by Warren C. Robinson

Why does one write a book? Each author and each book probably has its own separate answer. But, in the case of Jeb Stuart and the Confederate Defeat at Gettysburg I can honestly say I starting writing what ultimately became the book out of curiosity. I have been reading about the Civil War since I was given a book on it when I was about ten years old and the fascination has never faded. And one reason for this was that the authors and sources themselves disagreed on some important points and the innocent non-specialist was left puzzled. So, you had to become a "specialist"—that is, read everything you could find and go as far back as possible in the original source material—to decide what you thought about a given issue.

Gettysburg has always been of particular interest because I lived in Pennsylvania for many years, while I was teaching economics at Penn State, and visited the battlefield many times. JEB Stuart comes into view because my father’s family was from Virginia and JEB Stuart was his special hero.

Thus, Gettysburg and JEB Stuart came together in my reading and musing about the war and that battle in particular. I started reading the old sources again and some new ones and then, like the academic that I was (am), making notes to myself as I went along. Pretty soon I had a paper, some thirty pages long,         

and friends and colleagues were kind enough to read this and offer
comments and encouragement. Some questions seemed settled but more kept
popping up. Disconcerting was the fact that some of the standard
treatments and interpretations now struck me as "wrong" or at least not
quite "right." So, it got longer and longer and I was not sure where it
was going. Pretty soon I said to myself: "Either stop wasting time on
this or admit it is a book and get on with it." Obviously I chose the
latter course and enjoyed the months that followed enormously.

A word or two about the book.  I guess I am critical of some of the earlier literature but I did not set out deliberately to "debunk" any previous works on this topic or to attack any previous writers. I simply could not avoid reaching the judgement that some presumably good scholars had gotten "too close" to their material and become emotionally involved particularly with the dashing figure of JEB Stuart. Once the totally false "Lee vs. Stuart" lines had been drawn some authors could relate to nothing else and missed many important clues of the Gettysburg Stuart episode. These include the missing message from Stuart to Lee, Stuart’s actual conduct of the raid—his choices along the way—Mosby’s actions when he missed Stuart, and finally Stuart’s conduct of the cavalry battle on July 3.

I also found surprising that many important related issues had been all but ignored by many earlier writers:  Hooker’s offensive plan, the actual geography of the areas involved (what "east" or "west" of the "mountains" must have meant in 1863), the conduct of the Union pursuit, and the over-whelming consensus by other participants in the battle about Stuart’s role.

Enough of this. I hope I have clarified for future readers this important episode in the   great American saga which was the Civil War. There were no villains, only heroes. If perhaps slightly tarnished ones.  At least I have clarified my own thinking on Gettysburg and Stuart.
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Warren C. Robinson, author of Jeb Stuart and the Confederate Defeat at Gettysburg, is a professor emeritus at Pennsylvania State University.  He has writing many articles in the field of military history and policy and he is the author and editor of numerous economic works.