Lee and His Generals: Essays in Honor of T. Harry Williams

Jeb Stuart, R. E. Lee, and Confederate Defeat at Gettysburg

Jeb Stuart, R. E. Lee, and Confederate Defeat at Gettysburg Joseph G. Dawson III The Battle of Gettysburg was the Civil War’s biggest battle, and it produced numerous controversies. Some swirled around Major General J. E. B. Stuart, leader of the Cavalry Corps of the Army of Northern Virginia and one of the Confederacy’s most significant and successful generals. Stuart revealed that at Gettysburg on July 3, he led most of General Robert E. Lee’s cavalry around the Union army’s right flank, where he “hoped to effect a surprise upon the enemy’s rear.”1 Despite historians’ assessments of the Gettysburg Campaign, Stuart’s move against the Federal rear remains underappreciated , even though it can be connected to the most famous Confederate assault of the war, Pickett’s Charge, on July 3.2 This essay examines Stuart’s generalship during his raid through Pennsylvania as well as his decisions in the cavalry battle east of Gettysburg on July 3. In Pennsylvania Stuart failed to obtain significant results from his actions, demonstrating that even highly respected generals confront problems or make mistakes they cannot overcome. Stuart’s Background The Lee-Stuart connection began at the U.S. Military Academy in the 1850s. Stuart entered the academy in June 1850, graduating with the Class of 1854, and Lee served as the institution’s superintendent from 1852 to 1855. Lee made a strong impression on West Point cadets while he was superintendent. A West Pointer himself (Class of 1829), Lee displayed a gentlemanly personality and imposing physical presence. He had established a lofty reputation as Joseph G. Dawson III 116 a military engineer and member of Major General Winfield Scott’s staff during the Mexican War. Stuart was a good friend to one of Lee’s sons, Custis, and was often an invited guest at the superintendent’s home. Lee and Stuart renewed their connection in 1859, when Stuart stayed with Lee at his home while in Washington, D.C., to confer with the U.S. Patent Office. Later that year, Stuart was Lee’s aide when Lee led U.S. Marines responding to the raid by abolitionist John Brown, who had hoped to inspire a slave uprising by seizing the U.S. Arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia. Only a lieutenant at the time, Stuart delivered the ultimatum for Brown to surrender. Brown rejected surrender and the Marines, along with Stuart, stormed the arsenal, and captured the abolitionist.3 Both Lee and Stuart were Virginians who resigned from the U.S. Army in April 1861, when Virginia seceded from the Union. Stuart accepted a colonelcy and command of a Virginia cavalry regiment, while Virginia’s governor appointed Lee to command all state troops. Both soon were appointed Confederate officers. Stuart was tapped for promotion to brigadier general in command of a cavalry brigade in September, and Lee was the third ranking general in the Confederate army and military adviser to President Jefferson Davis. Outside Richmond on May 31, 1862, General Joseph E. Johnston was badly wounded. Davis turned to Lee to replace Johnston as leader of the largest Confederate field army. Later that year Stuart rose to command Lee’s Corps of Cavalry with the rank of major general. Lee entrusted one of his sons, W. H. F. “Rooney” Lee, and his nephew, Fitzhugh Lee, to Stuart as brigade leaders in his corps, and Stuart became like a surrogate son to the army commander. Like a proud father, Lee closely monitored Stuart’s several successes. During the Peninsula Campaign in the spring of 1862, Stuart led a spectacular raid around Major General George B. McClellan’s Union army, obtaining valuable information about McClellan’s troop dispositions while disconcerting the enemy commander. A few weeks later, during the Second Battle of Manassas, Stuart and his horsemen captured some of Union Major General John Pope’s documents, enabling Lee to order the commander of one of the wings of his army, Lieutenant General Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson, to strike the rear of Pope’s army with devastating effect, helping the Confederates win the battle. Taking some of the sting out of the Confederate strategic defeat in the invasion of Maryland in September, in October Stuart performed a gallant raid to Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, again flamboyantly riding completely around the Union army and capturing twelve hundred horses. Stuart’s exploits firmly cemented his relationship with Lee. They also established Stuart’s reputation among Confederates as a dashing commander who gathered reliable intelligence, produced...