Stuart's Finest Hour: The Ride Around McClellan, June 1862

Many people are aware that Jeb Stuart was a famous cavalry general who rode for the Confederacy. Yet, how did this twenty-nine-year-old former U. S. Army lieutenant become the 1860’s version of a media sensation? What did he do to become a household name throughout the land? At the beginning of June 1862, George McClellan’s huge Union army stood poised to decimate the Confederate capital of Richmond. The city faced chaos as thousands of civilians fled. Confederate army commander Robert E. Lee wanted to launch his own attack but he needed to know what stood on McClellan’s right flank. John Fox’s new book, Stuart’s Finest Hour, uses numerous eyewitness accounts to place the reader in the dusty saddle of both the hunter and the hunted as Stuart’s men sliced deep behind Union lines to gather information for Lee. This first-ever-book written about the raid follows the Confederate horsemen on their 110-mile ride all the while chased by Union troopers commanded by Stuart’s father-in-law, Philip St. George Cooke.

John J. Fox grew up in Richmond, Virginia. He graduated from Washington & Lee University with a BA in U.S. History in 1981 and then served on active duty in the U.S. Army for seven years as an armor officer and aviator. His 2004 book, Red Clay to Richmond: Trail of the 35th Georgia Infantry Regiment, received the “2005 James I. Robertson Jr. Literary Prize for Confederate History” and a 2006 research award from the Georgia Secretary of State. His 2010 book, The Confederate Alamo: Bloodbath at Petersburg’s Fort Gregg on April 2, 1865, received a 2011 IPPY Award for non-fiction. His articles have appeared in numerous Civil War magazines and newspapers. His newest book, Stuart’s Finest Hour: The Ride Around McClellan, June 1862, will be released in September 2013. When he is not writing, Fox is a major airline pilot and he lives in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia.