GDG- Informal poll on Stuart

[Alan D. Brunelle]

My view is that Stuart ran into a series of very difficult situations 
and seems to have made reasonably good decisions given the data he had 
at the time. Once Stuart received the initial instructions given to him 
by Lee & Longstreet (coupled with the intelligence provided by Mosby), 
his decision to ride around/through/between the Union Corps seemed like 
a reasonable choice (given his past successes). However, very soon 
thereafter he ran into a series of problematic situations which 
precluded his ability to do as he started out to do. Given the rapidly 
changing situation, I think he did as well as could be expected in 
trying to comply with his understanding of the original orders - getting 
onto Ewell's flank as soon as possible. I do, however, believe that the 
performance of Stuart & his troops were adversely impacted by all of the 
riding, and Stuart's performance on Day 3 seems rather lower than usual.

Most of the above analysis is based upon how I understood Wittenberg & 
Petruzzi's "Plenty of Blame to Go Around" & Wittenberg's "Protecting the 
Flanks" books (plus all sort of other general readings...)