The FReeper Foxhole Profiles James Ewell Brown (JEB) Stuart - Apr. 5th, 2003

http://www.civilwarhome.com/cmhstuartbio.htm ^

[SAMWolf]

Dear Lord,

There's a young man far from home,
called to serve his nation in time of war;
sent to defend our freedom
on some distant foreign shore.

We pray You keep him safe,
we pray You keep him strong,
we pray You send him safely home ...
for he's been away so long.

There's a young woman far from home,
serving her nation with pride.
Her step is strong, her step is sure,
there is courage in every stride.
We pray You keep her safe,
we pray You keep her strong,
we pray You send her safely home ...
for she's been away too long.

Bless those who await their safe return.
Bless those who mourn the lost.
Bless those who serve this country well,
no matter what the cost.

Author Unknown

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FReepers from the USO Canteen, The Foxhole, and The Poetry Branch
join in prayer for all those serving their country at this time.

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James Ewell Brown (JEB) Stuart
(1833-1864)

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Major-General James Ewell Brown Stuart, chief of cavalry of the army of Northern Virginia, was born in Patrick county, Va., February 6, 1833. His ancestry in America began with Archibald Stuart, who sought refuge from religious persecution in western Pennsylvania in 1726, and subsequently removed with his family to Augusta county, Va., about 1738. The next generation was distinguished by the services of Maj. Alexander Stuart, who fell dangerously wounded while commanding his regiment at Guilford Court House. John Alexander, son of the latter, spent part of his life in the West, serving as Federal judge in Illinois and Missouri, and as speaker of the house in the latter State. His son, Archibald Stuart, lawyer, soldier of 1812, representative in Virginia legislatures and conventions, married a descendant of the distinguished Letcher family, and their son became the brilliant Virginia cavalry leader.

General Stuart pursued his youthful studies at Emory and Henry college, and then entering the National military academy, was graduated in 1854, and was commissioned second lieutenant in October of that year. He served in Texas against the Apaches with the mounted riflemen until transferred to the new First cavalry in May, 1855, with which he served at Fort Leavenworth. November 14, 1855, he was married at Fort Riley to the daughter of Col. Philip St. George Cooke, and in the following month he was promoted first lieutenant. He remained on the frontier and in Kansas, and was wounded at the Indian battle of Solomon's River in 1857. At Washington, in 1859, he carried secret instructions to Col. R. E. Lee, and accompanied that officer as aide, against the outbreak at Harper's Perry, where he read the summons to surrender to the leader, theretofore known as "Smith," but whom he recognized at once as "Ossawatomie" Brown of Kansas. Lieutenant Stuart received a commission as captain from Washington in April, 1861, but he had decided to go with Virginia, and tendered her his services as soon as his resignation was accepted, May 7th.

JEB Stuart bids farewell to his wife, Flora, in Dundee Plantation house, near Hanover Courthouse, Virginia.

He was commissioned lieutenant-colonel of Virginia infantry, May 10, 1861, with orders to report to Jackson at Harper's Ferry.

His later appointments included:

Captain of Cavalry, CSA (May 24, 186 1);
Colonel, 1st Virginia Cavalry (July 16, 1861);
Brigadier General, CSA (September 24, 1861);
and Major General, CSA July 25, 1862).

His commands in the Army of Northern Virginia included:

Cavalry Brigade (October 22, 1861 - July 28, 1862);
Cavalry Division July 28, 1862 - September 9, 1863);
temporarily Jackson's 2nd Corps (May 3-6, 1863);
and Cavalry Corps (September 9, 1863 - May 11, 1864).

With about 350 cavalrymen he at once assumed the duties which distinguished his service throughout the war. He became the eye of the army under Jackson and Johnston, so effectually that Johnston afterward wrote him from the West: "How can I eat, sleep or rest in peace without you upon the outpost." He screened Johnston's movement to Manassas, and in the fighting of July 21st made an effective charge, of which Early wrote: "Stuart did as much toward saving the battle of First Manassas as any subordinate who participated in it." He pursued the Federals twelve miles and subsequently held the heights in sight of Washington, with headquarters on Munson's hill. September 24, 1861, he was promoted brigadier-general in the Confederate army. He encountered the enemy before Munson's hill and at Dranesville, and being transferred to the Peninsula early in 1862, covered the retreat from Yorktown, opening the fighting at Williamsburg; and after the Federals had approached Richmond he won the admiring attention of both nations by his brilliant ride around McClellan's army.

On July 25, 1862, he was promoted major-general. There followed his raid to the rear of Pope's army, capturing a part of the staff of the Federal general and his headquarters at Catlett's station; the raid in conjunction with General Trimble, in which the Federal depot at Manassas Junction was destroyed. Subsequently he was in command before Washington, screening the movement into Maryland, his gallant troopers being engaged in frequent skirmishes and fighting most gallantly in the battles at the South Mountain passes. At Sharpsburg he covered the left flank, and with his famous horse artillery repulsed the advance of Sumner's corps. In October occurred his daring raid to Chambersburg, Pa., returning between McClellan's army and Washington, evading numerous Federal expeditions against him, and losing but one man wounded. His success demoralized the Federal cavalry, and did much to render halting and impotent the subsequent movements against Lee, in opposition to which his command was almost constantly engaged.



About midnight of May 2d, after Jackson and Hill had fallen, Stuart took command of the First corps of the army, at Chancellorsville, and on the 3d, with splendid personal courage and brilliant generalship, continued to drive the Federals by an audacious attack of 20,000 against 80,000, until he had gained Chancellor's house and a safe position. He remained in command of the corps until Hooker had retreated across the river.

After several brilliant encounters with the enemy's cavalry during the subsequent maneuvers, he set out again between the Federal army and Washington, with orders to meet Early at York, Pa. After eight days and nights of steady marching, and the last three in almost constant fighting, he reached Gettysburg with a large train of Federal supplies, and on the third day of the battle made a fierce attack upon the enemy's right. His cavalry saved the Confederate trains at Williamsport, on the retreat.

In the spring of I864 he conducted the advance of A. P. Hill's corps against Grant on May 5th, and giving Lee notice of the movement to Spottsylvania, hastened to throw his cavalry before the enemy's advance. Then being called southward by Sheridan's raid, he interposed his cavalry between the Federals and the Confederate capital at Yellow Tavern, where, on May 11th, he received a wound from which he died at Richmond on the following day. The death of Stuart produced a gloom in the South, second only to that which followed the loss of Jackson.

His characteristics were such as to make him a popular hero. Personally he was the embodiment of reckless courage, splendid manhood, and unconquerable gayety. He could wear, without exciting a suspicion of unfitness, all the warlike adornments of an old-time cavalier. His black plume, and hat caught up with a golden star, seemed the proper frame for a knightly face. A laugh was always at his lips, and a song behind it. He would lead a march with his banjo-player thrumming at his side. As he rode down the lines at Chancellorsville, the commander of an army, and the successor of Stonewall Jackson, whose fall had torn the hearts of his soldiers, he sang in a rollicking way: "Old Joe Hooker, come out of the Wilderness."



As a soldier he was a born leader. He demonstrated his ability to direct an army after the wounding of Jackson, and Jackson, who knew before the trial, sent word to him: "Tell General Stuart to act on his own judgment and do what he thinks best. I have implicit confidence in him." On other fields he had shown the brilliancy of a Napoleon in the management of artillery. Thus in all arms of the service he had won the highest honors. In emergency he was calm, quiet, and perfect master of all his resources. A boy in camp, and a lover of fun, he was a daring sabreur in the fight, and always fully awake to the demands of duty. He had the instinctive knowledge of the situation that belongs to the soldierly genius, and the constant readiness to act on the instant that wins battles against inertia and slothfulness. But he was never known fully while he lived. He was careless of how lightheartedness and gayety may be misjudged, and it was left to his friends after his death to tell that he indulged in none of the vices supposed to be habitual with soldiers, was never profane, and even abstained from card-playing. He was a faithful husband and father, and altogether one of the purest of men, as well as the bravest. One of these true friends, John Esten Cooke, in describing his last moments, has written: "As his life had been one of earnest devotion to the cause in which he believed, so his last hours were tranquil, his confidence in the mercy of heaven unfailing. When he was asked how he felt, he said, 'Easy, but willing to die, if God and my country think I have done my duty.' His last words were: 'I am going fast now; I am resigned. God's will be done.' As he uttered these words he expired.'

[SpookBrat]

LOL I was never a spook but I've always been a brat. You called it right.

[Soaring Feather]

Whoooo Hoooooo Sam moving tunes today!!!

Way out!!!

[aomagrat]

Today's classic ship, USS Vermont (BB-20)

Connecticut class battleship
Displacement. 16,000
Length. 456'4"
Beam. 76'10"
Draft. 24'6"
Speed. 18 k.
Complement. 880
Armament. 4 12", 8 8", 12 7", 20 3", 12 3-pdrs., 4 1-pdrs, 4 .30-cal. mg., 2 .30-cal. Colt mg.

The USS Vermont (Battleship No. 20) was laid down on 21 May 1904 at Quincy, Mass., by the Fore River Shipbuilding Co.; launched on 31 August 1905; sponsored by Miss Jennie Bell, the daughter of Governor Charles J. Bell of Vermont; and commissioned at the Boston Navy Yard on 4 March 1907, Capt. William P. Potter in command.

After her shakedown cruise off the eastern seaboard between Boston and Hampton Roads, Va., Vermont participated in maneuvers with the 1st Division of the Atlantic Fleet and, later, with the 1st and 2d Squadrons. Making a final trial trip between Hampton Roads and Provincetown, Mass., between 30 August and 5 September, Vermont arrived at the Boston Navy Yard on 7 September and underwent repairs until late in November 1907.

Departing Boston on 30 November, she coaled at Bradford, R.I.; received "mine outfits and stores" at Newport, R.I.; and picked up ammunition at Tompkinsville, Staten Island, N.Y.; and arrived at Hampton Roads on 8 December.

There, she made final preparations for the globe-girdling cruise of the United States Atlantic Fleet. Nicknamed the "Great White Fleet" because of the white and spar color of their paint schemes, the 16 pre-dreadnought battleships sailed from Hampton Roads on 16 December, standing out to sea under the gaze of President Theodore Roosevelt who had dispatched the ships, around the globe as a dramatic gesture toward Japan, a growing power on the world stage. Vermont sailed as a unit of the 1st Division, under the overall command of Rear Admiral Robley D. "Fighting Bob" Evans, who was concurrently the Commander in Chief of the Fleet. Over the ensuing months, the battleship visited ports in Chile, Peru, Mexico, California, Hawaii, New Zealand, Australia, the Philippines, Japan, China, and in the Mediterranean, before she returned to Hampton Roads again passing in review before President Roosevelt, on Washington's Birthday, 22 February 1909. During the voyage, Vermont's commanding officer, Capt. Potter, was advanced to flag rank and took command of the division; his place was taken by Capt. (later Admiral) Frank Friday Fletcher.

Modernized after this trip, Vermont received two "cage" masts and other new features. After completion of this work in June 1909, she spent most of the following eight years taking part in fleet operations along the U.S. east coast and in the Caribbean. In 1910-11 and again in 1913, the battleship crossed the Atlantic to visit European ports.

In 1914, tension in Mexico beckoned the battleship. Departing Hampton Roads on 15 April, Vermont reached Vera Cruz very early in the morning of 22 April in company with Arkansas (Battleship No. 33), New Hampshire (Battleship No. 26), South Carolina (Battleship No. 26), and New Jersey (Battleship No. 16). Her landing force-a "battalion" of 12 officers and 308 men-went ashore after daybreak that same day as United States forces occupied the port to block an arms shipment to the dictator Victoriano Huerta. In the fighting that ensued, two officers from the staff were awarded Medals of Honor: Lt. Julius C. Townsend, the battalion commander, and Surgeon Cary DeV. Langhornes, the regimental surgeon of the 2d Seaman Regiment. During the fighting, Vermont's force suffered one fatality, a private from her Marine detachment, killed on the 23d. But for a visit to Tampico, Mex., from 21 September to 10 October, Vermont remained in that Mexican port into later October.

Over the next two and one-half years, Vermont maintained her schedule of operations off the eastern seaboard of the United States, ranging from Newport to Guantanamo Bay, before she lay in reserve at Philadelphia from 1 October to 21 November 1916. Vermont subsequently supported the Marine Corps Expeditionary Force in Haiti from 29 November 1916 to 6 February 1917 and then conducted battle practices out of Guantanamo Bay. She ultimately returned to Norfolk on 29 March 1917.

On 4 April 1917, Vermont entered the Philadelphia Navy Yard for repairs. Two days later, the United States declared war on Germany. The battleship emerged from the yard on 26 August 1917 and sailed for Hampton roads for duty as an engineering training ship in the Chesapeake Bay region. She performed that vital function for almost the entire duration of hostilities, completing the assignment on 4 November 1918, a week before the armistice stilled the guns of World War I.

Her service as a training ship during the conflict had been broken once in the spring of 1918 when she received the body of the late Chilean ambassador to the United States on 28 May 1918; embarked the American Ambassador to Chile, the Honorable J. H. Shea, on 3 June and got underway from Norfolk later that day. The battleship transited the Panama Canal on the 10th; touched at Port Tongoi, Chile, on the 24th; and arrived at Valparaiso on the morning of 27 June.

There, the late ambassador's remains were accompanied ashore by Admiral William B. Caperton and Ambassador Shea. Departing that port on 2 July, Vermont visited Callao, Peru, on the 7th, before retransiting the Panama Canal and returning to her base in the York River.

Vermont entered the Philadelphia Navy Yard on 5 November and was there converted to a troop transport. She subsequently sailed from Norfolk on 9 January 1919 on the first of four round-trip voyages, returning "Doughboys" from "over there." During her time as a transport, the battleship carried some 5,000 troops back to the United States, completing her last voyage on 20 June 1919.

Prepared at the Philadelphia Navy Yard for inactivation, Vermont departed the east coast on 18 July, sailing from Hampton Roads on that day, bound for the west coast. After transiting the Panama Canal, the battleship visited San Diego, San Pedro, Monterey, and Long Beach, Calif.; Astoria, Ore .; and San Francisco, Calif., before reaching the Mare Island Navy Yard, Vallejo, Calif., on 18 September. There, the battleship was decommissioned on 30 June 1920. She was subsequently reclassified as BB-20 on 17 July of that same year.

Vermont remained inactive at Mare Island until her name was struck from the Navy list on 10 November 1923, She was then sold for scrapping on 30 November of the same year in accordance with the Washington Treaty limiting naval armaments.

[aomagrat]

Dixie Ping!

[Valin]

I run into this same thing time and again.
ALL I want is my way, if people would ONLY do want I want I'd be happy.

And after all isn't that what we all want?
So you have my sympathy and support(I feel your pain).
BTW have you tried holding your breath? It's not really worked for me but it might for you.

[Excuse_My_Bellicosity]

Home Found for “Enigmatic” WW II U-boat Relic

Story Number: NNS030404-07

Release Date: 4/5/2003 10:20:00 AM

By Miles Hadley, Naval Historical Center

WASHINGTON (NNS) -- With help from the Naval Historical Center (NHC), a World War II German Enigma decoding machine recovered two years ago from a sunken U–boat will find a new home in a North Carolina museum.

The Enigma machine was recovered by two private divers from the wreck of U-85, a German submarine sunk 15 miles off Bodie Island, N.C., in 1942.

However, the divers did not know the recovery of the machine was highly questionable.

Technically, the wreck and its artifacts are still the property of the German government. This is because, although sunk by the U.S. Navy, the sub had not surrendered beforehand.

The fact that the wreck still contains some remains of deceased crew members also makes it a war grave. Any removal of artifacts without proper authority is considered a violation of the sanctity of such status.

Both the U.S. and German governments take a hard line with regard to private salvage of their naval equipment regardless of how long it has been under the sea. Therefore, the retrieval of the Enigma machine by the private divers was illegal without proper authorization from the German government to do so.

The German government asked the U.S. government to intercede on its behalf in this matter. As the Navy’s authority for its underwater archeology program, the NHC stepped in to try to resolve the problem.

While keeping title to the machine, the German government will allow it to be on indefinite exhibit at the Atlantic Graveyard Museum, in Hatteras, N.C.

“The gift of the four-wheel Enigma machine and associated material from U-85 represented an innovative partnership between wreck divers, a non-profit museum, and the Federal Republic of Germany,” said Joseph K. Schwarzer II, museum executive director and chief executive officer. “We thank the German government and people for their generosity.”

The Enigma encoding machine was one of the most closely guarded German secrets of World War II. It enabled the crew to send and receive encrypted information and instructions to and from their headquarters back in Germany.

Unbeknownst to the Germans, however, the British government had broken the original Enigma code early in the war. The first machines had three encoding wheels, but in 1942, an improved four-wheeled model, like the one recovered from U-85, was introduced.

The new machine's code, nicknamed the "Shark" by British intelligence, was not broken until some months later. This problem was the subject of the 2001 motion picture "Enigma," starring Kate Winslet.

Schwarzer says that he intends to have the machine on display while it is being conserved. This will enable visitors to view the ongoing conservation process. The museum also hopes to employ a conservation student from East Carolina University to monitor the machines conservation as it progresses.

U-85 was a Type VIIB U-boat commissioned June 7, 1941, by the German Navy for action in the Atlantic. During its 10-month lifetime, it only participated in four patrols. Nevertheless, it covered more than 30,000 miles before it became the first U–boat sank off the U.S. East Coast April 10, 1942.

The 216 foot-long U–boat had unsuccessfully attacked the Norwegian freighter Christine Knudsen, when the destroyer USS Jesse Roper (DD 147) intercepted it.

Cruising on the surface, U-85 was spotted by Roper searchlights and then hit by a shell from one of the destroyer’s four-inch guns. The sub went down fast, and Roper dropped several depth charges for good measure.

None of the crew of 46 survived.

For related news, visit the Naval Historical Center Navy NewsStand page at www.news.navy.mil/local/navhist.

[SAMWolf]

Thanks for that link GailA.

[SAMWolf]

Tim's home this weekend. Woohoo!

So that means we won't be seeing much of you then?

[SAMWolf]

1961 Barbra Striesand appears on "The Jack Paar Show"

This was her first televised appearance where she called Republicans Nazis.

[SAMWolf]

HEY! I have that ship in my Monopoly game!

[SAMWolf]

Thanks, Excuse_My_Bellicosity. Interesting article.

[SpookBrat]

You mean holding my breath till I pass out and fall off the front porch? Tried it. Didn't work. Humph!

[SpookBrat]

No, I'm around. I'm working inside while Tim mows the yard. LOL He's doing "mans" work today. HA!

[Ciexyz]

Raising a glass in toast to that gallant fighter.

[manna]

Present!

[Godebert]

Brandy Station Review

[Colt .45]

A gallant Son of the South, a fine gentleman and warrior.

[GailA]

Ya'll are gonna LOVE this link. HUNDREDS of DOD photos of Operation Iraqi Freedom (I posted it as a thread so all could have a chance to go look.

Operation Iraqi Freedom Images

[GailA]

Fudge forgot to close the bold tag</b>

[SAMWolf]

Great find GailA! Thanks