THE CIVIL WAR: THE TRUE STORY BOOK 1

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James Ewell Brown "Jeb" Stuart graduated from West Point in 1854.  Robert E. Lee had been appointed superintendent of the Academy in 1852, and Stuart became friends with the Lee family, seeing them socially on frequent occasions. Lee's nephew, Fitzhugh Lee, also arrived at the academy in 1852.  In Stuart's final year, in addition to achieving the cadet rank of second captain of the corps, he was one of eight cadets designated as honorary "cavalry officers" for his skills in horsemanship.  Stuart graduated 13th in his class of 46.

Stuart was commissioned a brevet second lieutenant and assigned to the U.S. Regiment of Mounted Riflemen in Texas.  He was soon transferred to the newly formed 1st Cavalry Regiment at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas Territory where he became regimental quartermaster and commissary officer. In 1855, Stuart met Flora Cooke, the daughter of the commander of the 2nd U.S. Dragoon Regiment, Lieutenant Colonel Philip St. George Cooke.  Flora was described as  "an accomplished horsewoman, and though not pretty, an effective charmer."  They became engaged in September 1855, less than two months after meeting.  Stuart humorously wrote of his rapid courtship in Latin "Veni, Vidi, Victus sum" (I came, I saw, I was conquered). The death of Stuart's father on September 20 caused a change of plans and the marriage on November 14, 1855 was small and limited to family witnesses. The couple owned two slaves until 1859, one inherited from his father's estate, the other purchased. Their first child, a girl, was born in 1856 but died the same day. Stuart was wounded on July 29, 1857, while fighting at Solomon River, Kansas against the Cheyenne. Colonel Sumner ordered a charge with drawn sabers against a wave of Indian arrows. Scattering the warriors, Stuart and three other lieutenants chased one down, whom Stuart wounded in the thigh with his pistol. The Cheyenne turned and fired at Stuart with an old-fashioned pistol, striking him in the chest with a bullet, which did little more damage than to pierce the skin. On November 14, 1857, Flora gave birth to another daughter, whom the parents named Flora after her mother. The family relocated in early 1858 to Fort Riley, where they remained for three years. While in Washington, D.C. in 1859 to discuss government contracts, Stuart heard about John Brown's raid on the U.S. Arsenal at Harpers Ferry.  Stuart volunteered to accompany Colonel Robert E. Lee with a company of  U.S. Marines and four companies of Maryland militia.  While delivering Lee's written surrender ultimatum to the leader of the group, who had been calling himself Isaac Smith, Stuart recognized "Old Ossawatomie Brown" from his days in Kansas.  Stuart resigned from the U.S. Army on May 3, 1861, to join the Confederate States Army,  following the secession of Virginia.  Upon learning that his father-in-law, Colonel Cooke, would remain in the U.S. Army during the coming war, Stuart wrote to his brother-in-law (future Confederate General John Rogers Cooke), "He will regret it but once, and that will be continuously."  On June 26, 1860, Flora had given birth to a son, Philip St. George Cooke Stuart, but Stuart changed the boy's name to James Ewell Brown Stuart, Jr. ("Jimmie"), in late 1861 out of disgust with his father-in-law.  Stuart served first under Stonewall Jackson in the  Shenandoah Valley, but then in increasingly important cavalry commands of the Army of Northern Virginia, playing a role in all of that army's campaigns until his death. He established a reputation as an audacious cavalry commander. In 1862, the Union Army of the Potomac began its Peninsula Campaign against Richmond, Virginia, and Stuart's cavalry brigade assisted General Joseph Johnston's army as it withdrew up the Virginia Peninsula in the face of superior numbers.  When Robert E. Lee became commander of the Army of Northern Virginia, he requested that Stuart perform reconnaissance to determine whether the right flank of the Union army was vulnerable. Stuart set out with 1,200 troopers on the morning of June 12 and, having determined that the flank was indeed vulnerable, took his men on a complete circumnavigation of the Union army, returning after 150 miles on July 15 with 165 captured Union soldiers, 260 horses and mules, and various quartermaster and ordnance supplies. His men met no serious opposition from the more decentralized Union cavalry, coincidentally commanded by his father-in-law, Colonel Cooke. The maneuver was a public relations sensation and Stuart was greeted with flower petals thrown in his path at Richmond. On November 6, 1862, Stuart received sad news by telegram that his daughter Flora had died just before her fifth birthday, of  typhoid fever on November 3. In the December 1862 Battle of Fredericksburg, Stuart and his cavalry protected Stonewall Jackson's flank at Hamilton's Crossing.  General Lee commended his cavalry, which "effectually guarded our right, annoying the enemy and embarrassing his movements by hanging on his flank, and attacking when the opportunity occurred." Stuart reported to Flora the next day that he had been shot through his fur collar but was unhurt.  After Christmas, Lee ordered Stuart to conduct a raid north of the Rappahannock River to "penetrate the enemy's rear, ascertain if possible his position & movements, & inflict upon him such damage as circumstances will permit." Assigning 1,800 troopers and a horse artillery battery to the operation, Stuart's raid reached as far north as 4 miles south of Fairfax Court House, seizing 250 prisoners, horses, mules, and supplies. Tapping telegraph lines, his signalmen intercepted messages between Union commanders. Stuart sent a personal telegram to Union Quartermaster General Montgomery Meigs, "General Meigs will in the future please furnish better mules; those you have furnished recently are very inferior."