Cavalry questions

[Elennsar]

1) Were the two companies of the 3rd West Virginia Cavalry actively part of the fighting with Devin's brigade at Gettysburg?

2) Are there any at least semi-reliable strength numbers for the 15th Virginia Cavalry in the period of the Gettysburg campaign? They seem to have missed the campaign (And being recorded) completely.

 

[Eric Wittenberg]

1. Yes.

2. None that I have seen.

 

[Elennsar]

Thank you.

It seems that finding information on Confederate cavalry numbers is - even by the standards of finding Confederate records in general - challenging. So many men off to get a new horse, so many men not reporting for any of the usual reasons, and the cavalry busy as ants.

 

[Eric Wittenberg]

Thank you.

It seems that finding information on Confederate cavalry numbers is - even by the standards of finding Confederate records in general - challenging. So many men off to get a new horse, so many men not reporting for any of the usual reasons, and the cavalry busy as ants.

My world, and welcome to it.

 

[Elennsar]

My world, and welcome to it.

It doesn't sound quite so daunting when you put it like that.

At least Federal records tend to be more complete, all things being even, but I don't envy you trying to track down information on Averell's brigade or other less frequently studied units.

 

[Elennsar]

And this has been puzzling me for a while:

Lee sent Robertson away from the ANV before the Maryland invasion without any particular problem, leaving his brigade with its senior colonel.

Why wasn't he able or willing to do so in the Gettysburg campaign? Even if Hill wouldn't take him back, couldn't Lee send him to Beauregard or Richmond or something?

I'm sure there's an obvious answer, but it seems like the triumph of hope over experience.

 

[Eric Wittenberg]

And this has been puzzling me for a while:

Lee sent Robertson away from the ANV before the Maryland invasion without any particular problem, leaving his brigade with its senior colonel.

Why wasn't he able or willing to do so in the Gettysburg campaign? Even if Hill wouldn't take him back, couldn't Lee send him to Beauregard or Richmond or something?

I'm sure there's an obvious answer, but it seems like the triumph of hope over experience.

Stuart despised him and asked that he be reassigned after Second Bull Run. He was sent to North Carolina to raise and train new regiments, which he did. He returned to the ANV over Stuart's objection.

 

[Elennsar]

Stuart despised him and asked that he be reassigned after Second Bull Run. He was sent to North Carolina to raise and train new regiments, which he did. He returned to the ANV over Stuart's objection.

But why didn't Lee kick him out again when he came in 1863? Surely whatever authority Lee had to send him to North Carolina in 1862 could be used to send him to Georgia for Beauregard's brigade-sized cavalry force there (for example).

I feel like I'm missing something.

 

[Eric Wittenberg]

I don't have a good answer for you.

It does bear noting that Robertson vanished immediately after the end of the Gettysburg Campaign and never commanded troops in the field again.

 

[Elennsar]

Good riddance to bad rubbish as far as his departure is concerned. There were not many officers who can be described as more harmful to their own side than the enemy, but Robertson and Kilpatrick are close rivals for the worst cavalryman in the theater.

And if you don't mind me peppering you with questions, how would you rate Stahel? He seems to have been in the "generally okay" realm from my limited reading - not a Buford or a Gregg, but not incompetent.

 

[Eric Wittenberg]

Good riddance to bad rubbish as far as his departure is concerned. There were not many officers who can be described as more harmful to their own side than the enemy, but Robertson and Kilpatrick are close rivals for the worst cavalryman in the theater.

And if you don't mind me peppering you with questions, how would you rate Stahel? He seems to have been in the "generally okay" realm from my limited reading - not a Buford or a Gregg, but not incompetent.

Julius Stahel was very capable. But he was victim of Pleasonton's scheming. Stahel outranked Pleasonton, and if his division joined the AoP Cavalry Corps, he would have taken command by virtue of seniority. Our boy Alfie wasn't about to let that happened, so he schemed and cajoled and played his foreigner card and got Stahel relieved of command. He got a raw deal.

If you follow his accomplishments in the Valley, he did rather well. His MoH was, I think, earned.