An account of Confederate cavalry general Jeb Stuart's daring 110-mile ride behind Union lines during the American Civil War.
Many people are aware that Jeb Stuart was a famous cavalry general who rode for the Confederacy. Yet, how did this twenty-nine-year-old former US Army lieutenant become the 1860s version of a media sensation?
At the beginning of June 1862, George McClellan's huge Union Army stood poised to decimate the Confederate capital of Richmond. The city faced chaos as thousands of civilians fled. Confederate Army commander Robert E. Lee wanted to launch his own attack, but he needed to know what stood on McClellan's right flank. John Fox's book, S tuart's Finest Hour, uses numerous eyewitness accounts to place the reader in the dusty saddle of both the hunter and the hunted as Stuart's men sliced deep behind Union lines to gather information for Lee. This first-ever book written about the raid follows the Confederate horsemen on their 110-mile ride, all the while chased by Union troopers commanded by Stuart s father-in-law, Philip St. George Cooke.
"Stuart's Finest Hour, with its seven maps and seventy-five photographs, is a valuable addition to historical literature, yet one which reads almost like a novel." Confederate Veteran magazine
"[A] heavily researched, vivaciously presented chronicle, which brings Stuart s death-defying tactical raid to life. Highly recommended." — Midwest Book Review