Many times, my neighbor Command Sergeant Major Zeb Stuart Scales told me that his name was supposed to be Jeb Stuart Scales, but the hospital got it wrong on his birth certificate, an act that caused his children to roll their eyes up in their heads and tell me that their father was pulling my leg. About thirty-five years ago, I was showing retired Colonel J. E. B. Stuart IV around Ararat when I spied Command Sergeant Major Zeb Stuart Scales standing in his yard. I pulled in, introduced Jeb Stuart to Zeb Stuart, and within moments, these two veterans of the Vietnam Conflict had time-traveled themselves into South Vietnam. Colonel Stuart served as a transportation officer, moving men and supplies, and Sergeant Major Scales served as a military police officer. They spoke of names and places that I could not pronounce, as only two men who shared the common experience of war can.
Zeb never spoke much to me about his military career, as most men who have seen war do not want to relive it. However, he was decorated with a Silver Star and a Purple Heart, which he received for saving an officer and being shot for his valor. When he retired with the highest rank of a non-commissioned soldier, that of command sergeant major, Zeb became a deputy sheriff in Patrick County, putting his life on the line for the people of this county. Later, Zeb drove the van for the Meals on Wheels program serving his community. Today, the bridge over the Dan River between Ararat and Claudville bears his name because he helped build it.
Jerry Wilson once told me that the only important things in life are the memories you leave your family after you are gone. That day, those two veterans allowed me a glimpse into their lives as soldiers for our country and left me a memory of the two of them that I cherish. I have known six J. E. B. Stuarts and another, who will be number seven, was born earlier this year, and I hope to meet them one day.
Colonel Stuart was a member of The Country Club of Virginia in Richmond and The Metropolitan Club in Washington, D.C. He enjoyed playing golf. The same day he met Zeb Scales, my father and I waited for the arrival of the man I affectionately referred to as the “Roman Numeral.” Living at my father’s home in Ararat, Virginia, was a large red chow dog named Jeb Stuart, who was a one person dog, and I was the one person. While watching ESPN that morning, my father and I heard our outstanding guard dog let out a loud bark. We both had the same thought at the same time. Jeb Stuart was eating Jeb Stuart IV. We bolted up and out the front door to find our ferocious guard dog on his back getting a stomach rub from our guest. Colonel Stuart looked up at me and said,” Tom, this is a beautiful animal. What is his name?” I told the Colonel his name. “Hello, Jeb,” came his response. My father quickly started talking golf to his guest.
J.E. B. Stuart IV was born on July 23, 1935, in Glen Cove, New York, the son of James E.B. Stuart III and Mary Hurt Stuart. Stuart had a sister, Olivia Stuart McFadden. Stuart IV last visited Laurel Hill in Ararat as a teenager. In high school, he played lacrosse, basketball, tennis, baseball, and football. He loved to share with his friends that Jim Brown was his friend and teammate in high school. J. E. B. Stuart IV received a bachelor’s degree in Aeronautical Engineering from the University of Virginia in 1958. Later, he received a master’s degree from North Carolina State University. He also obtained degrees from the Army Command General Staff College and the Army War College.
He married Mary Louise McNiel Stuart in 1958. Their children are Elizabeth Pelham Stuart Hoehne (Scott), Dr. James E.B. Stuart V (Kelly), and John Alexander Stuart (Dona); and his grandchildren, James E.B. Stuart VI (Danielle), Mary Pannill Stuart McIntyre (Andrew), Kathleen Columbia Stuart, Margaret Sheffield Stuart, and Alexander Wesley Stuart. J. E. B. Stuart IV’s sons followed the military tradition. John Alexander Stuart graduated from Virginia Military Institute with a degree in engineering. J. E. B. Stuart V retired as a Lieutenant Colonel in the U. S. Army and is now an orthopedic surgeon in Richmond.
After attending ROTC at “Mr. Jefferson’s University,” Stuart IV spent twenty-seven years in the United States Army, beginning as a 2nd Lieutenant in the Ordnance Corps. His military career included time in Iran during the 1970s, two tours in Vietnam, the Redstone Arsenal in Alabama, and the Panama Canal Zone, with stops at posts such as Fort Lee, Virginia, and the Military Transportation Engineering Office at Fort Eustis in Newport News. Stuart spent a year at Pratt and Whitney in Florida testing jet engines in the civilian sector before returning to the service. J. E. B. Stuart IV’s last post was at the Pentagon in the Planning and Operations Division.
His decorations included the Legion of Merit, the Bronze Star Medal with oak leaf cluster, the Defense Meritorious Service Medal, the Army Meritorious Service Medal with an oak leaf cluster, and the Army Commendation Medal. Foreign decorations include the Vietnamese Honor Medal 1st Class and the Vietnamese Air Medal.
Colonel Stuart came to Patrick County for the Bicentennial celebration of the county on that visit all those years ago. He brought some of his great-grandfather’s possessions, including a sword. The collection was placed on display at the Mount Airy News. The Summerlins, who owned the newspaper, were strong supporters of the efforts to preserve Stuart’s Birthplace, as the Mount Airy Museum of Regional History did not yet exist. The collection was also placed on display in the Patrick County Historical Museum, which leads to another humorous story from the visit. While placing the items on display, a local attorney found himself holding the sabre of the illustrious cavalryman. Then and now, boys will be boys, and the attorney began to imagine himself using the weapon in a sword fight. I know this because Colonel Stuart’s head began to bob up and down as his ancestor’s blade was going up and down behind me in an imaginary fight to the death. I can’t blame the attorney; I did the same thing, just not where the Colonel could see it.
J.E.B. Stuart IV was a Registered Senior Client Associate with Merrill Lynch in Richmond, Virginia. Before joining Merrill Lynch, he was associated with the Regional Brokerage Firm of Branch Cabell and its two successor firms, Tucker Anthony and RBC Dain Rauscher. From 1985 to 1991, he served as a Chief Industrial Engineer with Figgie International in Richmond, Virginia.
Jeb was a member of Saint James Episcopal Church, the same congregation that held the funeral for his great-grandfather in May 1864. He served as chairman of the board at the Museum of the Confederacy. He was a member of the Military Order of the Stars and Bars, Past President of the General Society of the Sons of the Revolution in Virginia, Order of Indian Wars of the United States, Sons of Confederate Veterans, the Jamestown Society, and the Society of the Cincinnati in the state of Georgia. J.E.B. was a member and Past-Commander of the Order of the Southern Cross. He also served several years as Chairman of the Board for the Museum of the Confederacy in Richmond, Virginia.
I first met Colonel Stuart when he worked for the American Historical Foundation on Monument Avenue. On the day of our first meeting, I explained to him what we were trying to do at Stuart’s Birthplace. He took me to lunch, and on the way back to his workplace, he asked me if I had ever seen the Stonewall Country play in Lexington, Virginia. The next thing I knew, J. E. B. Stuart IV pushed the cassette of the play in and was singing the song about his ancestor fully throated. “Here Comes Jeb. Here Comes The Show. Bob on the Bones. Sweeney on the old banjo. He’ll lighten up your spirit. He’ll lighten your load. Here Comes Jeb. Here comes the show.” That day, Colonel Stuart gave me a letter Burke Davis had written to him endorsing our efforts at Stuart’s Birthplace. Peter Hairston of Cooleemee had introduced me to Davis and Colonel Stuart. You stand on the shoulders of others who come before you.
Often on his morning ride to work, he drove down Monument Avenue past the statue of his great-grandfather, J. E. B. Stuart IV saluted J. E. B. Stuart’s statue. Sadly, Colonel Stuart and his great-grandfather’s statue are both gone. We lost Colonel Stuart on April 17, 2020. Their final resting places are side by side in Richmond’s Hollywood Cemetery, along with J. E. B. Stuart III. We remember his support for the preservation of the Laurel Hill Farm.
“J.E.B. STUART IV
Great-Grandson of Major General J.E.B. Stuart C.S.A.
August 14, 2008
It is with great pleasure that I communicate with you my knowledge of the administration of Laurel Hill, the birthplace and boyhood home of my great-grandfather, General Stuart, as conducted by the Board of Directors of the J.E.B. Stuart Birthplace Preservation Trust Inc. The task undertaken by this organization to transform what essentially had become a subsistence farm over the many years that have passed since my great-grandmother sold the property in 1859. into what is today an historic site, open to the public, was truly a monumental one. Over the past nearly two decades, the men and women of this organization have by their unceasing dedication wrought a minor miracle. With no public funding, the Trust has managed year by year to improve the physical appearance of Laurel Hill. With such milestones as the archaeological survey of the property by the College of William and Mary, the placement of the property on the Virginia Landmarks Register and the National Register of Historic Places, the construction of the Stuart Pavilion with its exquisite series of interpretive signs by the renowned Stuart author Robert J. Trout, to the more mundane paving of its interior roads, the Trust has consistently striven with but one goal in mind to transform Laurel Hill into a permanent memorial to a great American soldier. I welcome this opportunity to express my gratitude, on behalf of the Stuart family, to these men and women of the Trust who have given so much of their time and talents to this great quest. The integrity of this organization is of the highest caliber, its devotion to its mission is unquestioned, and as a result the day is not far off when Laurel Hill will take its rightful place as one of America’s finest landmarks.
Signed: Colonel J.E.B. Stuart IV (USA Ret.)”
