commission in May 1861 as his native state seceded from the Union.

Stuart was throughout his life dedicated to his home state of Virginia and the South. He held a dedication to the Confederacy throughout the toughest trials of his life without faltering. In a March 1862 letter to his wife he wrote,

I for one—though I stood alone in the Confederacy, without countenance or aid, would uphold the banner of southern Independence as long as I had a hand left to grasp the staff--& then die before submitting. Tell my boy when I am gone how I felt & wrote. Tell him…never to forget the principles for which his father struggled.

After being severely wounded, he continued to rally his men. “Go back! Go back and do your duty as I have done mine, and our country will be safe. Go back! Go back! I had rather die than be whipped!” (7) On his deathbed he told Confederate President Jefferson Davis, when asked how he felt, “Easy, but willing to die if God and my country think I have fulfilled my destiny and done my duty.” (8)

Lee told Lt. Gen. Wade Hampton (who had worked under Stuart in Lee’s army) of his admiration for Stuart after the war,

General Stuart was my ideal of a solder. He was always cheerful under all circumstances, and always ready for any work, and always reliable. When he stopped for a night’s rest, he could throw himself on the ground, and, with his saddle or a log for a pillow, he would fall asleep almost immediately and sleep as if in a bed. Then, if I sent an officer with an order, he was awake at the first call or touch. When his eyes opened, his mind became fully awake. He did not have to yawn or stretch to get himself awake but his mind and body seemed to awake at the same time and to become active and alert. Before any other officer that I ever had could get himself and his men awake, Stuart would be in the saddle, have his men in line and be ready to move.(9)

Once in the Confederate Army, with the rank of Lt. Colonel, Stuart was recognized and promoted to Brigadier General of Cavalry within a year. He fought with Gen. Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson at the beginning of the war around Harpers Ferry, was brought East for the battle of First Manassas, and his command and rank grew steadily as his superiors were impressed. Both armies recognized his talent for vigilance, keen intelligence gathering and extremely effective screening for the Confederate army, as well as panache and esprit de corps not only in the army, but throughout the Southern population as well. Once under the command of Gen. Robert E. Lee, he became Lee’s “eyes and ears” and heavily depended upon by the commanding general. Stuart became a national hero with his “Ride Around McClellan” in June of ’62, gathering intelligence about the Union army and wreaking havoc wherever he went, basically unmolested. He believed in staying busy, nicknaming his headquarters “Camp No Camp.” Stuart would go on to ride around the Union army repeatedly, greatly embarrassing the Federals, who seemed utterly unable to stop him. He fell on top of his game, and his fall marked the decline of the Army of Northern Virginia’s cavalry.

Stuart’s philosophy about the war was pragmatic. He believed, for the South to win, esprit had to give them the winning edge. He wrote his brother early in the war,

I realize that if we oppose force to force we cannot win, for their resources are greater than ours. We must make up in quality what we lack in numbers. We must substitute esprit for numbers. Therefore, I strive to inculcate in my men the spirit of the chase…

What others thought was frivolous and irresponsible was a key to Stuart’s generalship. Confidence and attitude was the key to victory. Biographer John Thomason wrote, “He showed a happy face and led them to battle as to a fox hunt, held them joyously to hopeless odds, and fought light cavalry as nobody has fought it since Napoleon’s time.”(10) He also earned tremendous respect from his troopers. Thomason wrote that he found,

...the conviction of the Southern troopers—Jeb, he never says, ‘Go on’—what he says, is ‘Come on, boys!’ He leads us—he don’t send us—Where-from, a whole brigade of cavalry soldiers, swanking in feathered hats—chicken feathers, if they couldn’t obtain ostrich—and hopefully cultivating whiskers, for which most of them are a little young, and trying to be like the General.

Stuart held his staff and command to very high standards. Upon leaving for the Chambersburg raid he issued the following to the men he selected to accompany him,

Soldiers:
You are about to engage in an enterprise which, to insure success, imperatively demands at your hands coolness, decision, and bravery; implicit obedience to orders without question of cavil, and the strictest order and sobriety on the march and in bivouac. The destination and extent of this expedition had better be kept to myself than known to you. Suffice it to say that, with the hearty cooperation of officers and men, I have not a doubt of its success—a success which will reflect credit in the highest degree upon your arms. The orders which are herewith published for your government are absolutely necessary and must be rigidly enforced.(11)

Civilians noted after the event that the soldiers exhibited discipline and manners that were quite remarkable for cavalry on a raid. (12) One gunner remarked, “Raiding with General Stuart is poor fun and a hard business. Thunder, lightning, rain, storm nor darkness can stop him when he is on a warm fresh trail of Yankee game.”(13) Stuart even relieved an officer in his command due to lack of bravery. He wrote his wife Flora, “I had to relieve ------ from duty with the cavalry corps. He may do well elsewhere but he is not sufficiently fearless for me…”(14)

The most significant contribution Stuart made during his career was the development of cavalry that is still in large part utilized today. He established a centralized command structure that aided in coordination and effective use of the arm. Functions he fine-tuned for cavalry operations included reconnaissance, counter-reconnaissance, screening, security and intelligence gathering. (15) The enemy imitated Stuart’s organization, the ultimate compliment. (16) The Union army was able to supersede his command in numbers and materiel, yet remained unable to whip him at his own game. When Stuart fell, he left behind him well trained and experienced men who were able, because of his guidance, to fill his place on the battle line. No one else, North or South, can claim such an influence which pervaded both armies.

© 2006 Written by Susan Rosenvold

For a more in-depth look at Stuart’s life and career, see Thomason, John W. Jr., JEB Stuart. London: C. Scribner’s Sons, 1929. Reprint, Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 1994.

ENDNOTES
1. James Longstreet, Manassas To Appomattox, (Philadelphia: J. B. Lippencott Company, 1895, Reprint, New York: Da Capo Press, 1992), 573.
2. James M. McPherson, Battle Cry of Freedom, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988), 341.
3. Jeffry D. Wert, General James Longstreet, (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1993), 85.
4. Thomas J. Goree, Thomas W. Cutrer, ed., Longstreet’s Aide: The Civil War Letters of Major Thomas J. Goree, (Charlottesville, VA: University Press of Virginia, 1995), 43, 53.
5. Edward Porter Alexander,Military Memoirs of a Confederate: A Critical Narrative, New York: C. Scribner's Sons, 1907. Reprint, Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1962. Reprint, New York: Da Capo Press, 1993, 360.
6. Patrick Brennan, To Die Game, (Gettysburg, PA: Farnsworth House Military Impressions, 1998) 12.
7. John W. Thomason, Jr., JEB Stuart, (London: C. Scribner’s Sons, 1929. Reprint, Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 1994), 499.
8. Burke Davis, The Last Cavalier, (New York: Wings Books, 1957), 415.
9. Henry B. McClellan, Burke Davis, ed., I Rode With Jeb Stuart, ( Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1958. Reprint, New York: DeCapo Press, 1994) 432.
10. Thomason, Stuart, 9.
11. Thomason, Stuart, 298-299.
11. McClellan, I Rode, 142-145.
12. Burke Davis, Editor’s "Notes", McClellan, I Rode, 431.
13. Thomason, Stuart, 11.
14. James E. B. Stuart, IV, "Afterword", Patrick Brennan, Die Game, 66.
15. McPherson, Battle Cry, 585.

*italics the writer’s, not McPherson’s.

Captain William P. Snow, in his book Lee and His Generals which was published in 1867, gives one an account of Stuart that expresses his reputation and fame by his peers at the end of the war. It is a wonderful account in period language and an appropriate recounting of Stuart's life. It has been edited, and major errors in fact corrected, relieving Capt. Snow of some embarrassment, which I believe he would approve.

To read CPT Snow's biography click on this link Snow's Stuart