Stuart in the Gettysburg Campaign

On the anniversary of the 3rd day at Gettysburg, I offer another article by Mosby in his brilliant defense of the much maligned Stuart during that campaign.

(Source: Southern Historical Society Papers, Vol. 38, pages 197-210)
[From Richmond, Va., Times-Dispatch, January 30,1910.]

STUART IN THE GETTYSBURG CAMPAIGN.
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A Defense of the Cavalry Commander.
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By Col. JOHN S. MOSBY.
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Below is printed Colonel John S. Mosby's answer to Colonel T. M. R. Talcott's criticism of his work on "Stuart's Cavalry in the Gettysburg Campaign." Colonel Talcott's article appeared in this column several weeks ago and consisted largely of direct citations from the "Official Records of the War of the Rebellion," showing General Lee's plan of campaign and elucidating his orders to his subordinates. Since Colonel Mosby's article was received Rev. Randolph McKim, D. D., of Washington, D. C., late aid to General Edward Johnson, delivered an address on the same subject before R. E. Lee Camp, No. 1, Confederate Veterans, in which he vigorously defended General Lee. We hope soon to print this address.-Editor's note.

Three letters have lately appeared in the Times-Dispatch from Colonel T. M. R. Talcott, in which he attempts to answer my objections to General Lee's two reports of the Gettysburg campaign in my book, "Stuart's Cavalry in the Gettysburg Campaign," which was published nearly two years ago. The ground of my objection is the injustice they do to the commander of the cavalry.

As his name is not mentioned in any of the official reports of the campaign, I do not know what were Colonel Talcott's relations with the army at that time, or what opportunity he had for observing its operations. He does not even profess to have discovered any new evidences to support the old and exploded charge against Stuart of disobedience of orders, and all the documentary evidence he produces is quoted or referred to in my book. It is true that he publishes a letter to himself from Colonel Walter H. Taylor, Assistant Adjutant-General to General Lee, but as Taylor is already a discredited witness, his testimony is entitled to little weight in this controversy.

The statements in his letter to Colonel Talcott are contradicted by a letter from General Lee to Stuart, dated 5 P. M., June 23, 1863. A copy of this letter appears in General Lee's letter-book in Colonel Taylor's handwriting. Colonel Taylor says Stuart "was admonished all the while to keep in touch with our main army and to keep General Lee informed as to the movements of the enemy."

Colonel Taylor depends on his imagination for his facts. I defy him to point out one word in General Lee's letter to Stuart about keeping "in touch with the main army," or keeping General Lee "informed of the movements of the enemy."

"It was in reference to this oblivion which has come over General Lee's staff officers that I said the Homeric legend of the Lotus-Eaters, who lost their memory, is no longer a romance, but a reality.

LEE'S ORDERS OF JUNE 22.

On June 22d, General Lee had written Stuart to leave two brigades of cavalry with him, and to cross into Maryland with three brigades, "and take position on General Ewell's right, place yourself in communication with him, guard his flank, keep him informed of the enemy's movements, and collect all the supplies you can for the use of the army. One column of General Ewell's army will probably move towards the Susquehanna by the Emmittsburg route, another by Chambersburg." This letter is in Colonel Charles Marshall's handwriting. General Lee was then in the Shenandoah Valley with the corps of Longstreet and A. P. Hill; Ewell was about Hagerstown, Md., and had been ordered to the Susquehanna.

According to Colonel Taylor, General Lee issued an absurd order requiring Stuart to cross the Potomac and put himself on Ewell's right flank on his march to the Susquehanna, and at the same time keep in touch with the other two corps; and in addition to watch and report to him the movements of Hooker's army on the Potomac. If Stuart could have performed all those things he would have surpassed anything in the enchanting tales of the Arabian Nights.

Colonel Taylor does not say what General Lee expected to do with the two brigades of cavalry he kept with him in Virginia.

The letter of June 22d was sent to Longstreet, to be forwarded if he thought Stuart "can be spared from my (his) front." Longstreet did forward the instructions, and, referring to General Lee, said: "He speaks of your leaving via Hopewell Gap [the Bull Run Mountain] and passing by the rear of the enemy." At the same time Longstreet, who was at Millwood, wrote to General Lee, "Yours of 4 o'clock this afternoon received. I have forwarded your letter to General Stuart with the suggestion that he pass by the enemy's rear if he thinks he may get through." This was notice to Lee of the route Stuart would go. So the cavalry movement around Hooker's rear had the approval in advance of both General Lee and General Longstreet.
Hooker was then in Fairfax; General Lee was in his front. General Lee could not have expected Stuart to pass around Hooker's rear to cross the Potomac, and at the same time keep in touch with the main army and in communication with him unless he had a machine that could fly over Hooker's head and navigate the air. Yet his report complains that "by the route he pursued the Federal Army was interposed between his command and our main body--preventing any communication with him until he arrived at Carlisle."

REPORT IS CONFUSING.

Nobody would suspect from reading his first report that General Lee kept two cavalry brigades with him to watch the enemy, or that he ever authorized Stuart to cross the river in rear of the enemy; or that Ewell had gone into Pennsylvania a week in advance of the main army.

The first report is dated July 31, 1863, and was immediately published in the newspapers. It is the origin of all the criticisms of Stuart. It says: "In the meantime a part of General Ewell's corps had entered Maryland and the rest was about to follow.* * * * General Stuart was left to guard the passes of the mountains and observe the movements of the enemy, whom he was instructed to harass and impede as much as possible should he attempt to cross the Potomac.

"In that event General Stuart was directed to move into Maryland, crossing the Potomac east or west of the Blue Ridge, as in his judgment should be best, and take position on the right of our column as it advanced."

The statement that Stuart was authorized to cross the Potomac east or west of the Ridge is true; but it is not the whole truth, for, taken in connection with the complaint of Hooker's army being interposed between Stuart and our army, persons who read the report naturally inferred it meant that Stuart had authority to cross at some of the fords east of Harper's Ferry, but in front of Hooker's army. The report did not say a word about Ewell's corps having been detached and sent on several days in advance to the Susquehanna, and that Stuart was ordered to join Ewell. It speaks only of Ewell being in Maryland.

On the contrary, and one reading the report would conclude that the corps of Longstreet, Ewell and A. P. Hill united at Hagerstown, in Maryland, and that Stuart was ordered to put himself "on the right of our column as it advanced" into Pennsylvania. Now, as Ewell was at Hagerstown when he received General Lee's order of the 22d to move to the Susquehanna, and as he crossed the State line that day while Stuart was still in Fauquier County, Virginia, it could hardly have been expected that Stuart would overtake Ewell before he reached the Susquehanna, or that General Lee would rely on Stuart to watch and report Hooker's movements on the Potomac, especially as he had kept two brigades of cavalry with him.

Yet Colonel Taylor says that General Lee expected Stuart to perform that miracle.

GENERAL LEE'S FINAL INSTRUCTIONS.

Again, General Lee's final instructions to Stuart were written from Berryville at 5 P. M., June 23d. As I have said, they were copied by Colonel Taylor in General Lee's letter-book. They were substantially a repetition of those sent through Longstreet the day before, but more explicit about crossing the Potomac. They gave Stuart the alternative of coming over the Ridge the next day, crossing the Potomac at Shepherdstown and then moving on over the South Mountain to Fredericktown; or he could pass around Hooker's rear, "doing them all the damage you can, and cross the river east of the mountain. In either case, after crossing the river, you must move on and feel the right of Ewell's troops, collecting information, provisions, etc."

Clearly, when General Lee told Stuart that if he crossed at Shepherdstown he must move on over to Frederickstown, he did not mean for Stuart to stop there, but merely to indicate the best route to join Ewell, as he had written Stuart that one of Ewell's columns would move to the Susquehanna by Emmittsburg. In this second letter he said: "The movements of Ewell's corps are as stated in my former letter" (22d). On that day he had written Ewell from Berryville:* * * * "Mine of to-day authorizing you to move towards the Susquehanna, I hope has reached you.* * *

I also directed General Stuart, should the enemy have so far retired from his front as to permit of the departure of a portion of the cavalry, to march with three brigades across the Potomac and place himself on your right and communicate with you, keep you advised of the movements of the enemy and assist in collecting supplies for the army." There is not a word in the instructions to Stuart, although the report says so, about his being left to guard the passes of the mountain or harass and impede the enemy, "should he attempt to cross the Potomac"; for the plain reason that he was expected to cross in advance of the enemy and move on into Pennsylvania with Ewell.

STUART'S ALTERNATIVES.

Nobody can reconcile the statements about the cavalry in General Lee's two reports with his orders to both Ewell and Stuart on June 22d, and his letter of 5 P. M., June 23d, to Stuart, which is, as I have said, in Colonel Taylor's handwriting. No discretion was given to Stuart to remain with the army in Virginia or join Ewell in Pennsylvania; but discretion was given him to go by Shepherdstown, or cross in Hooker's rear at Seneca. No matter which route he went he would be equally out of sight of the enemy and out of communication with General Lee. Stuart would have been where General Lee put him. In his last letter to Stuart General Lee speaks of the movements of troops in the Valley the next day.

If General Lee had anticipated that it would break up Stuart's plan of passing to the Potomac not around Hooker's rear, through Fairfax, but through the middle of Hooker's army, cutting it in two and destroying his transportation, he would have delayed the movement in the Valley, as there was no necessity for it that day. A. P. Hill was at Charlestown, about nine miles from Shepherdstown; he should have stood still to give Stuart time to cross the river.

Stuart would then have been so far ahead that Pleasanton's cavalry could never have overtaken him. From the day General Lee crossed the Rappahannock Hooker had always moved so as to keep in touch with Lee, and between Lee and Washington.

It could not be expected that after the whole Southern Army had crossed the Potomac, Hooker would halt in Virginia and uncover Washington.

HOOKER'S PROMPT MOVEMENT.

On the 24th A. P. Hill's corps moved from Charlestown to the Potomac, in sight of the signal station on Maryland Heights. The news was telegraphed to Hooker, and he set his army in motion for the Potomac the next day. Stuart found Hooker's army marching on the roads which he had expected to travel, hence he had to change his route and make a detour through Fairfax around Hooker's rear. Instead of crossing the river on the evening of the 25th, he did not get over until the night of the 27th. Pleasanton's Cavalry Corps had been kept behind as the rear guard of the army, and crossed the Potomac some miles above on the same night. It was kept behind and neutralized by Stuart being in their rear, and gave no trouble to Genera Lee.
Colonel Talcott quotes from my book what is said about the premature movements in the Shenandoah Valley, making the Gettysburg campaign the Iliad of the South, and claims that this is an admission that the disaster was due to the absence of the cavalry.

His conclusions are illogical--a non sequitur --no such meaning can be given to any language. No matter where Stuart crossed the Potomac--east or west of the Ridge--he would not have been with General Lee or anywhere near Gettysburg, but away off on the Susquehanna. I never said it was the cause of the loss of the battle, but of the failure of the campaign as originally planned.

HILL'S RESPONSIBILITY.

It was this movement of A. P. Hill on the 24th from Charlestown that disclosed our plan to the enemy and caused it to miscarry. There never would have been a battle at Gettysburg if Stuart had crossed the Potomac on the evening of the 25th, as he had expected. With his transportation destroyed, the canal on the Potomac, which had become his line of supply, broken, and all communications cut between Washington and the North, Hooker's attention would have been drawn from Lee to the Capital, and Stuart would have marched leisurely on to the Susquehanna. Longstreet was at Millwood on the 24th, and marched out of view of the signal station by Bunker Hill and Martinsburg to Williamsport. As he had to march about three times the distance that A. P. Hill had to march from Charlestown to cross at Shepherdstown, Hill might have waited a day and then he, Longstreet and Stuart would all have crossed the Potomac on the same day and would have left Hooker behind in Virginia.

Of course, General Lee did not anticipate that Hooker would follow so promptly and defeat the operation that was originally planned. Still Stuart did cross in the enemy's rear.

Colonel Talcott says it was necessary for the two corps to move on the 24th to support Ewell. But Ewell's, Early's and Rodes's reports show just the reverse. A few militia met them at two or three places, but scattered without firing a shot. When Early got to York he sent Gordon to secure the bridge across the Susquehanna, but the militia set fire to the bridge and ran over the river. Hooker had detached no forces to follow Ewell. General Lee held him in Virginia, while Ewell foraged in Pennsylvania. Jenkins' cavalry was skirmishing with some militia in the suburbs of Harrisburg when Ewell, who was at Carlisle, recalled him.

STUART'S CONDUCT ON JUNE 25TH.

Colonel Talcott also says that when, on the 25th, Stuart found out that he could not pass through Hooker's army he ought to have turned back, gone over the Blue Ridge and crossed the river at Shepherdstown. But it was easier then to go on than to turn back. He simply obeyed General Lee's order, kept on and passed around Hooker's rear. He could not possibly have reached Shepherdstown before the night of the 27th, which was the time he crossed at Seneca. General Lee had then been two days at Chambersburg.

If Stuart had gone back to Shepherdstown he would have rested for a night, and then have moved on through some pass in the South Mountain to join Early at York. He would have reached there about the time Early was leaving to join Ewell.

Stuart's crossing at Seneca, so near Washington, cutting the canal, intercepting communications and capturing supply trains seriously impeded the operations of the Northern army. Meade's attention was directed from Lee; he sent two-thirds of his cavalry and three army corps off to the east to intercept Stuart, save Baltimore, and open his communications, which Stuart had cut. But the fruit of these operations was lost by A. P. Hill's and Heth's Quixotic adventures in going off without orders to Gettysburg.

Yet nobody would suspect from reading General Lee's two reports, or what his staff officers have written, that A. P. Hill and Heth broke up his plan of campaign. And here I will notice a statement in Colonel Taylor's book-- "Four Years With Lee"--that does great injustice to his chief. He says that at Cashtown, on the morning of July 1st, Lee stopped and had a talk with A. P. Hill before he started to Gettysburg. If true, it makes General Lee responsible for the blunder of that movement. Fortunately for General Lee's reputation, this statement is contradicted by the report of General Pendleton, who rode that day with General Lee.

On the morning of July 1st his headquarters were at Greenwood, about ten miles west of Cashtown. From there he wrote Imboden that his headquarters for the next few days would be at Cashtown. It must have been long after noon when General Lee reached Cashtown, as Pendleton says he did not stop there, but rode rapidly forward to the sound of the guns. He reached the field, about eight miles off, near the close of the fight. Heth's report says he left Cashtown about 5 o'clock in the morning.

HILL AND HETH KNEW CONDITIONS.

Colonel Talcott also says that Hill and Heth did not know that the enemy held Gettysburg. If he will read their reports he will see that they say they knew it; and A. P. Hill says that on the day before he sent a courier to General Lee informing him of it. I admit that Colonel Talcott, in making this statement about ignorance of the enemy, follows General Lee's first report, which is contradicted by his second report. The first report says that "finding ourselves unexpectedly confronted by the Federal army it became a matter of difficulty to withdraw through the mountains with our large trains." The fine Italian hand of a lawyer is manifest here. Both Hill and Heth say they knew the enemy held Gettysburg; if so, the meeting could not have been unexpected. Nor does the report explain why General Lee could not save his trains without a battle, when he saved them with small loss after losing a battle.

Nor does this report explain why Ewell, with Rodes' and Early's Divisions, was marching away from Gettysburg on the morning of July 1st, if the army had been ordered, as it says, to concentrate at Gettysburg. Colonel Taylor's book says the order was for the concentration at Cashtown. He contradicts the first report, which says Gettysburg. It is clear the absence of three brigades of cavalry with Stuart had nothing to do with bringing on or losing the battle. Ewell and Early had at least 2,000 cavalry with them, and General Lee had kept two brigades of cavalry with him. Nobody can show that General Lee did, or omitted to do, anything on account of his ignorance of the situation of the Northern army. As General Lee says that he had not intended to fight a battle unless attacked, it made no difference to him if the enemy were at Gettysburg, if they were not interrupting him; all he had to do was to be ready when they came. Lee's whole army would have been concentrated at Cashtown, or in supporting distance, that evening if Hill and Heth had not gone off on an excursion and dispersed it. It is not credible that General Lee should have stayed two days in Maryland, on the Potomac, and in the shadow of South Mountain, with Hooker's army on the other side and in the gaps, with their signal stations on the peaks, without discovering their presence. Such bucolic simplicity is inconsistent with the character of the Confederate commander. Every private in his army knew where Hooker was.

GENERAL LEE READS REPORT.

No doubt he left when he was sure that Hooker's army was over the river. Nor could he have been surprised to hear it was at Gettysburg, unless he expected Hooker to stand still. At Williamsport he wrote Mr. Davis that he thought he could throw Hooker's army over the river; and yet his report says he was surprised when he heard he had done it. For this reason I expressed the opinion that he must have signed without reading the report. Colonel Taylor says he read it. I am sorry to hear it.

It is strange that the biographers and staff officers who have charged the Gettysburg disaster to General Lee's ignorance of the enemy's movements have ignored the letter from General Lee at Chambersburg to Ewell at Carlisle, dated 7:30 A. M., June 28, 1863, which refutes all they say, and proves that General Lee knew perfectly well where Hooker was. This letter is published in my book, on page 117.

General Lee's report says: "It was expected that as soon as the Federal army should cross the Potomac, General Stuart would give notice of its movements, and nothing having been heard from him since our entrance into Maryland, it was inferred that the enemy had not yet left Virginia.

"Orders were therefore issued to move on to Harrisburg. * * * The advance against Harrisburg was arrested by intelligence received from a scout [spy] on the night of the 28th to the effect that the army of General Hooker had crossed the Potomac and was approaching the South Mountain." If General Lee had thought that Hooker was still in Virginia he would have marched directly to Washington and Baltimore. At least he ought to have done it.

ALL KNEW HOOKER'S MOVEMENTS.

I have proved in my book that the spy was only a ghost that somebody saw, and that no order was issued to move on to Harrisburg. Ewell was then over thirty miles north, at Carlisle; he had been a week in Pennsylvania and had detached Early's Division to go east to the Susquehanna; Jenkins' Cavalry was about Harrisburg; General Lee, with Hill and Longstreet, had crossed the Potomac several days before. Now I say that any private or teamster would have told General Lee that Hooker would not stay in Virginia when he was in Pennsylvania.. That was something that any man of ordinary sense would have known without being told.

According to Colonel Marshall, General Lee was thrown almost into a panic when he heard the news that Hooker was over the river and was following him.

"As I can't believe it, I said in my book, and I repeat, that in my opinion, when General Lee signed a paper containing such an absurdity he had never read it. If he had thought, when he crossed the Potomac, that Hooker's army was still in Virginia, then instead of marching north he would have turned east. The Chambersburg letter shows that General Lee knew that Hooker was still keeping between him and Washington. It told Ewell that he had written him "last night" (27th) that Hooker had crossed the Potomac and was moving towards South Mountain, and that he had directed Ewell to move back to Chambersburg; but if he had not already progressed on that road he wanted him to move east of the mountain in the direction of Cashtown or Gettysburg. So on the night of the 27th General Lee wrote Ewell what his report says he had first heard from a spy on the night of the 28th. Neither Colonel Talcott nor Colonel Taylor tries to explain this letter or make it consistent with the statement of the report.

DATE OF LETTER ESTABLISHED.

I anticipated in my book (pages 117-121) that some one would insist that the date was a mistake, and should have been the 29th. But, if the letter in the Records should have been dated the 29th, then "last night's" letter would have been dated the 28th. Now, Early says that he received at York a copy of this letter on the evening of the 29th, and he started early the next morning, expecting to join Ewell west of the mountain. It is about seventy miles, via Carlisle, from Chambersburg to York.

The letter could not possibly have reached Early on the 29th if it had left Chambersburg later than the 27th. Again, Edward Johnson's division left Carlisle on the morning of the 29th on the Chambersburg pike, and before the second order arrived for Ewell to move east of the mountain, and Ewell's trains were passing through Chambersburg at midnight on the 29th, which shows that they must have left Carlisle probably on the evening of the 28th.

Again, Ewell says he arrived at Carlisle on the 27th, and was starting for Harrisburg on the 29th, but the movement was arrested by an order from General Lee to return. It is clear that Johnson left Carlisle and Early left York in obedience to the first order (27th).

But Ewell remained at Carlisle with Rodes' division, after receiving the second order, to give Jenkins time to return from Harrisburg and to unite with Early, marching west, at Heidlersburg. If the letter in the Records had been written on the 29th, then neither letter could have reached Ewell before he got to Harrisburg. His march north was arrested by the first letter. Of course all presumptions are in favor of the correctness of the date of the letter published in the Records. The burden of proof is on those who impeach it. But Ewell's, Early's and Johnson's reports verify the latter in every particular.

It would have been far better for General Lee's military reputation if he had written his own report of events of the campaign just as they occurred, instead of having an active lawyer to write a brief for him; this

"Had been an act of purer fame,
Than gathers round Marengo's name."

I am aware that in Virginia there is a sentiment that tolerates only one side of a question that concerns General Lee.

LEE'S LAST ORDER TO MOSBY.

After General Stuart was killed, in May, 1864, 1 reported directly to General Lee. The following is the last order I ever received from him:

Headquarters, March 27, 1865.
"Rec'd 8-20.
"Col. J. S. Mosby,
"Care Major Boyle, Gordonsville:
"Collect your command and watch the country from front of Gordonsville to Blue Ridge, and also Valley. Your command is now all in that section, and the General will rely on you to watch and protect the country. If any of your command is in the Northern Neck, call it to you.
"W. H. Taylor,
"Assistant Adjutant-General."

It was forwarded from Gordonsville by courier to me in Loudoun.

A few days afterwards we heard from Appomattox. My battalion was then on the line of the Potomac, where the war had begun. For General Lee I have always had a deep affection, but, to my mind, the fashionable cult that exalts him above mortality and makes him incapable of error is as irrational as the mystic faith of the Hindu in Buddha.

And now, in conclusion, I will say that some may think that Stuart needed no defense; and will apply to my effort to rescue his memory from undeserved blame the words of Milton on a monument to Shakespeake--

"Dear Son of Memory, great heir of fame,
What needs't thou such weak witness of thy name."

John S. Mosby.
Washington, D. C., January, 1910.

Longstreet And Stuart

I offer another article by John Mosby on the role of Stuart at Gettysburg. This article, printed in the Southern Historical Society Papers, answers Longstreet's charges that Stuart disobeyed his orders.

(Source: Southern Historical Society Papers, Vol. 23, pages 205-229)
[From the Richmond (Va.) Times, Feb 2, 1896.]

LONGSTREET AND STUART.
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Highly Interesting Review by Colonel John S. Mosby.
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CAUSE OF THE LOSS OF GETTYSBURG.
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Many of Longstreet's Statements in His Book Combated by Colonel
Mosby--The Want of Cavalry Had Nothing to Do
with the Result of the Battle.
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General Longstreet, having acted a great part as a soldier, now appears as the historian of the war. His book will soon be buried in the dust of oblivion, but, fortunately for him, his fame does not rest upon what he has written, but what he has done. No doubt he has had to endure much, as he says, for the sake of his opinions, as every man must who goes in advance of his age, and he has had strong provocation to speak with bitterness of some of his contemporaries, if he spoke of them at all. But his better angel would have told him that much that he has written about his brothers-in-arms would injure his own reputation more than theirs, and that if he had suffered injustice in defending the right, he had the consolation of knowing that:

"Only those are crowned and sainted,
Who with grief have been acquainted."

He will not be able to persuade anyone but himself that he was ever the rival of General Lee and Stonewall Jackson, or that Jackson's fame is factitious and due to his being a Virginian. It is not because he was a Virginian that his monument stands on the bank of the "father of waters," and that a great people beyond the sea gave his statue, in bronze, to the State that will cherish his fame as a possession forever.

THE CAVALRY.

I only propose, however, to review that portion of his book that relates to the management of the cavalry in the Gettysburg campaign. He says that on June 19th, "under the impression that the cavalry was to operate with the first corps (Longstreet's) in the general plan, the commander (Stuart) was ordered to follow its withdrawal west of the Blue Ridge and cross the Potomac on its right at Shepherdstown and make his ride towards Baltimore. He claimed that General Lee had given him authority to cross east of the Blue Ridge. The point at which the cavalry force should cross the river was not determined between the Confederate commander and his chief of cavalry, there being doubt whether the crossing could be made at Point of Rocks between the Union army and Blue Ridge, or between that army and Washington city. That question was left open, and I was ordered to choose between the points named at the moment that my command took up its line of march. So our plans, adopted after deep study, were suddenly given over to gratify the youthful cavalryman's wish for a romantic ride." General Longstreet does not pretend to have any written record or evidence to, support his assertion; on the contrary, the record shows that at that time no such plan could have been entertained, or even discussed.

He writes history on the a priori principle of the ancient philosophers, who never went outside of their own consciousness to enquire about facts. It is an exercise of imagination, not of memory; if he runs up against a fact then, like a battery or a line of battle that got in his way--so much the worse for the fact. Not that I would insinuate that he has consciously been guilty of invention; but seeing, as he supposes, in the light of events, that certain things ought to have been done, he persuades himself that they were done. At the above date (June 19th) General Lee had not determined on sending any of his army north of the Potomac, except Ewell's Corps that was in the advance. Only Rodes' and Johnson's Divisions, with Jenkins' Cavalry, had then crossed the river. A. P. Hill's Corps, that had been left at Fredericksburg, had not then reached the Shenandoah Valley. General Lee, with Longstreet's Corps, was about Berryville; Stuart, with the cavalry, was east of the Blue Ridge, guarding the approaches to the gaps; Longstreet on the west, was supporting him. Longstreet was facing east; Hooker in his front, was, of course, facing west.

GENERAL LEE'S PLANS.

Now, on June 19th, the day that Longstreet says that all their plans of invasion were matured, and Stuart was ordered to follow his corps and cross the Potomac at Shepherdstown, General Lee wrote to Ewell, who, with two of his divisions, was about Hagerstown, Md., Early not having then crossed the river. General Lee says: "I very much regret that you have not the benefit of your whole corps, for with that north of the Potomac you would accomplish as much unmolested as the whole army could perform with General Hooker in its front. * * * If your advance causes Hooker to cross the Potomac, or separate his army in any way, Longstreet can follow you." So on June 19th it was uncertain whether Longstreet would cross the river or not. On the 22d Hill arrived near Charlestown. Ewell was then ordered to enter Pennsylvania with his whole corps; Jenkins' Cavalry was with him. That day (22d) in a letter to Ewell, General Lee says: "If you are ready to move you can do so. I think your best course will be toward the Susquehanna, taking the routes by Emmettsburg, Chambersburg, and McConnellsburg. It will depend upon the quantity of supplies obtained in that country whether the rest of the army can follow. If Harrisburg comes within your means, capture it." So on the morning of June 22d it had not been settled that Longstreet and Hill should follow Ewell.

Later in the day (3:30 P. M.) he again writes Ewell: "I also directed General Stuart, should the enemy have so far retired from his front as to permit of the departure of a portion of the cavalry, to march with three brigades across the Potomac, and place himself on your right, and in communication with you, &c. I also directed Imboden, if opportunity offered, to cross the Potomac, and perform the same offices on your left." Ewell marched with two divisions down the Cumberland Valley to Chambersburg: thence to Carlisle, where he halted. Early was detached and sent east through the Cashtown pass in the South mountain, to York.

WHAT THE LETTERS SHOW.

These letters of General Lee's show that Stuart could not have been ordered to march on Longstreet's flank, because (1) Ewell was then in Pennsylvania and Longstreet in Virginia, and (2) Longstreet and Hill had received no orders to march. The next day General Lee wrote to Mr. Davis: "Reports of movements of the enemy cast of the Blue Ridge cause me to believe that he is preparing to cross the Potomac. A pontoon bridge is said to be laid at Harper's Ferry; his army corps, that he has advanced to Leesburg and the foot of the mountains, appear to be withdrawing. Their attempt to penetrate the mountains has been successfully repelled by General Stuart with the cavalry. General Ewell's corps is in motion toward the Susquehanna. General A.P. Hill is moving toward the Potomac; his leading division will reach Shepherdstown to-day. I have withdrawn Longstreet west of the Shenandoah, and if nothing prevents he will follow to-morrow." General Lee was then satisfied of Hooker's purpose to cross the Potomac. During the time that Stuart was defending the gaps on account of the presence of Longstreet's corps, Stuart was, to some extent, brought under his authority; for convenience, and to preserve concert of action, all of his correspondence with General Lee passed through Longstreet. In this way Lee and Longstreet were both kept informed of the movements of the enemy. On the day that Ewell left Hagerstown (22d), General Lee sent unsealed through Longstreet the following letter of instructions:

"Headquarters, June 22, 1863.
"Major-General J. E. B. Stuart, Commanding Cavalry, &c.:

"General,--I have just received your note of 7:45 this morning to General Longstreet. I judge the efforts of the enemy yesterday were to arrest our progress and ascertain our whereabouts. I fear he will steal a march on us, and get across the Potomac before we are aware. If you find that he is moving northward, and that two brigades can guard the Blue Ridge and take care of your rear, you can move the other three into Maryland, and take position on Ewell's right, place yourself in communication with him, guard his flank, and keep him informed of the enemy's movements, and collect all the supplies you can for the use of the army. One column of General Ewell's army will probably move towards the Susquehanna by the Emmettsburg route, another by Chambersburg."

Stuart is here given discretion as to the route he should go; but the orders to leave Longstreet and go to Ewell are peremptory. Stuart's headquarters were then at Rector's Cross Roads, about twelve miles east of the Ridge. These letters demonstrate how erroneous are the statements of Generals Longstreet and Heth, and of Long, in the romance he published and called the Memoirs of General Lee, that Stuart was ordered to march on the flank of the column with which General Lee was present. He couldn't be on Ewell's flank on the Susquehanna and Longstreet's flank on the Potomac at the same time. Neither would Longstreet have ordered Stuart to remain with him, knowing that General Lee had ordered him to Ewell. All of Stuart's critics have ignored the fact that General Lee ordered Stuart to leave him and go to Ewell. General Longstreet wrote as follows to General Lee :

"June 22, 1863--7:30 P. M.
"General R. E. Lee, Commanding, &c.:

"General,--Yours of 4 o'clock this afternoon is received. I have forwarded your letter to General Stuart, with the suggestion that he pass by the enemy's rear if he thinks he may get through. We have nothing of the enemy to-day.

"Most respectfully,
"James Longstreet,
"Lieutenant-General, Commanding."

LONGSTREET TO STUART.

In the correspondence during this period between Lee, Longstreet, and Stuart this is the first intimation about taking the route in the rear of the enemy, and it seems that General Longstreet suggested it. This is his letter to Stuart:

"Millwood, June 22, 1863-7 P. M.
"Major-General. J. E. B. Stuart, Commanding Cavalry.-

"General,--General Lee has enclosed to me this letter for you, to be forwarded to you, provided you can be spared from my front, and provided I think that you can move across the Potomac without disclosing our plans. He speaks of your leaving via Hopewell Gap, and passing by the rear of the enemy. If you can get through by that route, I think that you will be less likely to indicate what our plans are than if you should cross by passing to our rear. I forward the letter of instructions with these suggestions. Please advise me of the condition of affairs before you leave and order General Hampton, whom I suppose you will leave here in command, to report to me at Millwood, either by letter or in person, as may be the most agreeable to him.

"Most respectfully,
"James Longstreet,
"Lieutenant-General."

N.B. I think that your passage of the Potomac by our rear (Shepherdstown), at the present moment, will in a measure disclose our plans. You had better not leave us, therefore, unless you can take the proposed route in rear of the enemy."

In his book General Longstreet says: "The extent of authority with me, therefore, was to decide whether the crossing should be made at the Point of Rocks, or around Hopewell Gap, east of the Union Army." The Point of Rocks is nowhere mentioned in the correspondence, and General Longstreet's own letter is proof that it was not considered as a place for Stuart's crossing. He tells Stuart that it is better to go by the rear of the enemy than by "our rear." Now at that time Longstreet and Hill were in the valley fronting east; the Point of Rocks is twelve miles east of the Blue Ridge; their rear way, then, of course, toward the west. In crossing at Point of Rocks Stuart would not have been in rear of either army, but in front of both. If, on the contrary, Stuart had come over the Blue Ridge and crossed the Potomac at Shepherdstown, he would have passed in our rear. General Longstreet says: "In the postscript three points are indicated: First, the move along my rear to the crossing at Point of Rocks." As Longstreet was west of the Blue Ridge facing east, and Stuart was east of the Ridge, it is hard to see how he would pass Longstreet's rear in moving to the Point of Rocks. The Point of Rocks is not mentioned in the letter. "Second, my preferred march on my flank to the Shepherdstown crossing." There is no such preference shown in the letter; just the reverse, as Longstreet urges Stuart not to cross in "our rear," which would have been at Shepherdstown. "Third, the route indicated by General Lee." But in his letter of the 22d, to Stuart, General Lee indicated no route--he merely ordered Stuart (if General Longstreet could spare him from his front) to join Ewell. Of course he couldn't join Ewell--stay with Longstreet, as they were seventy-five miles apart, and the distance widening. He further says: "Especially did he (Stuart) know that my orders were that he should ride on the right of my column, as originally designed, to the Shepherdstown crossing." Stuart didn't know anything of the kind--neither did General Longstreet. The record is against him. The very letter that Longstreet forwarded to Stuart from General Lee told him to leave Longstreet and go to Ewell.

LEE'S FINAL INSTRUCTION.

But General Lee's final instructions to Stuart, dated June 23d, 5 P. M., shows what choice of routes was given to Stuart. General Lee says: "If General Hooker's army remains inactive, you can leave two brigades to watch him. and withdraw with the three others; but should he not appear to be moving northward, I think you had better withdraw this side of the mountain to-morrow night, cross at Shepherdstown next day, and move over to Fredericktown. You will, however, be able to judge whether you can pass around their army without hindrance, doing them all the damage you can, and cross the river east of the mountains. In either case, after crossing the river, you must move on, and feel the right of Ewell's troops, collecting information, provisions," &C. * * * * The movements of Ewell's Corps are as stated in my former letter. Hill's first division will reach the Potomac to-day (23d), and Longstreet will follow to-morrow." This letter proves that the choice of routes lay between Shepherdstown, and west of the Blue Ridge, or crossing the river in rear of the enemy to the east. It also shows that Stuart was not to march on the flank of the column with General Lee even if he crossed at Shepherdstown, but to move on through Boonsboro Gap, and put himself on Ewell's right. Stuart took the shortest and most direct route to join Early's Division that was then marching east toward York. General Longstreet gives himself away when he says: "The first corps was to draw back from the Blue Ridge, and cross the Potomac at Williamsport, to be followed by the cavalry, which was to cross at Shepherdstown, and ride severely towards Baltimore, to force the enemy to eastern concentration." Now Stuart did ride "severely toward Baltimore," and near to the gates of the city. But if he had gone the other way, and crossed at Shepherdstown, and then ridden through Boonsboro Gap to Baltimore, he would have been as far from Longstreet's flank as he was by the route he took in rear of Hooker. He did not, as he says, order Stuart to put Hampton in command of the two brigades that were left behind, for he had no such authority; neither is it true that Robertson was assigned to this command "without orders to report," at his headquarters.

SHOULD READ.

Stuart's instructions to Robertson, which, through abundant caution, he repeated to Jones, and all the correspondence to which I have referred, has been published. It may be that he hasn't read it. If he has not, then he ought to stop writing, and go to reading history. The instructions to Robertson says: * * * * "you will instruct General Jones, from time to time, as the movements progress or events may require, and report anything of importance to Lieutenant-General Longstreet, with whose position you will communicate by relays through Charlestown. I send instructions for General Jones, which please read." Jones was one of the best outpost officers in the army. Stuart's main reliance was on him. His brigade was at that time much nearer the Potomac than Robertson's. Jones in accordance with Stuart's order places the Twelfth Virginia Cavalry at Charlestown. Longstreet was responsible for the use made of these two brigades, as they were under his orders. It would have been much easier to send a courier back for them from Hagerstown, if the cavalry was needed, than from Chambersburg. He knew that Hooker's army had crossed the river, and was holding the South Mountain passes when he was at Hagerstown. So his spy only told General Lee what he already knew. It could not have been a surprise to hear at Chambersburg that the Northern army was moving north. There was nothing else for it to do. If when General Lee was at Hagerstown he had supposed that Hooker was still south of the Potomac he would not have moved north, but due east, toward Baltimore and Washington. There is not the slightest evidence to show that in this campaign any injury resulted to the army from want of cavalry. Our communications were never interrupted. General Longstreet speaks of Stuart's movement toward Ewell's right flank as a raid. As I have shown, it was nothing of the kind, but a part of a combined movement of the whole army. The criticisms of Stuart are all predicated on the idea that Gettysburg was General Lee's objective point; and as Stuart was absent from the first day's battle he must, therefore, have been in default. But General Lee was not present in the battle; he arrived just at the close. On this assumption a plausible theory was invented that the battle was precipitated for want of cavalry. In Belford's Magazine (October and November, 1891), in an article on Gettysburg, based on a study of the records, I demonstrated the error; and showed that General Lee never intended to go to Gettysburg, but that Cashtown was his expected point of concentration. General Heth, General Longstreet, Long and others, had represented Gettysburg to be the strategic point on which General Lee was maneuvering. They forgot that we had held and then abandoned it. Of course, when the base was knocked from under it, the theory fell.

WHO WAS RESPONSIBLE.

General Longstreet now says that Cashtown was the place where General Lee ordered the concentration. He did not say so in the Century. He fails to show the genesis of the battle, and who was responsible for the defeat of General Lee's plans. I will first say that in my opinion General Longstreet was not. Hill, with Heth's and Pender's Divisions, was at Cashtown on the evening of June 30th. General Lee, with Longstreet, was still some distance west of the mountain. Every division of his army--infantry, cavalry, and artillery--was on the march, and converging on Cashtown on the morning of July 1st. They could all have reached there by night, or in supporting distance. On the evening before (30th), Hill and Heth heard that a body of the enemy had just occupied Gettysburg. Early on the morning of July 1st, Hill, with Heth's and Pender's Divisions, started down without orders to attack them. Before reaching Gettysburg they met Buford's Cavalry on the pike. Buford held them in check until Reynolds, who had camped some six miles off with two corps, hearing the firing, came to his support. Heth first put two brigades into the fight that were soon knocked to pieces; Archer and most of his brigade were captured. Heth says: "Archer and Davis were now directed to. advance, the object being to feel the enemy and to determine in what force the enemy were--whether or not he was massing his forces on Gettysburg. Heavy columns of the enemy were soon encountered. General Davis was unable to hold the position he had gained. The enemy concentrated on his front and flanks in overwhelming force. The 'enemy had now been felt, and found to be in heavy force.'" Hill states substantially the same thing. He put in Heth's other two brigades, and then Pender's Division. He would have been badly beaten, but Ewell, on the march to Cashtown, received a note from Hill, and hearing the firing, came to his rescue. Hill and Heth called the fight, which lasted from about 8 o'clock A.M. to 4 P.M., and in which over 20,000 men were engaged on a side, and five or six thousand killed and wounded on each side, a reconnaissance. If this was a reconnaissance, then what is a battle? General Lee had not ordered any reconnaissance, and there was no necessity for it. was west of the mountain when he heard the firing, and did not understand its significance.

IT WAS A RAID.

The object of a reconnaissance is to get information, not to fight. Only sufficient force is applied to compel an enemy to develop his strength and display his position. The attacking force then. retires. After two of Heth's Brigades had been shattered and heavy columns of the enemy deployed in his front, he knew the enemy was in force, and ought to have retired, and gone back to Cashtown. The trouble was, Hill had found out too much. It is plain that this expedition was not a reconnaissance, but a raid. A high military authority says: "When once the object of a reconnaissance has been gained, a retreat must be sounded even in the middle of a combat." General Lee was in a state of duress when he arrived on the field at the close of the fight. He was compelled to order up the remainder of the army and deliver battle on ground he had not chosen, or fall back to Cashtown, leaving his dead and wounded on the field, and giving the enemy the prestige of victory. It is clear that the want of cavalry had nothing to do either with precipitating the battle or losing it. Stuart was absent on the day it began for the same reason that General Lee was.

This has been written more in sorrow than in anger. It is no pleasure to me to expose the mistakes of others; my motive is to defend the dead, and that arm of the service to which I belonged. It is a sacred duty I owe to the memory of a friend,

"To whom the shadows of far years extend."

Jno. S. Mosby.
San Francisco, Cal., January 23, 1896.

Stuart and Gettysburg

As a Stuart fan, the anniversary of Gettysburg is hard to take. The old chestnut that Stuart was out "joy-riding" around the Yankees, disobeying Lee's order, seeking personal glory, and causing the Army of Northern Virginia to lose the battle are on full display.

I have already posted a 9 part paper (I think it is 9 parts) on this topic. What I want to post now is one of John Mosby's articles in the Southern Historical Society Papers. Mosby's spirited defense of Stuart should be must reading for all scholars, historians, or enthusiasts who continue to advance the argument that Stuart was derelict in his duties. So should Stuart's orders as recorded in the Original Records.

(Source: Southern Historical Society Papers, Vol. 23, pages 238-247)

STUART AND GETTYSBURG.
__________
Col. John S. Mosby's Defense of the Great Cavalry Leader.
__________
San Francisco, Cal., January 28, 1896.

To the Editor of the Dispatch:

I have just read in the Post the report of Colonel Charles Marshall's speech at the celebration of the anniversary of General Lee's birthday. It is the argument of an astute advocate and sophist, and utterly destitute of judicial candor. I shall briefly notice and answer the charge he makes that General Stuart, the Chief of Cavalry, violated General Lee's order in the Gettysburg campaign. Fortunately, in this case, the truth does not lie at the bottom of a well:

1. General Lee expressly says in his report that he gave Stuart authority to cross the Potomac in the rear of the enemy, which is the route he took. Colonel Marshall was a staff-officer of General Lee's, and, of course, knew this fact; yet he did not mention it.

2. He states that Stuart was ordered to place himself on Ewell's right flank, and did not do it. Any one reading the speech would infer that at the date of the instruction Ewell was with General Lee in the Shenandoah Valley, and that Stuart was in default in this respect. He ignores the important fact that Ewell was then several days' march in advance of General Lee, in Pennsylvania. Of course, Stuart could not be at the same time with General Lee in Virginia and with Ewell in Pennsylvania. He says that Stuart's instructions were to cover the Confederate right as the enemy moved northward. No such instructions were given, but just the reverse. At 5 P. M. June 23d, General Lee wrote to Stuart, who was then east of the Blue Ridge, in Loudoun county:

"If General Hooker's army remains inactive, you can leave two brigades to watch him, and withdraw with the three others; but should he not appear to be moving northward I think you had better withdraw this side of the mountain to-morrow night, cross at Shepherdstown next day (25th), and move over to Frederickstown. You will, however, be able to judge whether you can pass around their army without hindrance, doing them all the damage you can, and cross the river east of the mountains. In either case, after crossing the river you must move on and feel the right of Ewell's troops, collecting information, provisions," etc.

At that time Longstreet's Corps was the rear guard of the army, and Lee's instructions to Stuart were sent through him. On the day before Longstreet had forwarded a similar letter from General Lee, and urged Stuart to go to Ewell by the route around the rear of the enemy. So far from Stuart having been ordered to wait until the enemy moved northward, he was told to go immediately, if they were not moving northward. At that time Hooker was waiting quietly on General Lee; all of his movements had been subordinate to Lee's. He had moved in a circle pari passu with Lee from the Rappahannock to the Potomac so as to cover Washington. When Lee crossed the river, of course Hooker would cross and maintain the same relative position. General Lee knew that it was physically impossible for Stuart to pass the enemy's rear and keep up communication with him; he knew that it would be equally impossible if he crossed the river west of the Blue Ridge at Shepherdstown, and then (in accordance with his orders) moved on over the South Mountain and joined the right of Ewell's column. How could Stuart be on the Susquehanna and at the same time watch and report Hooker's movements on the Potomac?

MARCHED DAY AND NIGHT.

On June 22d General Lee had written Stuart, "One column of Ewell's army (under Early) will probably move toward the Susquehanna by the Emmetsburg route--another by Chambersburg." So it was immaterial so far as giving information of Hooker's movements was concerned whether Stuart crossed the Potomac east or west of the Ridge. In either event after crossing he was required to go out of sight of Hooker, and to sever communication with General Lee. Stuart took the most direct route to join the right of Ewell's column, marching continuously day and night to do so. When he reached York he found that Early had been ordered back to Cashtown, the appointed rendezvous of the army. About all this Colonel Marshall says nothing.

3. Colonel Marshall leaves the impression on the reader that Stuart took the whole cavalry corps with him. He knew that Stuart left two brigades of cavalry with Longstreet.

4. Colonel Marshall says that General Lee, at Chambersburg, not having heard from Stuart since he left Virginia, thought that Hooker was still south of the Potomac, until on the night of the 28th he learned through a spy that Hooker was moving northward. This is equivalent to saying that General Lee had lost his head, for no rational being could have supposed that Hooker would remain on the south bank of the Potomac while the Confederates were foraging in Pennsylvania. He might as well have disbanded his army. When General Lee passed Hagerstown on the 26th he knew that the bulk of Hooker's army was north of the river and holding the South Mountain passes. If Hooker had still been in Virginia there would have been nothing to prevent General Lee from marching direct to Baltimore and Washington. If General Lee had supposed (as Colonel Marshall says he did) that the way was open to capture those cities, he would have marched east, and not north to Chambersburg. General Lee never committed any such military blunder. The spy, therefore, only told General Lee what he knew before.

On the morning of June 28th, at Frederick, Hooker was superseded by Meade. His army remained there that day. Instead of threatening General Lee's communications, as Colonel Marshall says, Meade withdrew the two corps that were holding the mountain passes when General Lee passed through Maryland, and moved his army the next day to the east so as to cover Washington and Baltimore. There was never any interruption of Lee's communications.

5. Colonel Marshall says that General Lee took his army to Gettysburg simply to keep Meade east of the mountain and prevent a threatened movement against his communications. This statement is contradicted by the record. General Lee attached no such importance to his communications--if he had any. The road was open to the Potomac, but it was not a line of supply; his army lived off the country, and took with it all the ammunition it expected to use. On June 25th, after crossing the river, he wrote Mr. Davis: "I have not sufficient troops to maintain my communications, and therefore have to abandon them."

According to Colonel Marshall he broke up his whole campaign trying to save them. The fact was they were not even threatened, and General Lee knew it. There was continued passing between the army and the river.

6. I deny that General Lee ever ordered his army to Gettysburg, as Colonel Marshall says, or had any intention of going there before the battle began. In an article published in Belford's Magazine (October and November, 1891) I demonstrated this fact from the records. Colonel Marshall ought to study them before he makes another speech.

GENERAL HETH QUOTED.

On the morning of June 29th General Lee ordered a concentration of the army at Cashtown, a village at the eastern base of the mountain, Hill's Corps was in advance; he reached Cashtown June 30th. That night Hill and Heth heard that there was a force of the enemy at Gettysburg; early the next morning Hill, without orders, with Heth's and Pender's Divisions, started down the Gettysburg pike. General Lee was then west of the mountain with Longstreet. Buford's Cavalry was holding Gettysburg as an outpost. Heth was in advance, and soon ran against Buford. There was a pretty stiff fight with the cavalry until Reynolds, who was camped some six miles back, came to his support. Heth says:

"Archer and Davis were now directed to advance, the object being to feel the enemy; to make a forced reconnoissance, and determine in what force the enemy were--whether or not he was moving his forces on Gettysburg. Heavy columns of the enemy were soon encountered."

Davis's and Archer's Brigades were soon smashed, and Archer, with a good many of his men, made prisoners. "The enemy," says General Heth, "had now been felt and found to be in heavy force. The division was now formed in line of battle," etc.

The object of a reconnaissance is to get information; after getting the information the attacking force retires. It seems that General Heth ought now to have been satisfied that the enemy was in force, and should have returned to Cashtown--i.e., if he only went to make a reconnaissance. Hill now put in Pender's and Heth's divisions, and says they drove the enemy until they came upon the First and Eleventh corps that Reynolds had brought up. He says that he went to Gettysburg "to find out what was in my front." He had now found it. Hill would have been driven back to Cashtown if Ewell had not come to his support. With Rodes's and Early's divisions, he had camped the night before a few miles north of Gettysburg, and had started to Cashtown when he received a note from Hill telling him he was moving to Gettysburg. The battle had then begun. Ewell, not understanding Hill's object in going to Gettysburg, bearing the sound of battle, and no doubt supposing the army was assembling there, turned the head of his column and marched toward Gettysburg. He came up just in time to save Hill.

AT FULL SPEED.

General Lee was still west of the mountain when he heard the firing. He did not understand it, and rode forward at full speed to the battle. He arrived on the field just at the close. The battle had been brought on without his knowledge, and without his orders, and lasted from early in the morning until 4 o'clock in the evening. It is clear that Hill took the two divisions to Gettysburg just for an adventure. When General Lee arrived on the field he found about half of his army there. He had been so compromised that he was compelled to accept battle on those conditions, and ordered up the rest of his forces. That morning every division of his army was on the march, and converging on Cashtown. That night the whole army--infantry, cavalry, and artillery--would have been concentrated at Cashtown, or in supporting distance, if this rash movement on Gettysburg had not precipitated a battle. A British officer--Colonel Freemantle-- was present as a spectator, and spent the night of July 1st at General Longstreet's headquarters. In his diary he says:

"I have the best reason for supposing that the fight came off prematurely, and that neither Lee nor Longstreet intended that it should have begun that day. I also think that their plans were deranged by the events of the 1st."

The record shows who is responsible for the loss of the campaign, and that it was not Stuart. There were no orders to make a reconnoissance on July 1st, and no necessity for making one.

The success of the first day, due to the accident of Ewell's arrival on the field when he was not expected, was a misfortune to the Southern army. It would have been far better if Ewell had let Hill and Heth be beaten. They had put the Confederates in the condition of a fish that has swallowed a bait with a hook to it.

John S. Mosby.

Part Nine - Conclusion

The public debate after Lee’s death was waged with one goal: to exonerate Lee of all guilt in the loss at Gettysburg, now seen, in perfect hindsight, as the high-water mark of the Confederacy. Much of the battle’s historiography published during this time was written by men who quite freely admitted they had an agenda. They desired to deflect blame for the loss away from Lee and unto others. When the finger of blame was pointed at him, Longstreet battled back vigorously. Stuart was unable to defend himself, (55) and until John Mosby returned from Hong Kong, no one else did either.

Mosby’s passionate defense shined the light on the agenda. The question of how Stuart could be on the Potomac and the Susquehanna challenged their revisionist history. In response to Mosby’s challenge, Taylor wrote in 1909, “What I have claimed is simply this: Although certain discretion was allowed General Stuart as to his movements, he was admonished all the while to keep in touch with our main army and to keep General Lee informed as to the movements of the enemy.” (56) No, he was told to communicate with Ewell. The orders are very clear on that matter. Yet, the narration of Lee stumbling blind toward Gettysburg, created and maintained by his aides, has become the accepted narration. Mosby’s influence on the historiography proved inconsequential when compared to the authority of Lee’s aides due to the positions they held during the war and after.

Longstreet, the other scapegoat, suffered as well. He was the war’s forgotten general until the release of Gettysburg when interest in his memoirs and his legacy was revived. Stuart has paid for this Longstreet restoration in dramatic scenes that have Lee scolding him like a naughty schoolboy for joyriding around the Yankees instead of being on the right flank of the army as ordered.

Freeman relied on the memoirs of Lee’s staff when writing his biography, which is considered the definitive work on Lee’s life. He puts his own opinions and judgments in Lee’s voice and then uses them to censure Stuart for disobeying his orders. He also substitutes Taylor’s, Marshall’s, and Long’s opinions of what Stuart was supposed to do instead of relying on what Stuart was ordered to do. He carries this thesis into his other two books as well. These works are heavily referenced in the Gettysburg historiography. Dowdey, another prominent Civil War historian, is equally condemning of Stuart.

Perhaps the final verdict on whether Stuart obeyed his orders should be left to Robert E. Lee. In the years following the surrender, he was loath to talk about the war but his eyes would always light up whenever Stuart was mentioned. He met with General Wade Hampton, who succeeded Stuart as cavalry commander, and left this lasting tribute to Stuart. “General Stuart was my ideal of a solider,” he told Hampton. “He was always cheerful under all circumstances, and always ready for any work, and he was always reliable.” (57)

(55) Stuart was killed in action at Yellow Taverns, Virginia on May 11, 1864.
(56)Walter Taylor, Colonel. “A Review of Stuart’s Cavalry in the Gettysburg Campaign by Colonel John Mosby.” (Source: Southern Historical Society Papers, Vol. 37, 1909. pages 21-37)
(57)Mark Nesbitt. Saber and Scapegoat., Mechanicsburg: Stackpole Books. 1994, 107.

Part Six - Colonel Mosby for the Defense

Colonel John Mosby served under Stuart’s command as a partisan and scout. After the war, he served as the consulate in Hong Kong. He returned to Washington in the winter of 1886-1887 to settle his accounts when he became aware of an article Longstreet authored charging Stuart with insubordination. Incensed to find Stuart so unfairly accused and without adequate defense, Mosby went to the archives and read all the correspondence and reports of the Gettysburg campaign. His defense, based on his research, was spirited, passionate, and at times, acrimonious.

In 1917, Mosby’s book, The Memoirs of Colonel John S. Mosby, was published. It was one of the last in a long series of biographies and memoirs written by former officers of the ANV. Within the pages, he devotes a chapter to the Gettysburg campaign. Mosby was an excellent attorney, and the chapter reads like a legal brief. He begins by listing the three charges against Stuart. “The complaint against Stuart is that the cavalry – the eyes of the army – were improperly absent, (and because of this) the Confederate army was ordered by Lee to Gettysburg and […], ran unexpectantly against the enemy.” (34) Then he systematically proceeds to answer each charge.

As to the accusation that Stuart was improperly absent, he cites the orders and simply asks the following question: How is it possible for Stuart to be with Lee on the Potomac and with Ewell on the Susquehanna at the same time? He leaves it for the reader to answer.

By time Mosby penned his book, Gettysburg had become more than where the armies accidentally collided. Now, Gettysburg was the ANV’s destination, chosen by Lee while he was still at his headquarters on the Rappahannock. This new retelling of the importance of the town was advanced by General A.L. Long, Lee’s military secretary, who related the following conversation in his memoirs of Lee’s life and campaigns. “At the period mentioned, he called the writer into his tent headquarters then being near Fredericksburg. On entering I found that he had a map spread on the table before him, which he seemed to have been earnestly consulting. He advised me of his designated plan of operations, which we discussed together and commented upon the probable result. He traced on the map the proposed route of the army and its destination in Pennsylvania.” (35)

If, as Long contends, Gettysburg was the army’s destination, Mosby brings to light the following contradictions. Why did Lee order Ewell to capture Harrisburg; write Stuart that York was the probable point of concentration; stop his advance at Chambersburg on June 27 (one day march from Gettysburg) to gather supplies; when hearing the AOP was in Maryland, advanced the Third Corps to Cashtown (six miles from Gettysburg); and finally, not have Early hold the town when he marched through it just days before. (36)

The last allegation Mosby tackles is the one that states Lee was surprised to find the enemy had cross the Potomac. He finds it demeaning to Lee’s military acumen to be accused of such a reaction. He reiterates Lee conceived the campaign to draw the AOP from Virginia. Hooker had mirrored the ANV’s movement north in order to keep itself between the ANV and Washington. On June 18, Lee wrote he was aware that the AOP was near the Potomac and in his June 22 order to Stuart, he was afraid they would beat him across the river. In a message to President Davis, he states the AOP had thrown down pontoon bridges at Edward’s Ferry. Finally, Mosby states Lee should have known that the AOP was headed north because he had not received word from Stuart. This silence was the key indicator that the AOP was crossing the Potomac. (37)

Mosby’s defense of Stuart is hard to refute. The logic is unassailable especially in light of the original orders. He is fully confident of the answer to the question he posed in his book. How could Stuart be on the Potomac and on the Susquehanna at the same time? Ninety years after the question was posed, it still needs to be answered by all historians who hope to write about Stuart’s role during the Gettysburg campaign.

It may be more difficult for Mosby to prove Gettysburg was not Lee’s objective, but it is hard to argue with his reasoning on why it was not. If Gettysburg was as important in 1863 as Long made it to be in 1886, then why did Early raid the town and move on, or at least when Lee heard from the spy that the AOP was less than a day's march from the town, not advance immediately to take it. Instead, Lee ordered Hill to Cashtown. When Ewell was recalled from the Susquehanna, he too was ordered to Cashtown and not Gettysburg. These decisions make it hard to believe Lee held Gettysburg with any great importance.

Did Lee know the AOP had crossed the Potomac? His staff is adamant that he was surprised when the spy brought him the news. The rest of the articles written during this period confirm Lee did not know. But Mosby was right. There was nothing else the AOP could do. Hooker could not just sit in Virginia while the Confederates moved through Pennsylvania unopposed. Lee should have known the AOP was pursuing his army since he ordered Stuart around the enemy if the AOP was moving north. Communication between Lee and Stuart would have been virtually impossible due to the AOP being between Lee and his cavalry leader. Stuart’s silence was the one true indicator Lee had that the AOP was pursuing him into Pennsylvania. The other proofs Mosby lists only strengthen his argument that Lee should not have been caught unaware.

(34)John S. Mosby, Colonel. The Memoirs of Colonel John S. Mosby. (Boston: Little, Brown and Company. 1917), 236.
(35)A.L. Long, General. Memoirs of Robert E. Lee. (London: Sampson Low, Marston, Searle, and Rivington. 1886.), 268
(36)Mosby. The Memoirs of Colonel John S. Mosby., 230.
(37)Ibid., 225.