Plenty of Blame to go Around

Jeb Stuart's Controversial Ride to Gettysburg

Eric J. Wittenberg, J. David Petruzzi

• Publisher: Savas Beatie
• Year: 2022
• Print ISBN: 9781611210989
• eBook ISBN: 9781611210170
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: American Civil War History
• Index: History

"A welcome new account of Stuart's fateful ride during the 1863 Pennsylvania campaign . . . well researched, vividly written, and shrewdly argued." —Mark Grimsley, author of And Keep Moving On
June 1863. The Gettysburg Campaign is in its opening hours. Harness jingles and hoofs pound as Confederate cavalryman James Ewell Brown (JEB) Stuart leads his three brigades of veteran troopers on a ride that triggers one of the Civil War's most bitter and enduring controversies. Instead of finding glory and victory-two objectives with which he was intimately familiar, Stuart reaped stinging criticism and substantial blame for one of the Confederacy's most stunning and unexpected battlefield defeats. In Plenty of Blame to Go Around: Jeb Stuart's Controversial Ride to Gettysburg, Eric J. Wittenberg and J. David Petruzzi objectively investigate the role Stuart's horsemen played in the disastrous campaign. It is the first book ever written on this important and endlessly fascinating subject.
Did the plumed cavalier disobey General Robert E. Lee's orders by stripping the army of its "eyes and ears?" Was Stuart to blame for the unexpected combat that broke out at Gettysburg on July 1? Authors Wittenberg and Petruzzi, widely recognized for their study and expertise of Civil War cavalry operations, have drawn upon a massive array of primary sources, many heretofore untapped, to fully explore Stuart's ride, its consequences, and the intense debate among participants shortly after the battle, through early post-war commentators, and among modern scholars.
The result is a richly detailed study jammed with incisive tactical commentary, new perspectives on the strategic role of the Southern cavalry, and fresh insights on every horse engagement, large and small, fought during the campaign.

Chapter 1

The Ride Begins

“This was the commencement of a march which lasted almost without halt for two weeks.”

—Capt. Theodore S. Garnett, Stuart’s staff

About 1:00 a.m. on June 25, 1863, James Ewell Brown (“Jeb”) Stuart, accompanied by his staff and escort, mounted and silently rode from Rector’s Crossroads in the direction of Upperville. “The next thing I remember, we were riding along the Upperville Middleburg road with two or three brigades of cavalry following us,” recalled Stuart’s junior engineering officer, Capt. Frank S. Robertson.¹

The horsemen rode as quietly as possible because Union troops still held the Bull Run Mountains, which commanded a view of every movement of consequence in the region, and Maj. Gen. Winfield S. Hancock’s Second Corps occupied Thoroughfare Gap.²

The long column of Confederate cavalry presented quite a sight. Captain William Willis Blackford, Stuart’s thirty-two-year-old engineering officer, looked them over with pride. “No one could ride along the lines of this splendid body of men and not be struck with the spirit which animated them,” he noted with pride.³ Some, including members of Wade Hampton’s Brigade, had lost their horses in the June 21 Battle of Upperville, and rode doubled up on mounts in the hope of finding new horses along the way.⁴

One of five distinguished brothers in the Confederate service, Blackford loved being a soldier. Born in Fredericksburg, William was educated in a private school funded by his father and worked as a civil engineer to put himself through the University of Virginia.⁵ In 1856, Blackford married the eldest daughter of Governor Wyndham Robertson. He and Mary settled in Buena Vista, where Blackford became Robertson’s partner in plaster mining.⁶ Though opposed to secession, Blackford could not abide Lincoln’s early-war call for Virginia troops. He left his wife and four children to join a cavalry company he had earlier raised in Washington County. Captain William E. “Grumble” Jones, a former U.S. Dragoon officer, commanded the company, which numbered among its privates John Singleton Mosby.⁷

Captain William W. Blackford, Stuart’s chief engineering officer, in a postwar view.

Robert Trout

First Lieutenant Blackford and his company drilled at Ashland before joining Lt. Col. Jeb Stuart’s 1st Virginia Cavalry. Stuart was so impressed by the lieutenant that he appointed Blackford adjutant of the regiment. A promotion to captain of Engineers arrived in May 1862. After serving a few weeks in the Engineer Corps Blackford rejoined Stuart’s divisional staff at the cavalier’s request.⁸

By the time Stuart’s column got moving on June 25, Blackford was well aware of the influence his commander held over the troops. “They knew they were starting on some bold enterprise, but their confidence in their leader was so unbounded that they were as gay and lively as it was possible for them to be, for up to that time no reverse had crossed their path, and they believed themselves and their leader invincible.”⁹

Just before the winding column of Confederate cavalry reached the arched stone bridge over Goose Creek, Stuart jumped his horse over a fence on the left side of the road and ordered a courier to turn the head of the column at that point. His staff realized that instead of heading toward the Shenandoah Valley, Stuart was setting out after Joe Hooker’s army.¹⁰ “Little did we dream that this was the commencement of a march which lasted almost without halt for two weeks,” observed Theodore S. Garnett, a member of Stuart’s staff.¹¹ The Confederates drove a small de tachment of pickets from the mouth of Glasscock’s Gap and continued through the mountain pass in the hope of cutting off any Federal infantry that might be lingering inside Thorough fare Gap. “Moving to the right, we passed through Glasscock’s Gap without serious difficulty, and marched for Hay Market,” reported Stuart.¹²

Captain Theodore Garnett, aide-de-camp and clerk to JEB Stuart.

Robert Trout

The column moved through the night, silently riding on. With the coming of dawn, the gray clad horsemen found themselves near Buckland on the eastern slope of the Bull Run Mountains. “Across the plain, to our left, were the white tops of an immense wagon train, which, at the distance of two or three miles, presented the appearance of a huge flock of sheep,” recalled Garnett. “Here then, though, was the object of our silent march over the mountains. All that remained to be done was to ‘charge the camp.’” The Confederate cavalrymen did not realize that they had spotted the rear of Hancock’s Federal infantry column. The riders cautiously continued on toward the train until they were close enough to attack. They were preparing for the assault when, to their surprise, they discovered at least a division of infantry guarded the train. Hancock’s entire corps was passing through Haymarket heading north toward Gum Springs, his infantry distributed through his trains. “They had taken the alarm and were hurrying off as fast as whip and spur would carry them—the infantry marching on the flank,” concluded Garnett.¹³

Stuart chose a good position and opened with artillery on Hancock’s passing column with effect, “scattering men, wagons, and horses in wild confusion; disabled one of the enemy’s caissons, which he abandoned, and compelled him to advance in order of battle to compel us to desist,” recounted the general. The first shot hit a caisson. “This ‘good shot’ highly delighted the general, who turned round laughing, and called attention to the accuracy of the fire,” reported thirty-two-year-old John Esten Cooke, a cousin of Jeb’s wife Flora Stuart, and who served on Stuart’s staff as a scribe. “The individual addressed laughed in response, but replied, ‘Look out, though; they are going to enfilade you from that hill on the right, General.’”

“Oh! I reckon not,” Stuart responded confidently.

A puff of white smoke rose from the wooded knoll and a shot screamed by, grazing the top of one of the Southern caissons. “This was followed by another and another; the enemy were seen hastily forming line, and advancing sharpshooters; whereupon Stuart ordered back his guns, and dismounted cavalry to meet them.”¹⁴ One of the Southern horse artillerists later recounted, “Breathed’s battery was ordered into position, raking Hancock’s column until they sent a heavy body of infantry against the battery, and not until they came uncomfortably close did we limber up and leave. Stuart, not wishing to disclose his force, withdrew after capturing some prisoners.”¹⁵

Some of the first shots fired by Stuart’s artillery fell among the men of the 1st Minnesota Infantry. Private Isaac Lyman Taylor noted in his diary, “At 12 m., as we approach Haymarket some cavalry appear on a bluff south of us & while the boys are earnestly arguing the question ‘Are they our men?’, a white puff of smoke and the unearthly screech of a shell closes the debate & a unanimous decision is rendered in the Neg[ative].”¹⁶ Lieutenant William Lochren, also of the 1st Minnesota observed, “There were several casualties, and Colonel [William] Colville’s horse was killed under him.”¹⁷ The exploding shells “put to flight and into great panic a crowd of sutlers, negroes, and other camp followers that were lingering in the rear of Gibbon’s Division,” noted an other Minnesotan, “and it is said that there were some ludicrous scenes.”¹⁸

Captain James Breathed commanded horse artillery that rode with Stuart’s expedition.

National Archives

One exploding shell hit and killed Pvt. Israel D. Jones of the 19th Maine Infantry, the first man in his regiment to be killed in action. “In less than ten minutes from the time that Mr. Jones was chatting cheerfully with the man marching at his side, he was buried by the roadside,” recounted his regiment’s historian. Colonel Francis E. Heath called on his regimental musicians to play a tune, ordered the flags unfurled, and had his men double-time out of range, carrying Jones’s body with them. This moment of defiance was short-lived, however. The Maine men unceremoniously buried Jones’s bloody corpse in a shallow grave along the side of the pike. The makeshift burial haunted Heath for the rest of his life. Of all his Civil War actions, Heath most regretted not having made time for a proper Christian burial for Jones.¹⁹ “The forming of Har row’s brigade and the advance of Webb’s [brigade] caused [Stuart’s men] to leave the field,” observed a Minnesotan.²⁰

A running fight broke out, with the Federals holding their flank. “Soon the line had passed on and disappeared,” recalled Cooke.²¹ The 72nd Pennsylvania Infantry brought up the rear of Hancock’s column. Some of the Pennsylvanians were sent out as flankers, separating them from the rest of Hancock’s corps. “Knowing the enemy to be ahead in our front, also on our flank and in our rear,” recounted Maj. Samuel Roberts, “I felt the prospect of the 72nd rejoining the division some what doubtful and I can only attribute our good fortune in not being at tacked to an absence of knowledge upon the part of the Confederates, that a regiment was in rear of the division.”²²

Stuart made “their exit as unpleasant as possible,” recalled Theodore Garnett, by killing a few Union draft horses, exploding a caisson, and taking a handful of men prisoner.²³ “We shelled them a little and they soon retreated,” recalled an officer of the Jeff Davis Legion Cavalry, Wade Hampton’s Brigade.²⁴ “We moved against Thoroughfare Gap, and crossing the rugged mountains, attacked a wagon train, but did nothing more than throw some shells in among them,” wrote an officer of the 9th Virginia Cavalry of John R. Chambliss’s Brigade.²⁵ “As we ap proached Hay market we passed a disabled caisson left behind, which showed the accurate firing of the rebel artillery,” noted a...

Table of contents

• Front Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• Preface and Acknowledgments
• Foreword
• Introduction
• Chapter 1: The Ride Begins
• Chapter 2: Across the Potomac
• Chapter 3: Cavalry Clash at Westminster
• Chapter 4: The Battle of Hanover Begins
• Chapter 5: The Second Phase of the Battle of Hanover
• Chapter 6: The Long Road to Carlisle
• Chapter 7: A Night to Remember: Carlisle
• Chapter 8: The Battle of Hunterstown
• Chapter 9: The Controversy Begins
• Chapter 10: The Controversy Continues
• Chapter 11: The Controversy Rages
• Chapter 12: Conclusion
• Appendix A: Stuart’s Command in the Ride to Pennsylvania
• Appendix B: Orders of Battle
• Appendix C: Major General Jeb Stuart’s Official Report
• Appendix D: A Driving Tour of Stuart’s Ride to Gettysburg
• Notes
• Bibliography