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The Boy General”By ELMO SCOTT WATSONT WAS just 100 years ago, on February 6, 1833, that .Tames Ewell Brown Stuart was born in Patrick county, « Virginia.Taken alone, that statement is a mere biographical detail with little special meaning. But for the name “.Tames Ewell Brown Stuart’’ substitute “Gen.Jeh Stuart of the Confederate army,” and what pictures of one of the most romantic figures in American history are conjured up by that name !Consider, for instance, these words by a recent biographer—Capt. John W. Thomason, Jr.,•of the United States marine corps in his “Jeb Stuart,1* published by Scribners:“Jeb Stuart filled the eye. He was strong and ruddy, and in late 1802, commissioned major general in the Confederate army with a year and a few months left to live, he was Just under thirty. He .had a dark brown flaring beard and wide mustaches that showed bronze lights in the aun. He was 5 feet 11 Inches tall and he rode at 175 pounds.“He was large boned, long in the arms and the legs and short In the body, and he looked best on a horse. He had a blue and merry eye, which turned dark and piercing when battle warned him or his temper flamed. His nose \\as chiseled and adventurous, the kind of nose Napoleon admired In generals.“Also, there was an elegance about him. He wore gauntlets of white buckskin, and rode in a gray shell jacket, double-breasted, buttoned back to show a close gray vest. His sword, a light French saber—-for he never carried, in the Confederate army, the United States officers’ sword of the old service—was belted over a cavalry sash of golden silk with tasseled ends. *“His gray horseman’s cloak was lined with scarlet; his wife made it. General l.ee, he wrote her, admired it; and he deplored to her the bullet which whipped away its fur collar at Fredericksburg. His horse furniture and equipment were polished leather and bright metal, and he liked to wear a red rose in his jacket when the roses bloomed, and a toveknot Of red ribbon when flowers were out of season.“His soft, fawn-colored hat was looped up on the right with a gold star, and adorned with a curling ostrich feather. His hoots sported little knightly spurs of gold—admiring ladles, even those who never saw him in their lives, sent him such things, He went conspicuous, all gold and glitter, In the front of great battles and In a hundred little cavalry fights which killed men Just as dead as Gettysburg,' “He wore out his horses and he wore out his men He rode big animals of the hunter type, blood bavs with black points for choice, and his brother, William Alexander, was kept on the lookout for such mounts. Admirers gave him horses, splendid blooded creatures like Star of the East from Farquler, and Skylark from Maryland; none of them lasted long under the Service he exacted.“He was a social type, loving people, laughing much and leading out In song; for he had a rich and golden voice. He was fond of charades and wrote execrable poetry and affected anagrams. There was never any sadness where hewas. . , _“‘Yessir, AhTl tell you one t’ing,’ says General Lee’s old camp servant after the war. ‘It mek no diffkmce how quiet our headquartehsWU7; and I think General I.ee’s headquarterswere usually quiet—’wid'ln ten minutes uv de time Gineral Stua’t ride up to visit us everybody would be a-lnffln! And Ah’ll tell you another thing, sah. Ginerttl StUa’t wuz de only one of dem big gineruls whut neveli did tech a drap!’“And Lee says, coming out of his tent to the campfire where the young officers of his staff, and some of the old ones, too. sat singing with Stuart, and a large stone Jug, such as applejack, sat on a stone: ‘Gentlemen, nm I to thank General Stuart or the Jug for this fine music?’ The remark Is close to the point, like everything Lee says* Stuart-was a strong stimulant to all Who tasted of his quality, and not a stimulus that died out and let you down.“He gathered to himself a train of oddities. When the cavalry commands were forming Into regiments at the opening of the war, he came upon Joseph Sweeny, a fellow apt upon the Kan-jo. furnished with all the tunes, who sprang to arms from a minstrel trojipe. electing to serve mounted. Sweeny wa* at once detailed to the
Newspaper Details
Harrison Clare County Cleaver
Harrison, Michigan, US
Fri, Feb 10, 1933
Page 3
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Ronald T.
USA 19 Mar 2024
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Harrison Clare County Cleaver
