Jeb Stuart and the Confederate Defeat at Gettysburg

✍ Scribed by Warren C. Robinson Ph.D. MA BA

• Publisher: University of Nebraska Press
• Year: 2007
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 217
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

“The Army was much embarrassed by the absence of the cavalry,” Robert E. Lee wrote of the Gettysburg campaign, stirring a controversy that has never died. Lee’s statement was an indirect indictment of General James Ewell Brown (“Jeb”) Stuart, who was the cavalry. This book reexamines the questions that have shadowed the legendary Confederate hero and offers a fresh, informed interpretation of his role at Gettysburg.

 

Avoiding the partisan pros and cons characterizing previous accounts, Warren C. Robinson reassesses the historical record to come to a clearer view of Stuart’s orders for the crucial battle (as well as what was expected of him), of his actual performance, and of the impact his late arrival had on the outcome of the campaign. Though Stuart may not have disobeyed Lee’s orders, Robinson argues, he did abuse the general’s discretion by raiding Washington rather than scouting for the army at Gettysburg—a move that profoundly affected the Confederate fortunes and perhaps the war itself.

(20080528)

✦ Table of Contents

Contents......Page 8
Preface......Page 10
Acknowledgments......Page 16
1. The Background to Gettysburg......Page 20
2. Opening Moves of the Campaign......Page 34
3. Stuart, Lee, and the Role of the Cavalry......Page 53
4. Lee’s Orders before Gettysburg......Page 68
5. The Great Debate over the Orders......Page 83
6. Options for the Ride North......Page 99
7. Stuart’s Conduct of the Ride North......Page 117
8. The Battle as It Unfolded......Page 135
9. The Consequences of Stuart’s Raid......Page 160
10. Stuart and the Defeat at Gettysburg......Page 170
Notes......Page 186
Bibliography......Page 204
Index......Page 212