GDG- JEB Stuart

[Ron Chaplin]

Hey, Tom:

I don't recall Stuart doing a "ridearound" of McClellan's army after
Antietam.  Would you mind giving me a brief description of that ride?  (I
hope this isn't too far off-topic).

Thanks.

Ron Chaplin
Iselin, NJ


On 9/28/07, Tom Ryan <pennmardel at mchsi.com> wrote:
>
> Esteemed GDG Member Contributes:
>
>
> The discussion thus far has been interesting.  It is good to get different
> perspectives on Stuart and the events surrounding the campaign
> controversy.
> Here are a few things to add to the mix.
>
> Despite the general perception of the Battle of Brandy Station, by any
> fair
> measure Stuart won that battle because he held the ground and suffered
> much
> fewer casualties than the Union cavalry.  This is normally explained away
> by
> assigning a "moral" victory to the Union cav.
>
> Brandy Station was followed by another Stuart victory over Pleasonton in
> the
> Loudoun Valley in that Stuart prevented the Union cavalry from penetrating
> the Blue Ridge gaps and monitoring the ANV in the Valley.
>
> Before he left with three brigades to move north from Salem on the morning
> of June 25, Stuart assigned an intelligence role to Robertson and Jones'
> brigades which they utterly failed to carry out.  Otherwise Lee would have
> been informed of Hooker's crossing the Potomac at least two days sooner
> than
> June 28th.  With that information he would have been able to occupy
> Gettysburg prior to the arrival of Union forces.
>
> A comparison cannot be made of Stuart's ride and his two previous
> excursions
> around McClellan's army on the Peninsula and following the Battle of
> Antietam.  In the two latter cases, Stuart circled the Union army ending
> up
> at his starting point.  In neither case was this a grandiose attempt at
> headline grabbing, but rather a necessity to maintain the security of his
> forces from observation and attack by the enemy.
>
> During the Gettysburg Campaign, Stuart's plan was to ride between the
> stationary Union forces, thereby taking a shortcut and saving time.  When
> he
> was forced to detour to the rear of the suddenly marching Union troops, he
> merely moved south and east before heading north.  This was by no means
> similar to his circling the entire army as previously done.  And in this
> case, IMO it was done out of necessity not for vainglorious reasons.
>
> Often left out of this mix is the critical role that Union intelligence
> played in causing Stuart's separation from Lee.  Much of the credit for
> this
> belongs to General Hooker who organized and directed much of the
> intelligence gathering during Lee's invasion.  Hooker personally sent a
> BMI
> agent into Maryland to recruit operatives and locate Lee's army  -- which
> they did.  Hooker also insured that Signal Corps teams were operating on
> Maryland Heights (immediately across the Potomac from Harper's Ferry) and
> on
> South Mountain.  It is fascinating to read the reports from Gen. Daniel
> Tyler from MH (see OR, Vol. 27, part II, pages 19-37) that describe in
> considerable detail the movements of Ewell, Hill and Longstreet's corps.
>
> These reports from MH and from the BMI agent in Maryland provided the info
> about Lee's army that Hooker desired, and motivated him the start his army
> northward.  What triggered this was the fact that Lee sent Hill followed
> by
> Longstreet across the Potomac into Maryland at the same time that Stuart
> was
> attempting to pass through the Union army.  Lee, IMO, should have realized
> that his army's northward movements would jeopardize Stuart's attempt to
> move some 5,000 cavalrymen through the positions of the stationary Union
> corps in the vicinity of Leesburg and Fairfax.
>
> In this scenario, Hooker and the Union intelligence team are the heroes,
> Lee
> gets the blame for not coordinating the cavalry and infantry moves
> properly,
> and Stuart is the fall guy.
>
> Tom
>
>
>                   ----------------------------------------------------------------
> You may unsubscribe by going to
> http://mailman.arthes.com/mailman/listinfo/gettysburg
>
> You can add yourself to the GDG map at:
> http://www.frappr.com/gettysburgdiscussiongroup
>
> View archived posts from May 2004 -  present at
> http://mailman.arthes.com/pipermail/gettysburg/
>