James Ewell Brown Stuart

Stuart, Jeb

 orig. James Ewell Brown Stuart

(born Feb. 6, 1833, Patrick county, Va., U.S.—died May 12, 1864, Yellow Tavern, near Richmond, Va.) U.S. army officer. He graduated from West Point and was an aide to Col. Robert E. Lee in the defeat of John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry. In 1861 he joined the Confederate army, becoming brigadier general of a cavalry brigade. On scouting raids he obtained information on Union troop movements that contributed to Confederate victories at the Seven Days' Battle and the Second Battle of Bull Run; Lee called Stuart the “eyes of the army.” As major general, he helped win the battles of Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville. Before the Battle of Gettysburg, he was instructed by Lee to gather information on Union troop movements; he was delayed on a raid and arrived after the battle had begun. Though criticized for his action, he continued to provide intelligence to Confederate forces. He was mortally wounded in the Confederate defeat at Spotsylvania Courthouse.

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Stuart, James Ewell Brown 

Born Feb. 6, 1833, in Patrick County, Va.; died May 12, 1864, in Richmond, Va. American military commander; major general (1862).

After graduating from the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1854, Stuart served in the wars of extermination against the Indians. During the American Civil War (1861–65), he showed himself to be a brilliant and resourceful commander of the Confederate Army of the Southern slaveholding states. He commanded a separate cavalry detachment and then a cavalry corps. He took part in the battles of First and Second Bull Run (1861 and 1862) and Fredericksburg (1862). He conducted a number of successful cavalry raids deep in the rear of the Northern army. On May 11, 1864, during a clash at Yellow Tavern (near Richmond) with Northern cavalrymen commanded by General P. Sheridan, Stuart was mortally wounded.