I Rode With Jeb Stuart: The Life And Campaigns Of Major General J. E. B. Stuart

“Believe that you can whip the enemy, and you have won half the battle.” J. E. B. Stuart

J. E. B. was one of the great cavalry commanders of the American Civil War.

He was a master of reconnaissance and a brave leader who led his men from the front and on two occasions, during the Peninsula Campaign and Maryland Campaign, completely outmaneuvered the Army of the Potomac.

Yet, the audacious actions that Stuart took have not been without criticism, most notably during the Gettysburg Campaign when he has been accused of failing to provide enough support for Lee’s army and leaving Lee surprised and almost trapped at Gettysburg.

I Rode With Jeb Stuart provides brilliant insight into the military career of this remarkable soldier.

Written by H. B. McClellan, who served as adjutant-general to Stuart, this book allows the reader to follow the campaigns of Stuart through the course of the Civil War and understand why Stuart fought the way he did.

All of Stuart’s major campaigns and battles are covered within the text including, the Peninsular, Maryland, Gettysburg, and Overland Campaigns, along with the battles of Bull Run, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, and his final action at Yellow Tavern in which he was mortally wounded.

Yet, this book is more than just an overview of battles and cavalry actions. McClellan had access to many letters that Stuart wrote through his life and interviewed many of his relatives and so was able to provide a more personal biography of the general, both during his life before the Civil War as well as through the course of that ferocious conflict.

"This book, which is both biography and memoir, is the richest source on the Civil War career of the plumed knight of the Army of Northern Virginia, Major General James Ewell Brown Stuart. . . . It is by all odds the most reliable account of Stuart and his horsemen left by Stuart's intimates." — Burke Davis

H. B. McClellan was an officer and adjutant general in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War, a teacher and author. He was a professor at Sayre Female Institute in Lexington, Kentucky, for thirty-five years after the war. He passed away in 1904. This book, originally published under the title The Life and Campaigns of Major General J. E. B. Stuart, was first published in 1885.