by Burke Davis
Stuart had his men close in quietly on the railroad telegrapher at Burke's Station and take him from his key while he was sending messages about the chase of Jeb's raiders. Stuart then put his own telegrapher at the wire and sent a message to become historic.
Quartermaster-General Meigs, United States Army:
Quality of the mules lately furnished me very poor. Interferes seriously with movement of captured wagons.
J. E. B.Stuart.
Troopers then cut the wires, burned a bridge in the neighborhood and followed Stuart to Fairfax Court House, where he hoped to surprise the garrison. But heavy fire from ambush halted the head of his column and Jeb led them even farther north, beyond Falls Church, to Vienna. Then, aware that pursuit would be concentrated in the south, he moved west through hill passes by Middleburg and Warrenton and back into Confederate lines at Culpeper.
The expedition cost him one dead, thirteen wounded, fourteen missing. He estimated the enemy loss at 200. Beyond the increased anxieties of Federal commanders in the rear, however, military results were insignificant. Stuart returned to camp.2
The enemy attempted an offensive in the worst of January weather known as "The Mud March," a day or so of futile struggling by men and animals in bottomless roads beside the Rappahannock, with wagons and guns sinking almost out of sight, and cumbersome pontoons lost. Captain Willard Glazier, a Federal trooper, wrote: "The Rebs seem to know all about our move. To tantalize us, they have erected an enormous sign board on their side of the river, but in full view of our pickets: Stuck In The Mud!"
Esten Cooke, busy now with a biography of Stonewall Jackson, did not neglect his diary, and recorded Jeb's outlook on the war:
Dropped in at the General's to see Cousin Flora, but she had gone. Chatted, the General asking my opinion about the Northern news [of confused Washington leadership]. I think, I said, there'll be a great big thundering Spring campaign, and then it will end.
The General replied, "If there is a Spring campaign, it will last through the year, and if so, it will go on to the end of Lincoln's time."
It strikes me that the high officers of the Army perhaps are agreed among themselves to discourage peace reasoning—and they are right. War requires nerves always strung: there must be no looking forward to peace and ease; that unstrings.
We talked about Lincoln and I said he had a great deal of muscles, and was pig-headed. The General agreed and said, "He has what they call iron nerve—but is not a man of ability."
On other days Cooke's diary gave small glimpses of life in Stuart's camp:
Spent an hour with the General in his tent, recalling old battles. His resemblance to Longstreet is very striking, and his gaiety amazing.
Again:
Banjo going as usual in the General's tent, but I believe I won't go. 'Something too much of that'
One day Stuart had a poem from Paul Hamilton Hayne, the famous South Carolina poet, entitled "Stuart," and Jeb, rather than expressing gratitude, replied with a joking letter, teasing Hayne about his status as a civilian in wartime. "That's Stuart's way," Cooke noted.
On another day Cooke wrote:
Came back from Richmond and have been a little blue. The General came and chatted with me. He is charming when he throws off business. He said of little Flora's death, "I shall never get over it. It is irreparable." Never spoke of it but once tome.
The army was undergoing reorganization, with many changes in command. There were feuds, too, and frequent court-martials. Jackson and A. P. Hill carried on their endless squabble, exchanging angry notes. Stuart wrote some of his reports scolding Ike Trimble. Unknown to the command, General Lafayette McLaws was writing home bitter criticism of other officers, including the chief of cavalry:
Stuart carries around with him a banjo player and a special correspondent. This claptrap is noticed and lauded as a peculiarity of genius, when, in fact, it is nothing else but the act of a buffoon to get attention.3
Stuart was sublimely unaware of such criticism. He held a review of Fitz Lee's brigade on January tenth, despite a rain that poured on the field near Fredericksburg and kept ladies of the region from attending. Lee, Longstreet, Stuart and their staffs were the only spectators. Charles Blackford, now transferred from the cavalry to Longstreet's headquarters, recorded: "It rained so hard we could see only fifty yards ahead of us down the line. The men and horses had been roused before daylight, marched fifteen miles through the mud, and then thoroughly wet and worn had to march back. Could anything be more foolish, and all for the sake of a 'grand review' by which a parade might be made before a few women? I have little patience with such vanity, and I think Fitz Lee and his command agree with me."
Stuart tried to remain above the army's petty squabbles. He wrote his brother-in-law, John Cooke, when he learned of a general's wife making pleas to Lee's headquarters staff:
I accidentally heard the other day that Mrs. Ransom wrote to Chilton informing him that A. P. Hill was trying to get Pender promoted instead of Ransom and complaining of such treatment to her husband. What do you think of that?
Now if Mrs. Jeb ever takes it upon herself to write any official a letter of that kind in my behalf, she will have an account to settle with the aforesaid Jeb. It is far better to be neglected than to be promoted by such a means.
He gave Cooke some practical advice on Army personalities:
I don't see how you can avoid either Ransom or D. H. Hill, who is worse—but Pettigrew I thought well of on slight acquaintance. Be sure Dear John to keep out of snarls of every kind, they are perfectly abominable. Submit to almost anything but degradation to avoid them—"a soft answer turneth away wrath".
"Promotion cometh neither from the east nor the west",
etc. Take good care of yourself
Do you like Beauregard? No better man to excite enthusiasm and keep up the morale of an army. I liked him very much, though I rank Lee and Joe Johnston above him.
He added a bit of political prophecy on the future of the Confederacy:
The Emperor of the French will help us yet. Mark you!
Stuart was concerned about the cavalry's mounts. Hundreds of horses were dying of disease and lack of forage. Men were little better off, and General Lee wrote Richmond that scurvy was raging, and that he had squads of men in the woods to gather roots, herbs and buds of trees. The ration was reduced even more.
The army learned that General Burnside had been replaced by General Joseph Hooker, who had a reputation as a fighter. Captain Glazier took note of a vital change in the bluecoat cavalry which became obvious to Stuart's men:
The ill-fated young General Bayard had tried in vain to consolidate Union cavalry, "but it was reserved for General Hooker to bring about the desired result."
George Stoneman was now commander of the cavalry corps, Army of the Potomac. Glazier wrote hopefully that the long-scattered regiments, now consolidated, should fight better, and with stronger morale. There were already wonders—new schools for riders, camps of instruction for grooms, hostlers and troopers. Old and incompetent officers went out, and aggressive young men rose to command the Federal brigades.
Glazier wrote: "The Rebel cavalry under Stuart has long been organized into an efficient body which, at times, has sneered at our attempts to match them ... the general successes of the Rebel army have made them all very insolent, in the hope that final victory is already in their grasp."
Stuart was not contemptuous of the Federal cavalry this winter, however. He wrote a friend, Colonel William H. Payne, authorizing him to open a cavalry camp near Richmond, where men on parole could be trained for the field. There was still the handicap of the law requiring each man to furnish his own horse, a system before which Stuart was helpless. They must look to the enemy for a horse supply.
The Confederate cavalry system seemed an outrage to Major McClellan of Stuart's staff. The government provided feed, shoes and blacksmithing, in theory, and paid owners forty cents a day for use of their mounts. If the animal was kil
led in action, the government paid for it—but if it were captured, worn out, or lost in any other way, the trooper must find a new mount or transfer to the infantry.
McClellan thought this policy "a calamity against which no amount of zeal or patriotism could successfully contend. . . . The cavalrymen were kept mounted, but at an enormous loss of efficiency, and by a system of absenteeism which sometimes deprived the cavalry of more than half its numbers.... Whenever a cavalryman was dismounted it was necessary to send him home to procure a remount. This required from thirty to sixty days."
Almost as bad, horseshoes, nails and forges were always scarce, and more than once McClellan saw troopers leading limping horses, "while from the saddle dangled the hoofs of a dead horse, which he had cut off for the sake of the sound shoes nailed to them."
Jeb went to Culpeper in a snowstorm to inspect Hampton's troopers, and staged a dance and minstrel show. Von Borcke and Pelham were in the crowd, the latter squiring a pretty girl, Bessie Shackelford. Stuart left them in the town for a few days while he made a brief visit to Richmond. He made it obvious to observant men of the staff that parting from Pelham was painful to him.
John Pelham and William Blackford had become close friends in the winter. Their tents adjoined and they stabled their horses together. On quiet days they read to each other from military volumes, especially an army favorite, Napier's Peninsula War. Pelham's modesty made him a favorite in many commands; there was a report that his commission as lieutenant colonel was on its way. President Davis was said to have agreed instantly to his promotion, and when he was offered documents on the young major's record, said, "I do not need to see any papers about Major Pelham." Now only Senate approval was lacking on the commission, a mere formality.
As long ago as November Stuart had written insistently to Richmond:
I have the honor to renew my application for the promotion of Major John Pelham to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel of Artillery in my division. He will now have five batteries; and always on the battlefield, batteries of other divisions and the reserve are thrown under his command, which make the position he holds one of great responsibility, and it should have corresponding rank.
I will add that Pelham's coolness, courage, ability and judgment, evinced on many battlefields, vindicate his claims to promotion. So far as service goes he has long since won a colonelcy at the hands of his country.
Blackford thought Pelham "so innocent looking, so 'child-like and bland' in the expression of his sparkling blue eyes, but as grand a flirt as ever lived ... tall, slender, beautifully proportioned and very graceful, a superb rider, and as brave as Julius Caesar."
Blackford saw that Jeb was more fond of the artillery major than the rest of them: "Stuart loved him like a younger brother, and could not bear for him to be away from him."
On a hazy springlike day, about the middle of March, Pelham went shrewdly about the business of obtaining leave from Stuart. At night he persuaded Jeb to give him an order to inspect artillery at Orange Court House—where he would have a chance to see some pretty girls. Jeb agreed good-naturedly, and Pelham had Norman Fitzhugh of the staff write the order and left immediately.
Pelham feared that Stuart would countermand the order and so rode away before daylight without breakfast, telling Blackford that he would eat at an artillery camp on the road.
Stuart was bound for Culpeper that day to testify at the court-martial of his old friend of frontier days, Colonel Henry Clay Pate, who had become involved in the army's administrative troubles. But he missed his gunner at breakfast.
"Where's Pelham?"
"He's already gone to Orange, General. He's been gone."
"Didn't wait for breakfast?"
"He said he would eat at some battery camp."
Stuart sent a courier after Pelham. "Tell him to come back. I want to see him."
But it was too late. Pelham had foreseen Stuart's move, and paused in the camp for no more than a cup of coffee. The courier caught him only when he was safely in Orange. Stuart was in Cul-peper by then, on his army business.
Circumstance, aided by Pelham, soon united the cavalry chief and his artilleryman. For while Pelham was visiting in Orange, a train hurried in from Culpeper with interesting news: A big enemy cavalry force had struck upriver, about 3,000 troopers under General W. W. Averell. There was no Confederate infantry nearer than Fredericksburg to stop them.
Pelham climbed aboard the train to Culpeper, certain that Stuart would approve his violation of orders to get nearer the raiding enemy.
Jeb seemed glad to see Pelham. The court-martial was over—and there were reports from Fitz Lee that the enemy column was coming near. Fitz had a nominal strength of 1,900 in his brigade, but from losses of horses and men could assemble no more than 800 men. Company G of the 3rd Virginia, which was typical, had just thirty of its eighty riders in the saddle on March sixteenth.
Stuart and Pelham spent the night in Culpeper. Jeb probably showed the Major a note he had just received from Nannie Price, his pretty cousin of Dundee:
Dear General: We had a little candy stew last night, and knowing your fondness for "sweets" of all kinds, I send you some of it this morning. Miss Brill sends some of it for the "Gallant Pelham," which you must be sure to give him. If you could see the burns on our fingers I am sure it would seem much sweeter....
Pelham perhaps saw his pretty Culpeper girl friend, Bessie Shackelford, on this night, but he was also seen in a hotel room in the company of some hard-riding cavalry veterans: Colonels Welby Carter, Tom Rosser, Harry Gilmor, Henry Clay Pate and Major J. W. Puller.
At seven thirty A.M. of St. Patrick's Day, March seventeenth, the enemy brushed aside Fitz Lee's picket at Kelly's Ford, swept up prisoners, and began to overrun the country south of the Rappahannock.
Fitz Lee led his five thin regiments north of Culpeper, toward Brandy Station.
Stuart was astir early. Harry Gilmor saw him on the Culpeper streets "all ready, with Pelham by his side, looking as fresh, and joyous and rosy as a boy ten years old." Gilmor rode with Stuart as a substitute aide.
Jeb and Pelham borrowed horses, the latter mounting a rawboned black mare. They trotted out of town behind Fitz Lee's column; Gilmor waved to Bessie Shackelford, who stood on the upper balcony of her father's house, fluttering a handkerchief as long as the party was in sight.
When they passed the 5th Virginia, Major Puller shouted to Gilmor, "Harry, leave me your haversack if you get killed!" Gilmor nodded.
The party rode until the advance was in sight of Kelly's Ford, half a mile from the river, where the first Federals were flushed. They did not look dangerous—a few riders strung across the road, with both flanks hidden in woods.
Stuart studied the enemy. Fitz Lee formed the men in a field and rode to Jeb:
"General, I think there are only a few platoons in the woods yonder. Hadn't we better take the bulge on them at once?"
Stuart agreed, and the 3rd Virginia trotted out with dismounted sharpshooters in front. Gilmor went with them, at the side of Captain James Bailey. When Bailey's horse went down, Gilmor took over for a moment, leading a charge on a stone fence which shielded Federal riflemen. The squadron pounded to within two hundred yards of the wall. A fire from carbines broke the ranks; "at least a regiment" fired, Gilmor thought. And from the flank hidden guns knocked men to the ground. The regiment turned and ran. Gilmor begged them to halt, but they continued to the rear.
Stuart was suddenly among them: "Don't leave me, men. If you leave, I'll be here by myself!" He waved the big hat in the air. "Confound it, men! Come back!"
Gilmor was lost in admiration: "Never did I see one bear himself more nobly. I stopped to gaze on him, though I expected every moment to hear the dull thud of a bullet and see him fall."
Captain Bailey returned, and Stuart sent him with the 3rd Virginia behind a sod fence some fifty yards nearer the enemy, where they were sheltered from the carbines.
The men were hardly in position when a shell b
urst atop the fence, spilling troopers about; there were three dead and seven wounded. Gilmor wrote of the next few moments:
"The General sent me to order the Third to charge the woods directly in front. The poor fellows went in gallantly, but it was a fatal mistake, and I thought so at the time, for that stone fence extended from the road on our right to the river on our left, and was utterly impassable for cavalry throughout its whole length. But the gallant Third dashed on in splendid style, with their long bright sabers raised in tierce point, and with a wild ringing yell. But when within 150 yards of the barricade a deadly fire poured into their ranks, which emptied many a saddle, and threw the column into some confusion. They pushed on, however, right up to the fence, killing men behind it with the pistol, and tried to make a gap; but that it was impossible for mounted men to do, and the poor fellows were forced to fall back out of range and reform the regiment, now looking no larger than a good squadron."
Pelham had gone to the rear to find a good gun position for Major James Breathed, and in his absence the regiments fought desperately without artillery support. The action was a nightmare, for wherever they turned the troopers were mauled by superior force— and the affair had only begun.
When the 3 rd Virginia fell back a big blue column of fours drove on the Confederate position; the 2nd Virginia met it head-on, and formations broke like pinwheels in a savage battle of sabers. A flank attack of two gray squadrons at last drove off these Federals. Fitz Lee was heartened by this, and sent Tom Rosser to sweep around the left and cut into the enemy rear.
