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Show Beay SabrfewnKof BIwe ard of Gfau ' j S i I I v Iff y 1 9 " -I -- NOT? y ;pfj w , , - ikGeneKal J.E.B. Stuart "The Boy GenGKdl" ft fc ' J By ELMO SCOTT WATSON J"" SJ I " txjg fjfih? "" T WAS just 100 years ago, on Feb- jk . ' tf' fruary 6, 1833, that James Ewell Brown ' CcNERAl U - W;v'vf)' Stuart was born In Patrick county, J, QtORC- ARMSTRONG T Ww & 4$- 1 Virginia. , O JsTFR ? ? 3 ffifflfffiVm- Taken alone, that statement is a mere - Vc.u. Is$fk W 2 & biographical detail with little special y . feC5fI "'" I'WIP'F 7 r meaning. But for the name "James , ,0 ? Ewell Brown Stuart" substitute "Gen. C' Ifuimil f - W'WiH -tijf Jeb Stuart of the Confederate army," . (6 iNOiANS ON TH ' iVj ". and what pictures of one of the most ! LtTTLs 8i5 HC'N I' Vsj "f hJ romantic figures in American history , wciNTAii'i ' f jbT fj VlTf are conjured up by that name! i -jt;-;5 ,Vr',8c' t " v' t ; Hir'lt Consider, for Instance, these words by a re- I s t"'2i?'''-0l'':' -feer j r.i'j cent biographer Capt. John W. Thomason, Jr., . A ' 173 VSr 5 f)fl of the United States marine corps in his "Jeb V1 V--'''"'"' " j jffl Stuart," published by Scribners: - J j I if "Jeb Stuart filled the eye. He was strong and V. , . . . ..i- ' t 1 -fj! Jp "The Boy General " 4 By ELMO SCOTT WATSON WAS Just 100 years ago, on Feb- fruary 6, 1833, that James Ewell Brown Stuart was born itf Patrick county, Virginia. Taken alone, that statement is a mere & biographical detail with little special pljL meaning. But for the name "James HM1 Ewell Brown Stuart" substitute "Gen. 23L Jeb Stuart of the Confederate army," and what pictures of one of the most romantic figures in American history are conjured up by that name ! Consider, for Instance, these words by a recent re-cent biographer Capt. John W. Thomason, Jr., of the United States marine corps in his "Jeb Stuart," published by Scribners: "Jeb Stuart filled the eye. He was strong and ruddy, and in late 1S62, commissioned major general In the Confederate army with a year and a few months left to live, he was just under un-der thirty. He had a dark brown flaring beard and wide mustaches that showed bronze lights in the sun. He was 5 feet 11 inches tall and he rode at 175 pounds. "He was large boned, long in the arms and the legs and short in the body, and he looked best on a horse. He had a blue and merry eye, which turned dark and piercing when battle bat-tle warned him or his temper flamed. His nose was chiseled and adventurous, the kind of nose Napoleon admired in generals. "Also, there was an elegance about him. He wore gauntlets of white buckskin, and rode in a gray shell jacket, double-breasted, buttoned back to show a close gray vest. His sword, a light French saber for he never carried, in the Confederate Con-federate army, the United States officers' sword of the old service was belted over a cavalry sash of golden silk with tasseled ends. "His gray horseman's cloak was lined with scarlet; his wife made it. General Lee, he wrote her, admired It; and he deplored to her the bullet bul-let which whipped away Its fur collar at Fredericksburg. Fred-ericksburg. His horse furniture and equipment were polished leather and bright metal, and he liked to wear a red rose in his jacket when the roses bloomed, and a loveknot of red ribbon when flowers were out of season. "His soft, fawn-colored hat was looped up on the right with a gold star, and adorned with a curling ostrich feather. Hfs boots sported little knightly spurs of gold admiring ladies, even those who never saw him In their lives, sent him snch things. He went conspicuous, all gold and glitter, in the front of great battles and in a hundred little cavalry fights which killed men Just as dead as Gettysburg. "He wore out his horses and he wore out his men. lie rode big animals of the hunter type, blood bays with black points for choice, and his brother, William Alexander, was kept on the lookout for such mounts. Admirers gave him horses, splendid blooded creatures like Star of the East from Farquier, and Skylark from Maryland; none of them lasted long under the service he exacted. "He was a social type, loving people, laughing much and leading out in song; for he had a rich and golden voice. He was fond of charades and wrote execrable poetry and affected anagrams. ana-grams. There was never any sadness where he was. " 'Yesslr, Ah'll tell yon one t'ing," says General Gen-eral T-ee's old camp servant after the war. 'It mek no diffence how quiet our headquartehs wuz' and I think General Lee's headquarters were usually quiet 'wld'ln ten minutes nv de time Gineral Stua't ride up to visit us everybody every-body would be a-lnflin! And Ah'll tell you another an-other thing, Bah, Glnerul Stua't wuz de only one of dem big glneruls whut neveh did tech a drap !' "And Iee says, coming out of his tent to the campfire where the young ofliccrs of bis staff, and some of the old ones, too, sat Hinging with Stuart, and a large stone Jug, such as applejack, apple-jack, Rat on a stone: 'Gentlemen, am I to thank General Stuart or the Jug for this fine music?' The remark Is close to the point, like everything every-thing l-ee nays; Stuart was a strong stimulant to all who tasted of bis quality, and not a stimulus stimu-lus that died out and let you down. "lie gathered to himself a train of oddities. When the cavalry commands were forming Into regiments at the opening of the war, he came upon Jonepli Sweeny, n fellow apt upon the ban-Jo, ban-Jo, furnished with nil the tunes, who sprang to arniH from minstrel troupe, electlwc to serve piounted. Sweeny was at once detailed to the CusteK Statue in New Rumley, Ohio escort, and where Stuart went, he went, with his banjo and his ditties. "The by-ways of Virginia heard old joyous snatches ringing above the thudding of the horses' hoofs. Small country towns awoke at night, and the girls turned out In their stored finery for impromptu dances, where Sweeny's banjo pitched the measure and Jeb Stuart led the rout. But If It chanced to be Saturday night, everything stopped at 12 o'clock. Jeb Stuart had serious Ideas about Sunday." Theatrical as Jeb Stuart was, he was much more. He was a truly great cavalryman. Of him General Lee once said, "He never sent me a piece of false Information," and In Civil war days military leaders had to depend upon their cavalry for information and accurate Information Informa-tion was all-important. As an adored commander of the horsemen in gray ("Jeb, he never says "Go on." He says "Come on!" they used to remark,) re-mark,) he led them In some of the wildest cavalry caval-ry escapades of the war. Of his right to a place among the great American Amer-ican cavalry leaders another historian, Joseph Hergesheimer, In "Swords and Roses," has said: "He was a born, an Ideal, leader of cavalry. His perceptions there were faultless; he was never known to make a tactical error. II is plans were formed Instantly with no more than a single sweeping view of a complicated battlefield. battle-field. At times, however, nothing but his unconquerable uncon-querable resolution, a cold desperation, saved him from destruction. General Stuart was often forced to depend upon sharpsbooting, but he enormously preferred pure cavalry fighting; but when his men were dismounted In skirmishes he remained stubbornly beside them, buoyant with encouragement and songs. "His great ability was in raiding, In rapid flank movements, charging and falling back with horse. His extraordinary energy was practically inexhaustible; Stuart almost never slept. He needed, It seemed, little if any rest. On the night of the second battle of Manassas he gave comprehensible com-prehensible orders when he was asleep. After days and nights without Interruption in the saddle, sad-dle, he would stop by any roadside and lie down, safe or In the enemy's country, without pickets or vldettes. lie did this at Carlisle, I'a. ; wrapped In his cloak he rested for an hour against a tree, and then he remounted, completely refreshed. re-freshed. Through moments of extreme peril he sat with a leg thrown over the pommel, of his saddle, drumming with his fingers on a knee. He was often begged not to expose himself so recklessly; he must, It was pointed out, be killed, but his Invariable response was that he reckoned reck-oned not. Ills life did appear to be charmed; he lived untouched In a rain of shell, canister, round shot and bullets until he was hit fatally at Yellow Yel-low Tavern. "lie died, happily, at the moment of his greatest great-est glory, at the last glorious moment of the Confederacy; he suffered none of the Ignominy, the poverty and sadness, of defeat. For that reason rea-son ho was the most satisfactory, the most wholly romantic soldier of the Civil war. Nothing Noth-ing about hi in, nothing In his career, was disappointing; dis-appointing; It was all handsome, nil Ingratiating, like his yellow sash with Its graceful, fringed ends." No more appropriate "Taps" could be sounded for this lioau Sabretir of the Gray than by n fellow lighting man, Captain Thomason, who writes : "All his life be was fortunate. It was given I'll in to toll greatly, and to enjoy greatly, to taste no llftlo fame from the works of his hands. Colonel 1st. Woirwa Cavalry, 1861 DRAWING toy JOHN W, THOhAASON, J R, and to drink the best of the cup of living. He died while there was still a thread of hope for victory. lie was spared the grinding agony of the nine months' siege, the bleak months that brought culminating disasters and the laying down of the swords at Appomattox. He took his death wound In the front of battle, as he wanted want-ed it, and he was granted some brief hours to press the hands of men who loved him, and to arrange himself In order to report before the God of Battles, Whom he served." Almost as romantic and exotic a figure as "Beauty" Stuart was another young cavalry general gen-eral on the other side of the lines Gen. George Armstrong Custer, the Beau Sabreur of the Blue. There was a striking simillarity between the personalities per-sonalities of the two men and the parallelism persists down to their similar manner of dying. The recent unveiling of a monument to Custer In his home town in Ohio has served to recall the picturesque figure whose career in the Civil war would have been enough to win him enduring endur-ing fame even if his tragic death In the most widely known Indian battle In American history had not lmperishably preserved his name In the minds of his countrymen. Stuart was not quite thirty when he became a major-general. Custer was a brigadier-general at twenty-three and a major-general at twenty-four, twenty-four, hence the sobriquet of "The I'.oy General" attached to him. Hut to his men he was "Old Curly" because he let his yellow, curly hair grow long and sweep his shoulders. Of the achievements of Custer nnd his cavalrymen caval-rymen during the Civil war,' his farewell address to the Third division tells the story: "The record rec-ord established by your Indomitable courage is unparalleled In the annals of war. Your prowess has won for you even the respect and admiration admira-tion of your enemies. During the past six months, although in most cases confronted by superior numbers, you have captured from the enemy In open battle, 111 pieces of Held artillery, (if) battle bat-tle flags and upwards of 10.IMK) prisoners of war, including seven general oll'icers. Within the past ten days, and Included In the above, you have captured 4(1 field pieces of artillery and 37 battle bat-tle flags. "You have never lost a gun, never lost a color, and you have never boon defeated; and notwithstanding notwith-standing the numerous engagements In which you have borne a prominent part, Including those memorable battles of the Shenandoah, you have captured every piece of artillery which the enemy en-emy has dared to open upon you. . . . "And now, speaking for myself alone, when the war Is ended and the task of the historian begins, when these deeds of daring, which have rendered the name nnd fame of the Third Cavalry Caval-ry division Imperishable, are Inscribed upon the bright pages of our country's history, I only ask that my name be written ns that of the commander of the Third Cavalry division." But how differently his name was to bo written writ-ten 1 For ns Frazler Hunt In his biography "Custer, "Cus-ter, the Last of the Oivallers," has said: "To the millions of plain Americans, he Is remembered remem-bered not as the commander of a dashing and victorious division of cavalry that captured 10,0(10 prisoners and 0T battle flags from a gallant nnd stubborn foe, but as an Indian fighter who with n handful of troopers, 11 years later, galloped to a tragic death, lie had fought l.eo and Stonewall Jackson, .lob Stuart and 'the gallant I'elham' hut It was the naked Sioux warriors of tho plains who sent him to his deathless fame. Tho gods of battle have their own Inscrutable way of making heroes." fen hv WpMtnrn NtiwmmDttr Union.) |