“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.

“Mr. Robinson has examined a considerable amount of data and presents well-argued and at times provocative conclusions about one of the Civil War’s most controversial events.”—Thomas J. Ryan, Washington Times

“Jeb Stuart effectively targets the undoing of a Confederate hero, Lee’s boldest cavalry general, who became too bold. Warren Robinson focuses his lens on the human and tactical preliminaries to the greatest battle ever fought in our hemisphere, and why—and how—Gettysburg was won, and lost.”—Stanley Weintraub, author of Iron Tears, America's Battle for Freedom, Britain's Quagmire, 1775-1783 and Silent Night, the Story of the 1914 Christmas Truce