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Jeb Stuart Facts

Jeb Stuart Facts
Jeb Stuart was a native Virginian who served as a general in the Confederate Army during the American Civil War. Stuart was known for innovative uses of cavalry on the battlefield, as well as his sometimes flashy style of dress and brash personality. Jeb Stuart was born James Ewell Brown Stuart on February 6, 1833 to an aristocratic plantation family in Patrick County, Virginia. Stuart's family paid for excellent tutors to give him a primary education and in 1850 he was accepted into the prestigious United States Military Academy in West Point, New York. While stationed in Kansas Territory as a lieutenant in the United States Army, Stuart met his future wife, Flora Cooke, who was the daughter of Stuart's superior officer, General Philip St. George Cooke. Jeb and Flora married in 1855 in Kansas and would have a boy and a girl.
Interesting Jeb Stuart Facts:
Stuart became known as "Jeb" by his friends, family, and colleagues as an acronym of his name.
After graduating from West Point in 1854, Stuart was commissioned with the rank of brevet second lieutenant and assigned posts in Texas and Kansas.
Perhaps owing to his lack of a defined chin, his classmates at West Point nicknamed him "Beauty."
Stuart was involved in many cavalry offensives against the Cheyenne Indians on the southern plains during the 1850s.
He accompanied General Robert E. Lee to resolve the Harper's Ferry standoff in 1859 and recognized John Brown, who was going by an alias, from his time in Kansas.
Stuart resigned from the United States Army on May 3, 1861 and joined the Confederate Army on May 10.
After distinguishing himself in early battles as an effective cavalry commander, such as the First Battle of Bull Run, Stuart was promoted to the rank of brigadier general on September 24, 1861.
Although the Cooke family were generational Virginians, Philip St. George remained loyal to the Union, which caused a lifelong rift between him and Jeb.
The first two years of the war were quite successful for Stuart, which included his part in victories at the Battle of Fredericksburg (December 11-15, 1862), and the Battle of Chancellorsville (April 30-May6, 1863).
Stuart was known for wearing a hat with an ostrich plume and a red-lined gray cape and a bright yellow sash.
On June 9, 1863, Stuart led his forces in the largest cavalry engagement in American history at the Battle of Brandy Station. Although it was technically a Confederate victory, the myth that Stuart and the Confederate cavalry could not be matched was largely shattered in the eyes of the Union army.
Stuart was often one of the sources of blame among the southern press after the Confederate loss at Gettysburg, although by most accounts he acquitted himself well, protecting retreating Union troops.
Stuart died from a gunshot at the Battle of Yellow Tavern, about six miles north of Richmond, Virginia, on May 11, 1864: he died the next day.
Stuart's post-Civil War legacy has been somewhat mixed: although he has generally been viewed positively in pop culture in past decades, more recently his named has been taken down from a number of public institutions for his defense of the Confederacy and for having owned slaves.


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