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J.E.B. Stuart Papers
1848 ~ 1860
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"It seems to me I have the afflictions of Job":
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Letter to Mr. and Mrs. Stuart, 1848~1850
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This
letter, dated merely "Wednesday night," was written when Stuart was
attending Emory and Henry College between 1848 and 1850 (ages 15 through 17). In it,
the teenage Stuart pours out his troubles to his parents.
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"Letting you know how I am progressing in soldier life":
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Letter to Mr. and Mrs. Stuart, June 8, 1850
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A
four-page letter with the second and third pages missing. Written
from West Point, this missive -- at least the two pages I have --
contains no fewer than nine references
to or requests for letters from home. Someone seems to have
noticed that New York is really a very long way from Virginia.
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"How altered our air, with these dress caps we wear":
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A Song of 2d Class, 1853 & 54
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This
song, a parody of "Widow Machree," was composed when Stuart was a cadet
at West Point. ("2d class" refers to Stuart's class of 1854, who were
"second classmen" (juniors) in 1853.) The object of the lampooning,
referred to as "Major R.G.," is Robert S. Garnett,
who was commandant of cadets at that time. This poem was part of the
recently rediscovered Mary Custis Lee papers, so evidently Stuart gave
it to her. It is not signed, but is in Stuart's handwriting.
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"Give Beau a piece of choice bread":
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Letter to Lizzie Peirce, June 6, 1856
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Elizabeth Peirce was the daughter of Stuart’s
older sister Anne Dabney Stuart Peirce. She and her husband James had three children,
Mary Bell, Elizabeth Pannill, and David Stuart Peirce. In 1856, Lizzie was about fifteen. The letter in the possession of the Virginia
Historical Society is not handwritten; someone typed it on a typewriter some
years after Stuart wrote it.
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Stuart asks his young niece to remember him to family, friends, acquaintances, the servants, and the dog. At
one point, Stuart refers to having had a daguerreotype taken of
"Bettie," to send to "Aunt Sukey." When the Stuarts honeymooned in
Virginia in the winter of 1855-56, they brought a slave back to Kansas
with them. It seems likely that Bettie was her name, and Aunt Sukey
was probably her mother.
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I find myself amused by the paragraph inviting the three kids for a visit, which includes this startling bit of news: "I am afraid we will have hot work yet here
in Kansas, murders are committed on both sides every day, and a soldier was
shot from his horse while riding along the other day. Every one goes armed." Small wonder that the visit does not seem to have taken place!
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"For the sake of justice to me":
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Letter to Gen. Samuel Cooper, Adjutant General, U.S. Army, June 1, 1857
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From
the National Archives comes this absolute gem, a furious nine-page
letter written to the Adjutant General of the U.S. Army in the wake of
what I like to call "OrdnanceGate."
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Stuart
has had a falling out
with the 1st Cavalry's commanding officer, Col. Edwin V. Sumner,
regarding who was responsible for some ordnance on the upcoming
expedition
against the Cheyennes. Sumner asked Stuart to sign receipts for
ordnance which had already been loaded into
wagons and left the fort. Stuart does so, but objects to being
made accountable for items which he didn't tally before they were
loaded and gone. He also told Sumner, probably without mincing
words, that Sumner ought to have been responsible for the ordnance
himself
instead of pushing it off onto Stuart. The result is that Sumner
has relieved
Stuart of his position as regimental quartermaster. Stuart
believes he has been unfairly treated, and makes his case well.
I've also included Sumner's comments on the affair,
which were added when Stuart sent the letter through Sumner's
headquarters on its way to the War Department.
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In
his letter, Stuart mentions wagonmaster Percival G. Lowe, whose
memoirs, Five Years a Dragoon, are a wonderful read. Lowe thought
highly of Stuart and mentions him in the book.
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It's
worth noting that Stuart does not seem particularly sorry to have a
line command instead of being a staff officer; what he objects to are
Sumner's reasons for relieving him, which he sees as unjust, untrue,
and a deliberate attempt to harm his reputation.
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It's
also worth noting that Stuart was reinstated as regimental
quartermaster later in the year. Stuart asked for an
investigation by the War Department, and apparently there was one.
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"And all this is due to that stupid numbskull Foote, who is no more fit for a separate command than a child six months old":
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Letter to Flora after the Battle of Solomon's Fork, July 30~August 18, 1857
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One
of the most surprising things I discovered upon seeing photocopies of
the original manuscripts from the VHS was the fact that this famous
letter had been... well, if censored is too strong a word, at least heavily edited in
its published versions (Henry McClellan and Adele Mitchell, I'm looking
at you both!). As usual when this sort of thing happens,
the parts that were left out are some of the choicest ones. An
entire section of Stuart's fanciful musings as he looks for
cloud-shapes while recovering from his wound was omitted, as well as a
number of rather unsparing criticisms of his fellow soldiers.
Reading the complete, original version makes the published
version seem rather dry.
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Here you will find the letter in its entirety, word for word, as Stuart wrote it. The parts that do not appear in the published versions of the letter are highlighted in green. The published version also has numerous small, stylistic changes ("a
private's horse" instead of "the horse of a private," "fresh trail"
instead of "right fresh track," "a few moments" instead of "about a
second," etc) and
corrections of punctuation and grammar. The original version you
see here has none of these changes. I have transcribed it
precisely as Stuart wrote it. This is his voice, these are his
words.
Addition: Thanks to a very kind poster on Civilwartalk.com, here is David Stanley's version of the battle, as written in his memoirs, An American General.
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"asst Instructor of Cav Tactics":
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Letter from Major Emory to Lt. Col. Hardee, September 14, 1858
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This is a letter of recommendation from Stuart's commanding officer, Major William H. Emory, to Lt. Col. William J. Hardee, commandant of cadets at West Point, recommending Stuart for a teaching position there.
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"Fowls, vegetables and game at reasonable prices":
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Letter to Lizzie Peirce, January 9, 1859
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Another
letter to Elizabeth Peirce. This one is also a typewritten copy
from the original handwritten document, and it is mistakenly dated July
9th, 1857. Given Stuart's comment that "We
have some very cold weather just now, but the winter generally has been
so mild that we have not yet had a chance to have our ice-house
filled," I believe this was actually dated "Jan'y 9th" and
misread by the typist. Similarly, the year of 1857 cannot be
correct because he mentions that his daughter Flora, who was born
November 14th, 1857, "walks all over the house." I suspect the true date is January 9th, 1859.
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"Bug," referred to in the second paragraph, would appear to be Lizzie's brother David.
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"I am longing to be once more among you in old Va":
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Letter to Alexander Stuart Brown, February 22, 1859
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Partial
letter found online. Addressed to "My Dear Cousin," this letter
is written to Alexander Stuart Brown, the son of James Ewell Brown
after whom Stuart is named. J.E. Brown's wife was the sister of
Stuart's father Archibald.
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Alexander
S. Brown has recently married. Stuart's "new cousin," as he puts
it, is named Ellen Spiller; she would eventually marry Stuart's widowed
brother William Alexander Stuart after A.S. Brown's death (Flora did
not approve of this remarriage, for some reason). So Ellen goes
from "Cousin El" to
"Sister El" in Stuart's letters to family members. (Oddly, Ellen
Spiller is also said to be the girl who broke the heart of Stuart's
childhood friend David F. Boyd, causing him to leave Virginia, move to
Baton Rouge, and take up a position at the Louisiana Seminary of
Learning and Military Academy, where he became close friends with its
superintendent, William T. Sherman.)
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In
this letter, Stuart apologizes for not having written to his cousin,
and remarks that he is very eager to get leave to visit Virginia in the
summer and fall; it has been approved by all his superiors except
Colonel Edwin V. Sumner. This is just one of several indications
that Stuart and Sumner did not get on well, stemming from a dispute the
two had in 1857; they got into a shouting match that wound
up with Sumner relieving Stuart from quartermaster duty (a position to
which he was later reinstated after appealing to the War Department).
Stuart also remarks that his daughter Flora is the
finest baby in all the world, and that he is sure his cousin will favor
her over all others, even "A.B. Stuart Esq.", whichever child that might be.
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There is a bill before Congress that will result in reducing army
salaries, and Stuart talks about resigning if it passes. He also
reports that he is very interested in what's going on in the world of politics, and
thinks he may have "missed his calling," although others "who ought to
know" tell him he's a very good soldier. This was the winter
during which Stuart read law and passed the bar in Kansas, according to
Flora. Coupled with his "longing" to return to Virginia, it seems
like he is thinking of changing careers.
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"While I love the union I love Virginia more":
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Speech to the Hermesian Society, 1859
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This
speech was given at some time during Stuart's six-month leave in the
summer and fall of 1859, to the Hermesian Debating Society at Emory and
Henry College, Wytheville, Virginia. Unlike the other papers,
this speech has some annotations by Flora. I have included the
annotations in red.
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"Profaned by the bacchanalian festival and riot":
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Temperance Speech, Christmas 1860
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One
of two speeches Stuart gave in 1860-61, this one is addressed to a
crowd of soldiers at Fort Wise, Colorado, who were members of the Sons
of Temperance. (There is at least one page missing from this
speech and lost to history, so it ends in the middle of a sentence.)
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