Lost Battlefield: The Battlefield of Yellow Tavern, Virginia

On May 11, 1864, General J.E.B. Stuart was mortally wounded at the Battle of Yellow Tavern. A short excerpt from the article:

"Then, tragedy struck. Maj. Henry McClellan, one of Stuart’s staff officers remembered, “As they retired, one man who had been dismounted in the charge, and was running out on foot turned as he passed the general and discharging his pistol, inflicted the fatal wound.” The bullet entered Stuart near his stomach and exited his back. The Confederacy’s ultimate cavalier reeled in the saddle as men rushed to assist him. Before he was placed in an ambulance, Stuart turned command over to Fitzhugh Lee. As he departed the field, Stuart desperately shouted to his men who were abandoning the line, “Go back! go back! and do your duty, as I have done mine and our country will be safe. Go back! go back! I had rather die than be whipped.”

Custer watched the repulse of his attack and sent the 7th Michigan and 1st Vermont forward. This assault, along with the unrelenting pressure across their front, forced Lee and Wickham to retreat. Sheridan’s hoped-for engagement had ended in a Union victory.

As the Confederates retreated from the battlefield, Stuart’s ambulance made its way to Richmond. Around 11:00 p.m., it arrived at 206 West Grace Street, a house owned by Stuart’s brother-in-law, Dr. Charles Brewer. In severe pain, Stuart was taken to the second floor, where his condition continued to rapidly deteriorate throughout the following day. That evening, a party gathered in Stuart’s room and, at the general’s request, joined in singing his favored hymn, “Rock of Ages.” At 7:38 p.m. on May 12, 1864, James Ewell Brown Stuart passed away. His inconsolable wife, Flora, wore a widow’s black of mourning until her own death in 1923."