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[667] these bustling scenes Stuart acted with immense energy and enthusiasm, laying broad and deep his reputation as a cavalry officer. By incessant fighting, and an ardor and activity which seemed to pass all bounds, he had by this time won the full confidence of General Lee. His rank, in the estimation of General Jackson, was as high. This will be understood from what took place in May, 1863, at Chancellorsville. When Jackson was disabled, and Stuart assumed command, and sent to ascertain Jackson's views and wishes as to the attack on the next morning, the wounded commander replied: “Go back and tell General Stuart to act on his own judgment, and do what he thinks best. I have implicit confidence in him!” --an expression for which my authority was his brave Adjutant General, Colonel Pendleton, and which ought to be sufficient to make the reputation of any soldier. Stuart's attack with Jackson's Corps on the next morning fully justified this confidence. His employment of artillery in mass on the Federal left, went far to decide this critical action. At the battle of Fredericksburg, in the preceding December, the same masterly handling of his guns had protected Jackson's right toward the Massaponnax, which was the real key of the battle; and in these two great actions, as on the left at Sharpsburg, Stuart exhibited a genius for the management of artillery which would have delighted Napoleon. In the operations of 1863, culminating at Gettysburg, he was charged with misconception or disobedience of orders in separating himself from the main column, although he protested to me, with the utmost earnestness and feeling, that he had been guilty of neither. Then the hurried and adventurous scenes followed, when General Lee attempted, in October, 1863, to cut off General Meade at Manassas, when the cavalry was the only arm which effected anything, and General Kilpatrick was nearly crushed near Bucklands — the brief campaign of Mine Run-and the furious wrestle between Lee and Grant in the Wilderness, in May, 1864. When General Grant moved toward Spottsylvania Court-House, it was Stuart who, according to Northern historians, so obstructed the roads as to enable General Lee to interpose his army at this important point. Had this not been effected, Richmond, it would seem, must have fallen; Stuart thus having the melancholy glory of prolonging, for an additional year, the contest, ending only in April, 1865. His death speedily followed. General Sheridan turned against him his own system, organized on the Chickahominy, in June, 1862. The Federal horse pushed past Lee's army to surprise Richmond; Stuart followed in haste, with such small force of cavalry as he could collect on the instant. The collision took place

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