The Legacy of Jeb Stuart

The Legacy of Jeb Stuart. . , In the years following his death, Stuart came to be a leading symbol of the Southern culture of the Lost Cause and of Virginia's Cavalier idolization. The poet Stephen Vincent Benet depicted Stuart in his epic poem John Brown's Body (1928), "Reckless, merry, religious, theatrical, , Lover of gesture, lover of panache, , With all the actor's grace and the quick, light charm , That makes the women adore him.", Illustrated in Charles Hoffbauer's mural, "Autumn," from the Four Seasons of the Confederacy, is one of the best images of Stuart. In a series of large scale murals commissioned by the Confederate Memorial Association in 1914 for Richmond's Battle Abbey (now the home of the Virginia Historical Society), the paintings depict the seasons of the year as a metaphor for the Confederate army's declining fortunes during the war., Hoffbauer's painting of Stuart captures him on horseback in motion, at the height of his glory, the perpetually dashing Cavalier waving his plumed hat, unvanquished and leading his troopers through the Virginia woods. , In 1880, an obelisk was erected in Glen Allen, Virginia, on the field at Yellow Tavern where Stuart received his mortal wound. Virginia Governor Fitzhugh Lee, the commander who took Stuart's place after he was wounded, presided at the dedication of the memorial., The inscriptive plaque on the monument reads: , "This monument, erected in memory of Major General James Ewell Brown Stuart, C.S.A. by his cavalrymen about thirty feet from the spot where he fell mortaly wounded on May 11, 1864, was dedicated June 18, 1888, by the Governor of Virginia, Fitzhugh Lee, a former division commander in Stuart's cavalry.", In 1891, a group of former Confederate leaders and veterans began to raise money for a statue to immortalize the cavalry leader. Among the veterans were Henrico County resident John Cussons of "Forest Lodge;" himself a former Confederate cavalryman, and the artist William Ludwell Sheppard (descendant of William Shep- pard of "Meadow Farm"). The group would raise over $20,000 towards the statue., American sculptor Frederick Moyihan was commissioned to create the statue and it was completed in 1907. A system of steam engines and winches had to be constructed to lift the statue up onto its pedestal. Crowds numbering in the thousands thronged Monument Avenue for the ceremony on Memorial Day, May 30, 1907. Stuart's granddaughter, Virginia Pelham Waller, pulled the cord to unveil the statue of Virginia's own cavalier, Jeb Stuart.