11 May 1864 A.D. JEB Stuart Mortally Wounded 6 Miles North of Richmond, VA
11 May 1864 A.D. JEB Stuart Mortally Wounded 6 Miles North of
Richmond, VA
Editors. “1864 – A dismounted Union trooper fatally wounds J.E.B. Stuart, one of the most
colorful generals of the South, at the Battle of Yellow Tavern, just six miles
north of Richmond.” This Day in
U.S. Military History. N.d. https://thisdayinusmilhist.wordpress.com/2014/05/11/may-11/. Accessed 6 May 2015.
1864 – A dismounted Union trooper fatally wounds
J.E.B. Stuart, one of the most colorful generals of the South, at the Battle of
Yellow Tavern, just six miles north of Richmond. Stuart died the next day.
During the 1864 spring campaign in Virginia, General Ulysses S. Grant applied
constant pressure on Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia. In early May,
the two armies clashed in the Wilderness and again at Spotsylvania Court House
as they lurched southward toward Richmond. Meanwhile, Grant sent General Phil
Sheridan and his cavalry on a raid deep behind Confederate lines. The plan was
to cut Lee’s supply line and force him out of the trenches in retreat.
Sheridan’s troops wreaked havoc on the Rebel rear as they tore up railroad
tracks, destroyed supply depots, and held off the Confederate cavalry in
several engagements, including the Battle of Yellow Tavern. Although Sheridan’s
Federal troops held the field at the end of the day, his forces were stretched
thin. Richmond could be taken, Sheridan wrote later, but it could not be held.
He began to withdraw back to the north. The death of Stuart was a serious blow
to Lee. He was a great cavalry leader, and his leadership was part of the
reason the Confederates had a superior cavalry force in Virginia during most of
the war. Yet Stuart was not without his faults: He had been surprised by a
Union attack at the Battle of Brandy Station in 1863, and failed to provide Lee
with crucial information at Gettysburg. Stuart’s death, like Stonewall
Jackson’s the year before, seriously affected Lee’s operations.
Warfare is a fascinating subject. Despite the dubious morality of using violence to achieve personal or political aims. It remains that conflict has been used to do just that throughout recorded history.
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