Mike Brumbach

I was looking for the words I wanted but you summed it up perfectly.

Regards,
Dennis

1. Union artillery slaughtered the Confederate batteries om the crest near Rummel’s barn.

2. Same as above- substitute Brenner’s Hill.

Stuart had to have known his men would be slaughtered in the type of attack Carhart insisted was planned and executed.

3. Stuart’s own AG- a man he trusted to the highest degree, Henry McClellan himself said that everything was delayed on the 3 rd because of the lack of ammo- he went into DETAIL on how Stuart had to leave behind thousands of men for lack of ammo, yet never once hints that it would cripple a pending attack- be fatal to Stuart’s plan to work with the attack on the Federal Center, or even describe men that acted like they were about to follow Carhart’s plan.

4. Look at Lee- look at how detailed the man is when writing reports- YET he never once mentions what Carhart feeds people- the same is true for Stuart. Unless I am wrong- when Stuart set out for East Cav Field the battle plan for the day did not include the huge desperation attack on the Union Center!

What did Stuart say??????????

” Had the enemy’s main body been dislodged, as was confidently hoped and expected, I was in precisely the right position to discover it and improve the opportunity. I watched keenly and anxiously the indications in his rear for that purpose ”

WELL- DUH- THAT IS WHAT CAV IS SUPPOSED TO DO! Stuart could have been successful in his attack at the East Cavalry Field and still not been near the rear of AOP, That rear went all the way back along the Baltimore Pike to Westminster. As I see the battle- with my humble education and knowledge- it would have been IMPOSSIBLE for Stuart to drive up the Baltimore Pike- hence Carhart is clueless.

” At about noon Stuart, with Jenkins’ and Chambliss’ brigades, moved out on the York turnpike, to take position on the left of the Confederate line of battle. Hampton and Fitz Lee were directed to follow. Breathed and McGregor had not been able to obtain ammunition, and were left behind, with orders to follow as soon as their chests were filled.”

-McClellan

So Eric- THAT is the great Carhill plam????

As to the other commentators sources, of course you’ll find a plethora of post-battle stuff written by (especially) Union cavalry veterans that Stuart was operating in concert with Pickett’s Charge. It was much more glorious for Gregg’s and Custer’s veterans to claim that they had turned back part of the great “tide” of the attack of July 3. But unless any Union veteran was standing with Lee and Stuart when the former gave any supposed concert attack orders to the latter, you can completely discount anything any Federal every said or wrote as obvious dramatic, romantic embellishment about Stuart’s true intentions.

There is not a single, solitary contemporary shred of any evidence from any Confederate that said that at the time Stuart was operating under ANY orders other than protecting that flank. As you documented, Stuart watched the fighting along Brinkerhoff’s Ridge on July 2, saw Gregg’s troopers there, and the next day decided to kick up some dust with him. No more, no less. He tried to draw out Gregg by firing the three cannon shots in his direction, then got an answer from one of Pennington’s guns. If Stuart intended to secretly get on the Union right flank and make some sort of surprise attack should Pickett’s Charge break through, announcing your presence by firing three artillery rounds is a damn stupid way to keep it all secret, ain’t it?

Some folks seem to make a cottage industry about the “Stuart to the Rear” nonsense, but hopefully our writings and those others who have studied this episode in great detail will go some distance in putting the silliness to rest.

J.D. Petruzzi