To Stuart, shortly before his death - photo 1

To Stuart, shortly before his death

Lot 24
22.04.2021 10:00UTC -05:00
Classic
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$ 23 750
AuctioneerCHRISTIE'S
Event locationUSA, New York
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ID 517670
Lot 24 | To Stuart, shortly before his death
Estimate value
$ 10 000 – 15 000
To Stuart, shortly before his death
Robert E. Lee, 2 May 1864
LEE, Robert E. (1807-1870). Autograph letter signed ("R E Lee") as commander of the Army of Northern Virginia to J.E.B. Stuart, "Headquarters", 2 May 1864.

One page, 141 x 207mm (folds reinforced on verso).

Lee issues battle orders to J.E.B. Stuart during the Wilderness Campaign, soon before the famed commander's death. Three days before the Battle of The Wilderness, and nine days before Stuart fell at Spotsylvania, Lee issues these instructions to his cavalry subordinate: "The three Companies 3rd N. C. Cavy ordered on. The 5th N. C. Cavy will come on soon. Washington N. C. evacuated by enemy." Lee was anticipating Grant's move across the Rapidan, and resolved to bottle up his opponent's superior forces in the deadly thickets of The Wilderness. Here he notifies Stuart that help is on the way from the South – the Yankees having freed up the cavalry forces in Washington, North Carolina, on the Pamlico River. Stuart, in Fredericksburg, was moving up to converge with Longstreet and A. P. Hill's division. Grant did cross the Rapidan as Lee predicted, and the Rebels struck hard. In three days of savage fighting the Federals lost some 2,200 men (many burned alive in the raging forest) 12,000 wounded. Moving out of The Wilderness, Grant and Lee next clashed at Spotsylvania over the course of 7-20 May. Stuart was especially active in these engagements, and was mortally wounded at Yellow Tavern on 11 May. He died the next day.

Stuart's service with Lee went back to the John Brown raid at Harper's Ferry in 1859, when he volunteered to be Lee's aide-de-camp. He had already been seriously wounded fighting on the western frontier, and after 1861 fought almost recklessly in the Peninsular Campaign (where he embarrassed the Union commander with his "Ride Around McClellan"), Chancellorsville, and Gettysburg. Indeed, the only serious fault Lee found with Stuart was that his aggressiveness kept him out of communication for too long a time during that pivotal battle in Pennsylvania. When Lee heard the news from Yellow Tavern he said, "General Stuart has been mortally wounded." Then struggling with his emotions, added, "He never brought me a piece of false information" (Foote, 3:223). The Wilderness and Spotsylvania saw heavy casualties inflicted on general officers. Sedgwick and Wadsworth were killed on the Union side and Longstreet was seriously wounded. Some 20 out of 57 corps, division or brigade commanders were killed on the Confederate side; 10 out of 69 on the Union. But Stuart's loss especially, coming almost exactly one year after Stonewall Jackson's death at Chancellorsville, left a void among "Lee's Lieutenants" that was not ever to be filled
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