Read Online Lee and His Men at Gettysburg: The Death of a Nation by Clifford Dowdey - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Clifford Dowdey
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Hampton’s son, serving on his father’s staff, was severely hurt. Alabama’s Major John Pelham, the boy cannoneer whom Lee called “the gallant Pelham” and who was the darling of the cavalry, had been killed in the spring. And the giant Prussian volunteer aide, Heros von Borcke, had been invalided out with a serious throat wound. They were all going, with none to replace them, when newspapers began to attack Jeb Stuart.
References were made to dancing and singing, with guarded hints about his role as a ladies’ man. These frivolities were suggested as a reason for his less than spectacular showing against Pleasonton. Actually, Stuart had handled his men superbly once he settled down to the fight. The surprise, caused by the ineptitude of a brigadier who had been forced upon him, and his own overconfidence had got Stuart into the trouble. The improved fighting quality of the Union cavalry kept him in it.
Then while Stuart’s own papers were criticizing his personal habits, the Northern papers were provided with a means for holding him up to ridicule.
Stuart had on his staff a cousin, Channing Price, a faithful and efficient officer, and Price had a brother, Thomas, who until a few months before had been a student in Germany. Late in 1862 the plight of his state brought Thomas Price home, and Stuart, to save this second cousin from the rigors of the infantry, gave him a staff commission with his engineers. Coming fresh from European student life into the rough hardships of cavalry life, Thomas Price proved to be an unhappy volunteer, and as a devotee of Old World culture he was impervious to the male charm that emanated from the aggressive Stuart.
To relieve his misery, Lieutenant Price confided his impressions to a diary. Great was his agitation when one afternoon his engineering unit was run down by hostile cavalry and his diary was captured along with his luggage. His excitement was explained when the diary, having made its way to a Northern newspaper office, was published in a newspaper that promptly appeared in the Confederate camp. There, for all to see, were Lieutenant Price’s unflattering comments on Cousin Jeb, including such items as “General Stuart, in his usually garrulous style. . . .”
All in all, Stuart must have felt his fame slipping from him at the time when Lee started the cautious movement of his three corps northward into Pennsylvania, and Pleasonton did nothing to help him regain his glory. Pleasonton sent his by now hard-bitten and confident cavalry daily, even hourly, against the gray troopers guarding the mountain passes. He never broke through, but Stuart’s riders were hard put to contain the pressing Federals. They were really fought out during those two weeks from June 9 until the misty morning of June 22, when the Confederate vedettes peered warily ahead and found the blue horsemen gone.
Not only had Stuart’s cavalry been pressed on the defensive as never before, but also they had not been able to gain a spot of information about the enemy. Stuart, smarting over the cuts to his ego, refused to read the portents. Always the Federals had had more foot soldiers, more and better cannon, fantastically more and better supplies, but always Stuart had had better cavalry. Suddenly he did not, and he refused to accept the fact.
When Lee completed the movement of his infantry, guns, and wagons away from Hooker and started northward along the Shenandoah Valley, his trusted cavalry leader was preoccupied with re-establishing the supremacy of Jeb Stuart. He was young and very vain, and his pride was hurt—but not his confidence. He would show them. He would show them all, by another “ride around McClellan.”
3
Stuart decided that in moving north to screen the infantry he would not take the safe way up the Valley west of the Blue Ridge. Instead, he would ride around Hooker and cross the Potomac to the east, closer to Washington, then join the infantry on its way north. He submitted
References were made to dancing and singing, with guarded hints about his role as a ladies’ man. These frivolities were suggested as a reason for his less than spectacular showing against Pleasonton. Actually, Stuart had handled his men superbly once he settled down to the fight. The surprise, caused by the ineptitude of a brigadier who had been forced upon him, and his own overconfidence had got Stuart into the trouble. The improved fighting quality of the Union cavalry kept him in it.
Then while Stuart’s own papers were criticizing his personal habits, the Northern papers were provided with a means for holding him up to ridicule.
Stuart had on his staff a cousin, Channing Price, a faithful and efficient officer, and Price had a brother, Thomas, who until a few months before had been a student in Germany. Late in 1862 the plight of his state brought Thomas Price home, and Stuart, to save this second cousin from the rigors of the infantry, gave him a staff commission with his engineers. Coming fresh from European student life into the rough hardships of cavalry life, Thomas Price proved to be an unhappy volunteer, and as a devotee of Old World culture he was impervious to the male charm that emanated from the aggressive Stuart.
To relieve his misery, Lieutenant Price confided his impressions to a diary. Great was his agitation when one afternoon his engineering unit was run down by hostile cavalry and his diary was captured along with his luggage. His excitement was explained when the diary, having made its way to a Northern newspaper office, was published in a newspaper that promptly appeared in the Confederate camp. There, for all to see, were Lieutenant Price’s unflattering comments on Cousin Jeb, including such items as “General Stuart, in his usually garrulous style. . . .”
All in all, Stuart must have felt his fame slipping from him at the time when Lee started the cautious movement of his three corps northward into Pennsylvania, and Pleasonton did nothing to help him regain his glory. Pleasonton sent his by now hard-bitten and confident cavalry daily, even hourly, against the gray troopers guarding the mountain passes. He never broke through, but Stuart’s riders were hard put to contain the pressing Federals. They were really fought out during those two weeks from June 9 until the misty morning of June 22, when the Confederate vedettes peered warily ahead and found the blue horsemen gone.
Not only had Stuart’s cavalry been pressed on the defensive as never before, but also they had not been able to gain a spot of information about the enemy. Stuart, smarting over the cuts to his ego, refused to read the portents. Always the Federals had had more foot soldiers, more and better cannon, fantastically more and better supplies, but always Stuart had had better cavalry. Suddenly he did not, and he refused to accept the fact.
When Lee completed the movement of his infantry, guns, and wagons away from Hooker and started northward along the Shenandoah Valley, his trusted cavalry leader was preoccupied with re-establishing the supremacy of Jeb Stuart. He was young and very vain, and his pride was hurt—but not his confidence. He would show them. He would show them all, by another “ride around McClellan.”
3
Stuart decided that in moving north to screen the infantry he would not take the safe way up the Valley west of the Blue Ridge. Instead, he would ride around Hooker and cross the Potomac to the east, closer to Washington, then join the infantry on its way north. He submitted
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