Several years ago, I found myself in Arlington National Cemetery, walking toward the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. I veered off to the left of Roosevelt Drive just after I crossed McClellan Drive. In section 7, site 9002, I came across the grave of Captain James Ewell Brown Stuart, Jr., and his wife, Josephine “Joe” Phillips Stuart.
J. E. B. Stuart is buried on the land that once belonged to Robert Edward Lee and his wife, Mary. The 1,100-acre plantation was illegally taken from the Lee Family during the Civil War and turned into Arlington National Cemetery. After the War, the Lees sued and won 5-4 in the Supreme Court. Their son, Custis Lee, who was a classmate of J. E. B. Stuart at West Point, sold the property to the United States for $150,000 in 1883.
Phillip St. George Cooke Stuart was born on June 26, 1860, at Fort Riley in Geary County, Kansas, to his parents Flora Cooke and Lieutenant James Ewell Brown Stuart, while the latter was stationed with the First United States Cavalry in what was then Kansas Territory. Named for his maternal grandfather, Phillip St. George Cooke, the boy’s name changed during the early stages of the War Between the States when his Virginia-born grandfather did not join the Confederacy. He became J. E. B. Stuart, Jr. We are now up to J. E. B. Stuart VII, who was born in 2026.
We might prefer to remember him with something a contemporary of “Jeb” Stuart Jr. said once: “For it is better to dare mighty things than to take rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much because they live in the gray twilight that knows not victory nor defeat.” Surely, Theodore Roosevelt would have liked “Jeb” Stuart as he did his son.
After his father’s death on May 12, 1864, Flora Cooke Stuart moved her family to Saltville, Virginia, to live near her husband’s brother, William Alexander Stuart. When George Stoneman raided Saltville in December 1864, family tradition holds that Stoneman almost fought “Jeb” Stuart, but it was four-year-old J. E. B. Stuart, Jr., who nearly walked outside into the fray after hearing the shots and thinking they were firecrackers. At the last moment, his mother intercepted him from striking a blow for the Confederacy.
Growing up in the post-war South with the name J. E. B. Stuart was no doubt a blessing and a problem for a young man. His grandson, J. E. B. Stuart IV, described him as having “inherited high spirits and love of life from his father,” and he attended Norwood Academy, an Episcopal High School in Alexandria. After spending one year and seven months at the school in Lexington, the Virginia Military Institute dismissed J. E. B. Stuart’s son on April 3, 1880, for “excessive demerits” that included “laughing, fidgeting, whispering, talking, pillow fights.”
Stuart, Jr. worked as a surveyor for the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad on an extension from Richmond to Newport News. During this time, he met Josephine Phillips, “the Belle of Warwick County.” Her father, Colonel Joseph Phillips, served on General John Magruder’s staff and died at Vicksburg. Stuart and Phillips were married on July 21, 1886, at St. John’s Church in Hampton, Virginia.
The family moved to a wheat farm in Kansas, where a son named for his father and paternal grandfather was born in September 1887. Stuart, Jr., and family returned to Staunton the next year to work at the Staunton National Bank. Sadly, the first J. E. B. Stuart III died in July. A daughter, Mary Marrow Stuart, was born on May 28, 1889.
In 1890, the Stuarts moved to Lexington, where Stuart Jr. worked at the Rockbridge National Bank. On June 16, a daughter, Flora, was born. She later married George M. Garmony of New York in 1918. The family lived nearby at Buena Vista, Virginia, for the next two years. Another daughter, Josephine Phillips Stuart, was born on August 9, 1892. She later married Drewry M. Smith of Norfolk. The following year, the family moved to Richmond, where Stuart worked at Merchants National Bank.
Richmond was a “halcyon days” time for the family, who attended St. James Church, where his father’s funeral was held in 1864. In 1897, the family welcomed a new baby, the second James Ewell Brown Stuart III. When War with Spain erupted in 1898, Stuart Jr. offered his services to his country, writing from the Merchants National Bank in Richmond to General Scott Shipp, the Superintendent of the VMI, asking for a letter of reference. He applied to General Russell Alger, who was part of the force that killed Stuart’s father at Yellow Tavern, along with the false report of John Huff being the assassin. Reliving his father’s days as a quartermaster in the Kansas Territory in the 1850s, Stuart served in the Commissary Department under former Confederate General Joseph Wheeler in South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, and Cuba. He became ill and returned to the United States.
In 1904, Stuart served as Marshal of the Eastern District of Virginia while living in Portsmouth. President Theodore Roosevelt appointed Stuart to the position. An associate wrote that the President “wishes to show that he has no hostility to Southern men who participated in the Civil War…the fact that Mr. Stuart was a son of the famous cavalry leader appealed strongly to the president…the President admires the history of that intrepid leader and wishes to honor his memory.” Roosevelt received recommendations from Fitz Lee and John Mosby. Stuart, a Democrat, first went Republican with the 1896 Election casting his vote for McKinley. Roosevelt also appointed Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson’s grandson to the USMA at West Point, New York.
President Theodore Roosevelt appointed Stuart as Collector of Customs in Newport News, Virginia, in 1908. He later worked as an accountant with American Express and the Texas Company in New York City. He traveled the world in this work, especially visiting Africa. Stuart volunteered during World War I. He traveled to France as a civilian, using his logistics skills to move supplies. J. E. B. Stuart, Jr. retired in 1927.
Captain Stuart, who was the son of the famous Confederate cavalry General, “Jeb” Stuart, is survived by his widow, Josephine Phillips Stuart, who lives with their daughter, Mrs. G. M. Garmany of Port Washington, Long Island. He is also survived by three other daughters and a son, J. E. B. Stuart, III of Manhasset, Long Island.
Captain Stuart held the esteemed position of the very first Commander-in-Chief of the Sons of Confederate Veterans from 1896 to 1897. His leadership in the SCV laid the foundation for an organization dedicated to preserving the legacy and honor of Confederate soldiers and their families. His commitment to the cause and his service to the SCV were remembered with great respect and admiration.
He died on November 28, 1930, at the age of 70 in Istokpoga, Highlands County, Florida. Jo Phillips was born on February 3, 1862, in Hampton, Virginia. She died on October 4, 1932, at age 70 in Port Washington, Nassau County, New York, near her son, J. E. B. Stuart III.
