Cavalryman of the Lost Cause

A Biography of J. E. B. Stuart

Jeffry D. Wert

• Publisher: Simon & Schuster
• Year: 2008
• Print ISBN:
  9780743278249
• eBook ISBN:
  9781416579700
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Military Biographies
• Index: History

Cavalryman of the Lost Cause is the first major biography in decades of the famous Confederate general J. E. B. Stuart. Based on research in manuscript collections, personal memoirs and reminiscences, and regimental histories, this comprehensive volume reflects outstanding Civil War scholarship. James Ewell Brown Stuart was the premier cavalry commander of the Confederacy. He gained a reputation for daring early in the war when he rode around the Union army in the Peninsula Campaign, providing valuable intelligence to General Robert E. Lee at the expense of Union commander George B. McClellan. Stuart has long been controversial because of his performance in the critical Gettysburg Campaign, where he was out of touch with Lee for several days; this left Lee uncertain about the size and movement of the Union army, information that would prove decisive when the battle began. In an engagement with the cavalry of Union general Philip Sheridan in spring 1864, Stuart was killed. He was only thirty-one. Jeffry D. Wert provides new details about Stuart's childhood and youth, and he draws on letters between Stuart and his wife, Flora, to show us the man as he was: eager for glory, daring sometimes to the point of recklessness, but a devoted and loving husband and father. Stuart has long been regarded as the finest Confederate cavalryman and one of the best this country has ever produced. Wert shows how Stuart's friendship with Stonewall Jackson and his relationship with Lee were crucial; at the same time Stuart's relationships with his subordinates were complicated and sometimes troubled. Cavalryman of the Lost Cause is a riveting biography of a towering figure of the Civil War, a fascinating and colorful work by one of our finest Civil War historians.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Colophon
• ALSO BY JEFFRY D. WERT
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Preface and Acknowledgments
• Chapter 1 Son of Virginia
• Chapter 2 West Point and Texas
• Chapter 3 “I Go with Virginia”
• Chapter 4 “A Rare Man”
• Chapter 5 “I Will Not Leave the Van of Our Army”
• Chapter 6 “Our Exploit Is All the Talk Here”
• Chapter 7 “Great Spirits of the Land”
• Chapter 8 “We Cannot Afford to Be Idle”
• Chapter 9 To Pennsylvania and Back
• Chapter 10 Winter War
• Chapter 11 “Right Noble Did Stuart Do”
• Chapter 12 “The Hardest Cavalry Fight”
• Chapter 13 To Gettysburg
• Chapter 14 “I Have Been Blessed with Great Success on This Campaign”
• Chapter 15 Corps Command
• Chapter 16 “Grand Jeb Stuart”
• Chapter 17 “I Had Rather Die, Than Be Whipped”
• Chapter 18 “The Greatest Cavalry Officer Ever Foaled in America”
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Photographic Insert
• Cavalryman of the Lost Cause