[Emailed August 11, 1997]

IF YOU WANT TO HAVE A GOOD TIME, JOIN THE CAVALRY!

Time to introduce a new character into this ever-growing collection of Monday-morning stories. So far, we've had many tales ranging from all parts of the Confederacy; they include the humorous and the tragic, and the actors in the grand drama range from hero to fool. Today, our subject surely belongs with the former. Along with Stonewall Jackson and General Lee, this man comprises the third and final pillar in the triad of Virginia Confederate heroes.

Ladies and gentlemen, it is my pleasure to present to you James Ewell Brown Stuart, General of Horse Cavalry, Army of Northern Virginia. And a finer horseman there never did live.

For those of you who don't know him, Jeb Stuart was one of the most colorful commanders of the entire war, for either side. Jovial, brave, audacious, and sly, he rode rings around the Federal army and made the opposing mounted forces look like abject fools. Early in the war, he and his command rode entirely around the Yankee Army of the Potomac and played havoc with their supplies-and a few months later, did it again. His capability as a cavalry general was surpassed only by his courage; bold to the point of rashness, he loved to make daring horse raids deep behind enemy lines, capturing horses and mules, burning wagons, and feasting on Yankee provisions, all the while eluding Yankee pursuit so well that oftentimes they never even knew where he was.

Everything about his personal character suggested this; quick-witted and merry, he was fond of humor and especially fond of music (the story was, the standing criteria he had for membership on his military staff was that you had to be able to play an instrument); often he and his officers would sit up nights around the campfire making merry songs and planning ways to further bedevil the enemy. In addition, his personal appearance lent itself to this image of carefree cavalier; immaculate in dress, with a uniform laden with gold braid and buttons, he always wore a red-lined cape and an ostrich plume in his hat. And it is this hat with which we concern ourselves this morning. Listen to Henry Kyd Douglas tell the story...

"[During the 2nd Manassas campaign, August, 1862, Stuart swept,] like a flight of eagles, around the flank of [Union General] John Pope and came down with a rush upon his rear at Catlett's Station. This bold stroke was directred at the very center of the Federal Army on the night of the 22nd whie a heavy rain storm was at its height. Pope's headquarters wagon was captured and plundered with others of a large train. Stuart burned what wagons he could in the storm, and while the Federal army was looking at the flames of this destruction in their midst, he disappeared with his horsemen in the darkness and return to the Southern army with such plunder as he could carry off.

"Stuart came galloping up next morning to where [Stonewall] Jackson was sitting on a fence and to everybody's amusement unrolled from behind his saddle and displayed a beautiful blue uniform coat, inside of which was a tag with the name of its owner "John Pope, Major General." Our cavalryman was in one of his jolly humors. He dismounted, and repeating to us what we knew, that a week or two before he was surprised in a house he was visiting by some Federal cavalry, and in his hasty flight left his hat and plume to the enemy, he said he had a proposition to make to General Pope. Taking a piece of paper, he wrote a communication about as follows:

"'Headquarters, Cavalry, etc...

Major General John Pope Commanding, etc.

GENERAL: You have my hat and plume. I have your best coat. I have the honor to propose a cartel for a fair exchange of the prisoners.

Very respectfully, (Signed) J. E. B. Stuart Major Gen. C.S.A.'"