May 11th, 1864 - Jeb Stuart is Mortally Wounded

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A dismounted Union trooper fatally wounds J.E.B. Stuart, one of the most colorful generals of the South, at the Battle of Yellow Tavern, just six miles north of Richmond, Virginia. The 31-year-old Stuart died the next day.

During the 1864 spring campaign in Virginia, Union General Ulysses S. Grant applied constant pressure on Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia. In early May, the two armies clashed at the Wilderness and again at Spotsylvania Court House, Virginia, as they lurched southward toward Richmond. Meanwhile, Grant sent General Phil Sheridan and his cavalry on a raid deep behind Confederate lines. The plan was to cut Lee’s supply line and force him out of the trenches in retreat. Sheridan’s troops wreaked havoc on the Rebel rear as they tore up railroad tracks, destroyed supply depots, and held off the Confederate cavalry in several engagements, including the Battle of Yellow Tavern.

Although Sheridan’s Federal troops held the field at the end of the day, his forces were stretched thin. Richmond could be taken, Sheridan wrote later, but it could not be held. He began to withdraw back to the north.

The death of Stuart was a serious blow to Lee. He was a great cavalry leader, and his leadership was part of the reason the Confederates had a superior cavalry force in Virginia during most of the war. Yet Stuart was not without his faults: He had been surprised by a Union attack at the Battle of Brandy Station in 1863, and failed to provide Lee with crucial information at Gettysburg. Stuart’s death, like Stonewall Jackson’s the year before, seriously affected Lee’s operations.
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-...alry-general-j-e-b-stuart-is-mortally-wounded
YellowTavern.jpg
 
A dismounted Union trooper fatally wounds J.E.B. Stuart, one of the most colorful generals of the South, at the Battle of Yellow Tavern, just six miles north of Richmond, Virginia. The 31-year-old Stuart died the next day.

During the 1864 spring campaign in Virginia, Union General Ulysses S. Grant applied constant pressure on Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia. In early May, the two armies clashed at the Wilderness and again at Spotsylvania Court House, Virginia, as they lurched southward toward Richmond. Meanwhile, Grant sent General Phil Sheridan and his cavalry on a raid deep behind Confederate lines. The plan was to cut Lee’s supply line and force him out of the trenches in retreat. Sheridan’s troops wreaked havoc on the Rebel rear as they tore up railroad tracks, destroyed supply depots, and held off the Confederate cavalry in several engagements, including the Battle of Yellow Tavern.

Although Sheridan’s Federal troops held the field at the end of the day, his forces were stretched thin. Richmond could be taken, Sheridan wrote later, but it could not be held. He began to withdraw back to the north.

The death of Stuart was a serious blow to Lee. He was a great cavalry leader, and his leadership was part of the reason the Confederates had a superior cavalry force in Virginia during most of the war. Yet Stuart was not without his faults: He had been surprised by a Union attack at the Battle of Brandy Station in 1863, and failed to provide Lee with crucial information at Gettysburg. Stuart’s death, like Stonewall Jackson’s the year before, seriously affected Lee’s operations.
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-...alry-general-j-e-b-stuart-is-mortally-wounded
View attachment 99687
Sheridan's plan was to raid Richmond which he knew would draw Sturart out which it did. Sheridan really wanted to defeat Stuart in the feild. That's why when he fought with George Meade and accused him of misusing the Cavalry. Sheridan made the bold statement let me concentrate the cavalry and I will defeat Stuart. Grant, upon learning of Sheridans boost made the famous statement. "Did he really say that? Well he generally knows what's he's talking about, let him get to it" The raid on Richmond was merely a ploy to draw Stuart out and defeat him. It worked splendidly. Not only did it draw him out. It resulted in his death. About the only feather I can think of to put in Philllip Sheridans cap. Nice thread, thanks for posting.
 
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Private John A. Huff of Armada, Michigan, formerly a member of one of Colonel Hiram Berdan’s celebrated sharpshooter regiments, Huff had reenlisted in the spring of 1864 and opted to ride to war with the 5th Michigan. Ironically, he now found himself charging a Rebel battle line afoot, lugging a Colt Army revolver instead of a rifle with a telescopic sight. Still imbued with the sharpshooter instinct, Huff singled out an officer in a plumed hat, sitting on his horse along the Telegraph Road just north of where the battery had gone under. The rider was firing his own pistol at a group of Huff’s comrades. Taking careful aim at a distance of more than 400 yards, the private drilled his victim in the right side of his abdomen with a 44-caliber bullet and then raced for his own lines to avoid retaliation.

As Huff retreated, members of Stuart’s staff turned to see their general, an expert horseman, reel in his saddle. When a crimson stain spread along the waist of his gray jacket, they realized to their horror that Stuart had been wounded. One of Stuart’s closest subordinates, Captain Gustavus W. Dorsey of the 1st Virginia, was close enough to reach up and steady him in the saddle. When Dorsey asked Stuart about his condition, Stuart replied in a quiet voice, ‘I’m afraid they’ve killed me, Dorsey.’ By this point, both Wickham’s and Lomax’s men were falling back to positions beyond the Telegraph Road, giving Sheridan complete access to the Brook Turnpike and Richmond. Afraid that his entire line was collapsing, Stuart at first refused to be taken to the rear. He shouted to Dorsey and all near him, ‘Go back to your men and drive the enemy!’

But it was too late. The sun was going down and the battle was ending as a strategic victory for the Federals. All the Confederates could do was escort Stuart from the field. The noise and carnage on every side had rendered Stuart’s horse unmanageable, so Dorsey helped the general to the ground, placed him against the base of a tree, rounded up another horse, and, with the assistance of comrades, helped him remount. Holding the suffering Stuart in the saddle, Dorsey and the others helped him to the rear. En route, an increasing number of riders passed them at breakneck speed. The sight so overwhelmed Stuart that he called out in an anguished voice, ‘Go back! go back! and do your duty as I have done mine, and our country will be safe. Go back! go back! I had rather die than be whipped.’

About half a mile behind the front, Confederates placed Stuart in an ambulance, which he shared with Reid Venable and a second aide, Lieutenant Walter Hullihen. Soon afterward, Fitz Lee and Stuart’s medical director, Major John B. Fontaine, arrived. Stuart formally passed his command to an ashen-faced Fitz Lee, and then Doctor Fontaine turned Stuart onto his side and gently probed the wound. During or immediately after the procedure, Stuart, fearing he had taken on the death-pallor he had observed on the countenance of so many badly wounded subordinates, asked Venable and Hullihen how he looked ‘in the face.’ Hesitating only slightly, both aides pronounced him free of the pallor. Stuart was silent for a moment and then remarked, ‘Well, I don’t know how this will turn out; but if it is God’s will that I shall die I am ready.’ At one point Fontaine suggested that Stuart would benefit from an alcoholic stimulant. At first Stuart, a lifetime teetotaler, refused, but at Venable’s strong urging, he relented.

It was indeed God’s will that Stuart should die, and soon. Fontaine’s original diagnosis — that Huff’s bullet had severed blood vessels and perforated Stuart’s intestines, a fatal condition — was later confirmed via more thorough examination by other surgeons. Detouring around Sheridan’s roadblock on the Brook Turnpike, the ambulance lurched along, slowly and painfully carrying Stuart to Richmond, the sounds of battle growing ever fainter. Early on May 12, Stuart was finally placed in bed at the Grace Street home of his brother-in-law Dr. Charles Brewer. There he lay, often in great pain, as doctors tried unsuccessfully to stop the internal hemorrhaging. In the distance he could hear the sounds of renewed combat as Sheridan’s raiders struggled to cross the James River northeast of the city against spirited opposition from Stuart’s appointed successor, Fitz Lee. Considering his primary mission fulfilled at Yellow Tavern, Sheridan had decided against a direct attack on Richmond. Then he was content to head south to refit in preparation for a triumphal return to the Army of the Potomac.

Death from peritonitis overtook Stuart at 7:40 p.m., four hours before his hastily summoned wife could reach his side. By then Stuart had disposed of his official papers and personal effects, had led his attendants in the singing of hymns, and had informed a stream of sorrowing visitors, including President Jefferson Davis, that he was willing to die ‘if God and my country think I have fulfilled my destiny and done my duty.’ All he addressed in this way assured him that he had done so, nobly and well.
http://www.historynet.com/major-general-jeb-stuart-last-stand-of-the-last-knight.htm
 
It's kind of funny. We always think of Stuart as superior to the Union cavlry until late in the war. Even shortly before his own death. However there was one Union Cavlry officer that was his constant nemesis. This Union cavlry office handed him his first defeat at second Manasses. Yep, one John Buford.
 
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Private John A. Huff of Armada, Michigan, formerly a member of one of Colonel Hiram Berdan’s celebrated sharpshooter regiments, Huff had reenlisted in the spring of 1864 and opted to ride to war with the 5th Michigan. Ironically, he now found himself charging a Rebel battle line afoot, lugging a Colt Army revolver instead of a rifle with a telescopic sight. Still imbued with the sharpshooter instinct, Huff singled out an officer in a plumed hat, sitting on his horse along the Telegraph Road just north of where the battery had gone under. The rider was firing his own pistol at a group of Huff’s comrades. Taking careful aim at a distance of more than 400 yards, the private drilled his victim in the right side of his abdomen with a 44-caliber bullet and then raced for his own lines to avoid retaliation.

As Huff retreated, members of Stuart’s staff turned to see their general, an expert horseman, reel in his saddle. When a crimson stain spread along the waist of his gray jacket, they realized to their horror that Stuart had been wounded. One of Stuart’s closest subordinates, Captain Gustavus W. Dorsey of the 1st Virginia, was close enough to reach up and steady him in the saddle. When Dorsey asked Stuart about his condition, Stuart replied in a quiet voice, ‘I’m afraid they’ve killed me, Dorsey.’ By this point, both Wickham’s and Lomax’s men were falling back to positions beyond the Telegraph Road, giving Sheridan complete access to the Brook Turnpike and Richmond. Afraid that his entire line was collapsing, Stuart at first refused to be taken to the rear. He shouted to Dorsey and all near him, ‘Go back to your men and drive the enemy!’

But it was too late. The sun was going down and the battle was ending as a strategic victory for the Federals. All the Confederates could do was escort Stuart from the field. The noise and carnage on every side had rendered Stuart’s horse unmanageable, so Dorsey helped the general to the ground, placed him against the base of a tree, rounded up another horse, and, with the assistance of comrades, helped him remount. Holding the suffering Stuart in the saddle, Dorsey and the others helped him to the rear. En route, an increasing number of riders passed them at breakneck speed. The sight so overwhelmed Stuart that he called out in an anguished voice, ‘Go back! go back! and do your duty as I have done mine, and our country will be safe. Go back! go back! I had rather die than be whipped.’

About half a mile behind the front, Confederates placed Stuart in an ambulance, which he shared with Reid Venable and a second aide, Lieutenant Walter Hullihen. Soon afterward, Fitz Lee and Stuart’s medical director, Major John B. Fontaine, arrived. Stuart formally passed his command to an ashen-faced Fitz Lee, and then Doctor Fontaine turned Stuart onto his side and gently probed the wound. During or immediately after the procedure, Stuart, fearing he had taken on the death-pallor he had observed on the countenance of so many badly wounded subordinates, asked Venable and Hullihen how he looked ‘in the face.’ Hesitating only slightly, both aides pronounced him free of the pallor. Stuart was silent for a moment and then remarked, ‘Well, I don’t know how this will turn out; but if it is God’s will that I shall die I am ready.’ At one point Fontaine suggested that Stuart would benefit from an alcoholic stimulant. At first Stuart, a lifetime teetotaler, refused, but at Venable’s strong urging, he relented.

It was indeed God’s will that Stuart should die, and soon. Fontaine’s original diagnosis — that Huff’s bullet had severed blood vessels and perforated Stuart’s intestines, a fatal condition — was later confirmed via more thorough examination by other surgeons. Detouring around Sheridan’s roadblock on the Brook Turnpike, the ambulance lurched along, slowly and painfully carrying Stuart to Richmond, the sounds of battle growing ever fainter. Early on May 12, Stuart was finally placed in bed at the Grace Street home of his brother-in-law Dr. Charles Brewer. There he lay, often in great pain, as doctors tried unsuccessfully to stop the internal hemorrhaging. In the distance he could hear the sounds of renewed combat as Sheridan’s raiders struggled to cross the James River northeast of the city against spirited opposition from Stuart’s appointed successor, Fitz Lee. Considering his primary mission fulfilled at Yellow Tavern, Sheridan had decided against a direct attack on Richmond. Then he was content to head south to refit in preparation for a triumphal return to the Army of the Potomac.

Death from peritonitis overtook Stuart at 7:40 p.m., four hours before his hastily summoned wife could reach his side. By then Stuart had disposed of his official papers and personal effects, had led his attendants in the singing of hymns, and had informed a stream of sorrowing visitors, including President Jefferson Davis, that he was willing to die ‘if God and my country think I have fulfilled my destiny and done my duty.’ All he addressed in this way assured him that he had done so, nobly and well.
http://www.historynet.com/major-general-jeb-stuart-last-stand-of-the-last-knight.htm
All good except Huff's claims to be the marksmen have been challenged. Huff's location was to far. Huff describes firing at an officer and his staff. Stuart had no staff with him. It's fairly certain it wasn't Huff who fired the fatal shot.
 
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Upon learning of Stuart's death, General Lee is reported to have said that he could hardly keep from weeping at the mere mention of Stuart's name and that Stuart had never given him a bad piece of information.

general_jeb_stuart_gun_and_hat.jpg

Jeb Stuart's hat and LeMat revolver, at the Museum of the Confederacy in Richmond.
 
It does seem like an exagerration, especially with a cavalry carbine. :cautious:
Yep. Several sources I've read attribute the fatal shot as coming from a dismounted cavlry solider running on foot turning and firing at relatively close range. Still a lucky shot no matter how you slice it.
 
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