Originally aired on June 13, 1997 - In part 146 of our Civil War series, Virginia Tech history professor James Robertson relates the events of June 12, 1862. On this day, a reconnaissance mission began under the leadership of a young calvary chief, Jeb Stuart. The mission would take Stuart and 1200 horsemen around the largest fighting force ever assembled in the Western hemisphere. It made a hero of General Robert E. Lee, became the stuff of legend, and boosted the sagging morale of the Confederates.
#146 – Ride around McClellan
The large-scale mounted raid was a notable change in the use of cavalry during the Civil War. One of the first of those new tactics remains one of the most famous.
On June 1, 1862, an untested field general named Robert E. Lee took command of the South’s principal army, then in front of Richmond. That small, ill-equipped force had been driven into the capital’s fortifications by a mighty Federal host under the leadership of General George McClellan. More than 100,000 Federals were only nine miles east of Richmond. The Union left flank was anchored on the James River, while the right flank pointed northward like an extended hand reaching for Washington.
New to command but ever audacious, Lee planned to defend Richmond with an all-out counterattack. First, however, he had to determine exactly where the Union army’s right flank ended. Lee thereupon ordered his young cavalry chief, General “Jeb” Stuart, to make a reconnaissance in force.
Stuart was handsome, dashing, and flamboyant. He possessed all the instincts of a true cavalryman, good and bad. Stuart could pull great feats from his troopers, push them then extra miles, take them deeper into enemy territory, severely discomfort Federal communication and supply lines. On the other hand, he could not resist the opportunity for a bold stroke, or the chance to make a flourish instead of a subtlety.
Before dawn on Thursday, June 12, 1862, Stuart and some 1,200 horsemen quietly rode northward from Richmond. Southern cavalry quickly discovered what Lee wanted to know. Yet instead of returning promptly with the information, Stuart decided to pinpoint the Union army’s other flank.
This, of course, necessitated riding completely around McClellan’s vast Army of the Potomac. Undoubtedly, Stuart hoped to match wits as well as sabers with the Union horsemen of General Philip St. George Cooke, who happened to be Stuart’s father-in-law.
The escapade took three days and covered 100 miles. In the process, Stuart did more than avoid entrapment. He caused considerable destruction and returned to Richmond in triumph with 165 prisoners, 260 horses, and much valuable military news.
All of this was accomplished with the loss of one man. One the second afternoon of the raid, in a brief hand-to-hand fight with Federal pickets, Captain William Latane of the 9th Virginia Cavalry fell dead, pierced by five bullets. The 29-year-old officer had been an Essex County physician.
Stuart’s men buried the martyred hero in the front yard of a Hanover County mansion. A Southern artist, William Washington, quickly painted a sprawling canvas entitled The Burial of Latane. Hundreds of copies were made, and some still adorn Southern homes.
The so-called “Ride around McClellan” was one of those showy gestures that cavalrymen love. Richmond newspapers hailed the feat as “a magnificent maneuver”. The raid became legend; the general, an instant hero.
Militarily, it made no difference that Stuart had overstepped his orders, that the raid succeeded because the timid McClellan commanded the Union army, and that the exploit put the enemy on guard for a possible Confederate offensive. Besieged citizens of Richmond were not concerned with military criticism. What they reveled in seeing was a daring, be-plumed, 29-year-old horseman lead his lightly equipped cavalry completely around the largest fighting force ever assembled in the Western Hemisphere. By doing so, Stuart deflated the Federal aura of invincibility and made its best army – momentarily – a national laughingstock.
Stuart’s escapade came at a time when Southern morale was sagging. The ride brought new confidence in the Confederate cause. With one bold stroke, Jeb Stuart had changed the role of cavalry and established Confederate preeminence – at least until Union horsemen learned from their mistakes.