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The Estrangement of Jeb Stuart’s Father-in-Law

Brigadier General Philip St. George Cooke, US Army, MOLLUS, U.S. Army Heritage & Education Center [USAHEC]

By the fall 1861, Jeb Stuart was frustrated that his father-in-law, Philip St. George Cooke, had remained in the U.S. Army instead of joining with his native Virginia and the Confederate army. Stuart’s one-year-old son had been named after Cooke, but in frustration both he and his wife, Flora, changed the boy’s name from Philip St. George Cooke Stuart to James Ewell Brown Stuart Jr. To reflect the war’s split on the family: Cooke’s son [James Rogers Cooke] sided with Virginia and so did two of Cooke’s daughters and husbands. Cooke’s other daughter and husband stayed with the Union. To ease his wife’s distress over the family’s Civil War estrangement, Jeb Stuart wrote the following to Flora.

Letter of Col. Jeb Stuart to My Darling Wife from Camp “Qui Vive”, November 24^th, 1861

“No my dear wife, for our own part and our children’s sake let us determine to act well our parts and bear with the mistakes and errors of others, however grievous, with the charity of silence but by no means attempt justification of what must be condemned. Read well and consider well those words my darling, and be consoled in what you rightly regard as very distressing, by the reflection that your husband and brothers will atone for the father’s conduct.”

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Hang George H. Thomas

Lieutenant Colonel Jeb Stuart wrote to his wife, Flora, in June 1861 that he and his cavalry were operating near Winchester, Virginia protecting Confederate troops commanded by General Joseph E. Johnston. The big question of the time for Southern men was – Do you support and bear arms for your state against the Union? Do you support secession? The excerpt below reflects what Stuart thought and also shows why reading the words of participants in a historical event gives proper perspective.

George H. Thomas, U.S. Army – image Library of Congress

Letter by Lt. Colonel J.E.B. Stuart to My Darling Wife, The Old Tree (Camp near Winchester) June 11^th, 1861

“Old George H. Thomas is in command of the Cavalry of the enemy. I would like to hang him as a traitor to his native state.” [George H. Thomas was a native Virginian and graduated from West Point in 1840. He remained with the U.S. Army when the Civil War began and later was promoted to major general. See Thomas bio at Civil War Trust]

Stuart excerpt from The Letters of General J.E.B. Stuart, edited by Adele Mitchell, Stuart-Mosby Historical Society, 1990

Stuarts Finest Hour description

Southerners at Rest description

The Estrangement of Jeb Stuart’s Father-in-Law

Hang George H. Thomas

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