By Tom Perry
James Ewell Brown “Jeb” Stuart has appeared in several Hollywood productions. Santa Fe Trail, the 1940 Warner Brothers Movie Release, was one of the first, starring Errol Flynn as J.E.B. Stuart, Olivia de Havilland as Kit Carson Holliday, a year after Gone With The Wind, Raymond Massey as John Brown, and Ronald Reagan as George Custer. Reagan and Stuart share the same birthday on February 6, seventy-eight years apart. Stuart appears in both Ron Maxwell’s films, Gettysburg and Gods and Generals, with Broadway actor Joseph Fuqua as Patrick County’s native son. Stuart recently appeared in HBO’s The Good Lord Bird, with Ethan Hawke as John Brown and Kurt Russell and Goldie Hawn’s son, Wyatt Russell, as Stuart.
The latter, beginning in 1858, brings us back to our chronicles of Stuart in the U. S. Army. A reader might wonder how I collected all this information about Stuart before the Civil War. Many years ago, Historian Robert K. Krick told me about the materials housed at the National Archives on the antebellum army. Every month, each post in the army sent a report to the Secretary of War about who came and went from the post and any notable events. Also, letters sent between officers and the administration in Washington are in the National Archives. Many of these materials have been digitized and are available on websites such as Fold3. Still, years ago, I had to go to the building on Pennsylvania Avenue between the Capitol and the White House. I became very familiar with the Washington Metro subway system.
In 1858, Stuart was stationed at Fort Riley in the Kansas Territory with his wife and baby daughter of the same name, Flora. He returned on January 5, 1858, from detached service guarding the mail on the Santa Fe Trail.
Over the next few months, Stuart was in command of Company G of the 1st United States Cavalry, as his commanding officer, George Bayard, was on sick leave. Stuart received a 15-day leave beginning on March 5 via Special Order #17. He did not get to leave until April 25.
On May 29, via Special Order #16, Stuart and his company were sent to Utah with John Sedgewick on an expedition with Company H to the Republican River, arriving on June 1, 1858. By June 30, the command was seven miles from Fort Laramie in what is today Wyoming.
On May 28, Major John Sedgewick appointed Stuart Assistant Adjutant General. In July 1858, the Post Returns report Companies G & H had left Fort Laramie. On July 1, 1858, the command marched to Sweetwater Valley and back to Scott’s Bluff.
On August 29, 1858, Stuart returned to Fort Riley after leaving Scott’s Bluff on August 1, which is in present day Nebraska. Over the course of his seven years out west in the U. S. Army, Stuart would have campaigned in present day states of Texas, Kansas, Nebraska, Wyoming, and Colorado.
September 1858 would see Stuart on a ten day leave. He was an ambitious young officer with a young family. In January, he had written to Colonel Rush Floyd, brother of Virginia Governor John Floyd, asking him to intercede with the Governor on Stuart’s behalf for a promotion to Captain. He also wrote to Oliver Otis Howard, a friend from his West Point days and future Union General, to enlist support for his promotion. Stuart asked Howard about his attempts to secure a position at the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York. Howard is the namesake of Howard University.
Here is a letter from William H. Emory to William J. Hardee dated September 14, 1858, about Stuart.
Dear Hardee,
Lt. Stuart is anxious to go to West Point as an Asst. Instructor of Cav Tactics, and I know of no one better qualified than Stuart in personal deportment or skill as a drill officer of horse. If an appointment presents itself to get him ordered to West Point, I think you will have every reason to congratulate yourself upon the acquisition of a zealous and able assistant.
Very Truly Yours
W. H. Emory
While at Fort Riley, Stuart studied and passed the bar exam. He invented a horse hitcher and a brass belt attachment for a saber/scabbard. He still wrote poetry.
In October 1858, 1st Lieutenant Stuart of Company G of the 1st United States Cavalry rejoined his command on October 3 at Fort Riley, where he would remain the rest of 1858. The clouds of war began to show on the horizon, and the year 1859 would be memorable in the life of Patrick County’s James Ewell Brown “Jeb” Stuart and in the history of the United States of America.
