Lt. Gen. Jubal Early
Posted: Fri Apr 13, 2007 8:52 am
Lt. Gen. Jubal Anderson Early (b.1816, d. 1894). The Virginian after opposing secession before the war became one of the first advocating the Lost Cause Myth. He had graduated from West Point in 1837 and served against the Seminoles in Florida. He resigned from the army in 1838 to become a lawyer in his home state. As a volunteer in the Mexican-American War Early saw his first fighting. As a member of the Whig party he opposed secession. But when Pres. Abraham Lincoln called for volunteers in the Fort Sumter crisis, Early voted in favour of secession. He became a brigadier general of the militia and a colonel of the newly formed Confederate army. In the days before the battle of First Manassas Early and his brigade supported Gen. James Longstreet in fighting back the Federals in a skirmish at Blackburn’s Ford. In the actual battle (July 21, 1861), Early helped to stabilize the Confederate left and beat back the Union attack. This earned him promotion to Brig. Gen. shortly after the battle. On the Peninsula the general was wounded in the Battle of Williamsburg (May 1862) while leading a charge. He recovered in time to tack part in the last battle of the Seven Days: Malvern Hill (July 1, 1862). However, Early and his men got lost and saw no fighting that day. “Old Jube” performed better at Cedar Mountain as part of Gen. Richard Ewell’s division and at Second Manassas (August 29-30, 1862). When Gen. Alexander Lawton, who had replaced the wounded Ewell, was himself wounded at Antietam (September 17, 1862), Early rose to division command. At Fredericksburg (December 13, 1862) Early’s men arrived just in time to thwart the only Federal chance of success in that battle by closing the wide gap in Gen. Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson’s lines. This earned Early the promotion to Maj. Gen. (January 1863). His division stayed in the trenches at Fredericksburg when the Army of Northern Virginia marched to Chancellorsville. At first he could hold back Gen. George Sedgwick’s opposing corps. But then he fell back though by mistake away from the battle. He joined his comrades in time for the last attacks on May 4, 1863 that did not accomplish much. During the invasion of Pennsylvania Early became known in the North for his ruthless behaviour towards raided towns. At the Battle of Gettysburg his division captured thousands of prisoners on the first day but was not able to support any attack on Culp’s or Cemetery Hill. Early persuaded Ewell, his new corps commander, to not shift the troops from the Confederate left to the right, thus making them almost useless for the rest of the battle. When Ewell got sick during the campaign in 1864, Gen. Robert E. Lee made Early commander of the second corps and recommended his promotion to Lt. Gen. (effective May, 1864). To relief the pressure on Petersburg, Lee sent Early and his corps to the Shenandoah Valley. From there Lee’s “Bad Old Man” started a raid north till the fortifications of Washington, D.C., which he shelled, during Pres. Abraham Lincoln presence. Too weak to really threaten the city, Early fall back to the Valley and was defeated several times by Gen. Philip Sheridan, soundly at Cedar Creek (October 19, 1864). The campaign prolonged the war but did not achieve its goal as the siege at Petersburg continued. Lee relieved Early from command and the Virginian went into exile to avoid capture and trial for the burning of Chambersburg, Pennsylvania in 1864. Early was pardoned by Pres. Andrew Johnson in 1868 and returned to Virginia to practise law again. He founded the Lee Memorial Association and was responsible for the Lee Cult together with William N. Pendleton and J. William Jones. With his friends he started a campaign to make Longstreet, by then a Republican, the scapegoat for the lost battle of Gettysburg and the Cause as a whole. Thus Early influenced the Confederate picture in history for decades after his own death.
In the vote he got 5-6-6-5-0. I would reduce tactics to 5 and command to 4. One could even reduce initiative to 5 as Early was aggressive but sometimes did not move as at Gettysburg.
Teaches: Chargers and Wild and if you need a third Independent or Foragers
Gil, I will be on vacation for the next ten days and rarely online. Grant will follow then...
In the vote he got 5-6-6-5-0. I would reduce tactics to 5 and command to 4. One could even reduce initiative to 5 as Early was aggressive but sometimes did not move as at Gettysburg.
Teaches: Chargers and Wild and if you need a third Independent or Foragers
Gil, I will be on vacation for the next ten days and rarely online. Grant will follow then...