[450] the senior brigadiers of the cavalry, and with full instructions. There can be no reasonable ground for supposing that this command, which was in daily and almost hourly communication with the commanding General, could not have learned everything concerning the enemy's movements which Stuart could have discovered in the same place; and had these brigades been moved northward on the 26th of June, they would have reached such position on the 28th as to have stopped Buford's march, and would have so occupied him as to have prevented him from reaching Gettysburg on the 30th.
When Stuart arrived at Gettysburg, nothing of rest was allowed the weary horsemen who had accompanied him on his recent severe march. On the evening of the third day's battle they were called upon to encounter the enemy's cavalry in a severe and bloody fight; and on every succeeding day, until our army recrossed the Potomac, they withstood the enemy's attacks as they closely followed our retreating forces, and shielded our infantry, and, save in one single instance, the transportation of our army from all molestation.
I regret that I must turn away from the brief but brilliant campaign of October, 1863; brilliant at least so far as the cavalry was concerned; and that I cannot speak of those last days of his warfare, when his courage and capacity shone forth with more than usual lustre. I must hasten to place before you the portrait of this noble man, this gallant soldier. His face was marked by one feature which would have misled a physiognomist in predicting his character and future. A prominent chin, and firmly set lips, are generally considered indicative of firmness and tenacity of purpose. But Stuart's chin was so short and retiring as positively to disfigure his otherwise fine countenance; and among the cadets at West Point he bore the nick-name of “Beauty Stuart,” a “lucus a non lucendo.” This disfigurement was, in maturer years, entirely concealed by a wealth of flowing brown beard, above which appeared a well-shaped nose and a broad and high forehead.
But how shall I describe his eyes? I have seen them when their color seemed to be the blackness of the thunder cloud, lit up with flashes of intensest lightning; and again when the soft light of roguish merriment revealed a pupil of calm bluish grey. Even when commander of the cavalry his appearance was striking rather than handsome. His height was about five feet eleven inches, his body short, and his legs and arms longer than the proportions of beauty will allow. But while this length of limb did not conduce to gracefulness in the parlor, especially when made more conspicuous by the cavalry jacket, which was his only style of dress, it contributed in no small degree to
