War Years with Jeb Stuart

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War Years With Jeb Stuart War Years with Jeb Stuart By LIEUT. COLONEL . W. Blackford New York CHARLES SCRIBNERS SONS 1946 Illustrations William Willis Blackford 1831-1905 Frontispiece Facing Page James Ewell Brown Stuart 16 Major John Pelham 90 The Bower 154 A Street in Fredericksburg after the Battle of December 13, 1862 194 Major Heros von Borcke 220 Jeb Stuart 252 The Meadows 283 Introduction Every line of this narrative by Lieut. Col. William Willis Blackford has the feel of the cavalry Corps of the Army of Northern Virginia. Authenticity is stamped on each paragraph. The historical evidence is that of an eye-witness. First as Adjutant of Jeb Stuarts command and then as chief engineer and a member of the staff at cavalry headquarters, Blackford observed from his commanders side nearly all the operations of the mounted troops from June, 1861, to the end of January, 1864. He had Stuarts full confidence and he probably knew more of what prompted the moves of the Beau Sabreur than did any other staff officer who ever wrote of Stuart except H. B. McClellan and John Esten Cooke. In some respects, Blackford was a closer witness than either of these men. McClellan, an invaluable historical authority, did not join the staff until April, 1863. Cooke was a professional writer whose sketches of Stuart in Wearing of the Gray are the accepted, full-length literary portrait, but Cookes duties as inspector frequently kept him away from headquarters when events of interest were occurring. Besides, Colonel Blackford loved the life of a soldier. Cooke did not, and in his diary said so with complete and characteristic honesty. If, then, a reader wishes a sympathetic and intelligent close-up of Stuart and the interesting young men around him, here it is in Blackfords memoirs. Regret will be felt, of course, that Blackford was not with Stuart at Yellow Tavern, when Lees most renowned cavalryman fought his last battle. Compensation for this is offered by the transfer of Blackford to most important service as second in command of the First Virginia Engineer troops. His immediate superior became Col. T. M. R. Talcott, a former member of the personal staff of Gen. R. E. Lee, and a son of Andrew and Harriet Hackley Talcott, the beautiful Talcott of Lees early x INTRODUCTION days as an officer in the United States Army. Under the admir able leadership of Talcott and Blackford, the regiment deserved all that Colonel Blackford said of it His narrative, in fact, is the only one that describes by examples and day-by-day report what the Engineer Troops accomplished. Colonel Talcott wrote in the Photographic History of the Civil War a brief account of the countermining at Petersburg but the Colonel devoted most of his other articles to the defense of his great captain Lee and not to the glorification of his regiment or of his own service. Colonel Talcott long outlived his Lieutenant Colonel and did not come to the end of his days until 1920. In his old age he was a beautiful figure of gentility and modest scholarship. Of his relations with Colonel Talcott, the author of these memoirs writes appreciatively. That was characteristic of him and of his able family. Colonel Blackford was one of five brothers in the Confederate service. They inherited capacity and had from youth the environment that shaped firmly their character. Their father was William M. Blackford, one-time editor of the Lynchburg Virginian and later cashier of the Exchange Bank of that city, a man of solid strength and de pendable judgment. Mrs. Blackford was born Mary Berkeley Minor, daughter of Gen. John Minor of Fredericksburg, an officer of the Virginia Line in the War of 1812 and an eloquent, efficient lawyer. Nearly all the Minors of this line were excep tional in capacity and in diligence. The best known of them, a cousin of Mary Berkeley Minor Blackford, was John B...