Was Stuart at fault for Gettysburg fiasco?

PLENTY OF BLAME TO GO AROUND: JEB STUART'S CONTROVERSIAL RIDE TO GETTYSBURG, by Eric Wittenberg and J. David Petruzzi. Savas Beatie. 456 pages. Amazon list price: $32.95; Amazon current sale price: $21.75.

PERHAPS NO OTHER event recorded in the biography of America is as highly contested as the Civil War. Even today, military historians, enthusiasts and preservationists continue to disagree over the causes and effects of the conflict. This has inevitably left many of the united divided, for generation after generation. In some ways, you could say that the "war of public opinion" never ended, and it continues to rage on to this very day.

One of the more inexhaustible arguments stemming from the War Between the States involves Confederate Gen. J.E.B. Stuart and his untimely arrival at the Battle of Gettysburg in the summer of 1863. The quarrel, both then and now, revolves around the absence of his cavalry on the first day of fighting and the devastating results that followed.

In the days preceding the battle, Gen. Robert E. Lee and Stuart were not aware of each other's locations. The enemy blocked the horseman's direct route to the Confederate army, which was blindly advancing into Pennsylvania without the benefit of his service. For a 19th-century cavalryman, there was perhaps no greater sin.

For decades, military historians have speculated that Stuart's presence might have helped to prevent the fight in Adams County altogether. Some experts have proposed that the Confederate cavalry's invaluable reconnaissance, if done properly, would have enabled the Army of Northern Virginia to meet the Union army on ground of its own choosing. This might, or might not, have dramatically changed the outcome of the battle. Hindsight remains 20-20.

The dilemma over judging Stuart's performance provided the foundation for cavalry historians Eric Wittenberg and J.D. Petruzzi's latest offering, "Plenty of Blame to go Around: Jeb Stuart's Controversial Ride to Gettysburg." Noted individually for their expertise in the study and interpretation of both Union and Confederate cavalries, Wittenberg and Petruzzi have joined forces for one of the most detailed and comprehensive narratives ever written about Stuart's ride to Pennsylvania in June and July of 1863.

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