Originally aired on November 22, 1996 - In part 117 of our Civil War series, Virginia Tech history professor James Robertson profiles Confederate General Turner Ashby, the so-called White Knight of the Shenandoah Valley. According to Dr. Robertson, his is a story “of gallantry and a passion for danger.”
#117 – General Turner Ashby
Sometimes a man’s reputation is based on what he might have become had he not died prematurely. Supposition tends always to be positive. These two axioms worked in tandem to heighten the reputation of Confederate General Turner Ashby, the widely heralded “White Knight of the Shenandoah Valley”.
Born in October, 1828, on a large farm in Fauquier County, Ashby at an early age was a natural horseman. In his mid-twenties he organized a cavalry company, the “Mountain Rangers”, to act as local vigilantes. Still, Ashby was a farmer with little military education when he entered Confederate service. In the war’s first weeks, he and his men did scouting missions and guarded fords on the Potomac River.
Ashby then became second-in-command of the 7th Virginia Cavalry Regiment. Confederate officials unknowingly continued to allow Ashby to raise additional companies. By March, 1862, his 7th Virginia Cavalry had ballooned to twenty-seven companies: almost three times the size of a normal regiment. So large a unit was impossible to handle. Further, Ashby’s ignorance of – or indifference to – both drill and discipline reduced even more the unit’s efficiency.
To correct the situation, General “Stonewall” Jackson stripped Ashby of his cavalry and ordered the horsemen divided under two infantry brigadiers. An indignant Ashby submitted his resignation and threatened to organize an independent command. Jackson was forced to back down because, as he said, “if I persisted in my attempt to increase the efficiency of the cavalry, it would produce the contrary effect as Colonel Ashby’s influence, (which) is very popular with his men, would be thrown against me.”
Ashby returned to his command. Yet Jackson fought his elevation to brigadier general. Jackson told Richmond that Ashby “had such bad discipline and attaches so little importance to drill, that I would regard it as a calamity to see him promoted”.
Confederate officials disagreed. On May 23, Ashby got his general’s stars to the open admiration of his men. He looked a general: five feet, ten inches tall, well-proportioned figure, graceful and compact, with black hair, dark eyes, and flowing black beard. No finer horseman existed in the Civil War. Ashby usually rode stallions’ jet black or milk white as if to call attention to himself in battle.
His incessant scouting and screening missions were vital factors throughout the 1862 campaign in the Shenandoah Valley. Many thought Ashby the embodiment of a knight of the Middle Ages. Yet he blundered badly on two occasions. The misinformation he gave Jackson on March 23 led to a tactical defeat in the battle of Kernstown. Two months later, Ashby failed to cut off the Union retreat at Winchester because his command became scattered and stopped to plunder captured wagons. A disappointed Jackson reported: “Had the cavalry played its part in the pursuit…but a small portion of (the enemy) army would have made its escape to the Potomac”.
Ashby performed well in the actions of the next ten days. Then, on June 6, his horsemen and Union cavalry met in battle a mile southeast of Harrisonburg. The fight soon became an infantry contest. When Ashby’s horse was killed, the brigadier on foot shouted for two infantry regiments to follow him in an attack. A moment later, he fell dead from a bullet.
He was initially buried in the cemetery at the University of Virginia. In 1866 his remains were transferred to Stonewall Cemetery in Winchester.
Turner Ashby’s story is one of gallantry and a passion for danger. His service in the field was valuable; but had he been as full of discipline as he was of inspiration, his successes would have been more fruitful and his reputation even higher. Boundless patriotism is commendable, but never at the expense of dedication to duty.
