The Civil War Memoirs of a Virginia Cavalryman
328 pages, 6 x 9
30 B&W Figures - 20 Maps
Paperback
Release Date:15 Oct 2016
ISBN:9780817358785
The Civil War Memoirs of a Virginia Cavalryman
By Robert T. Hubard; Edited by Thomas P Nanzig
University of Alabama Press
A witness who brings remarkable life and color to the Civil War in the East
Robert Hubard was an enlisted man and officer of the 3rd Virginia Cavalry in the Army of Northern Virginia (CSA) from 1861 through 1865. He wrote his memoir during an extended convalescence spent at his father’s Virginia plantation after being wounded at the battle of Five Forks on April 1, 1865. Hubard served under such Confederate luminaries as Jeb Stuart, Fitz Lee, Wade Hampton, and Thomas L. Rosser. He and his unit fought at the battles of Antietam, on the Chambersburg Raid, in the Shenandoah Valley, at Fredericksburg, Kelly’s Ford, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, Bristoe Station, and down into Virginia from the Wilderness to nearly the end of the war at Five Forks.
Hubard was like many of his class and station a son of privilege and may have felt that his service was an act of noblesse oblige. Unlike many of his contemporaries, however, he was a keen observer and a writer of unusual grace, clarity, humor, and intelligence. The editor has fleshed out his memoir by judicious use of Hubard’s own wartime letters, which not only fill in gaps but permit the reader to see developments in the writer’s thinking after the passage of time. Because he was a participant in events of high drama and endured the quotidian life of a soldier, Hubard’s memoir should be of value to both scholars and avocational readers.
Robert Hubard was an enlisted man and officer of the 3rd Virginia Cavalry in the Army of Northern Virginia (CSA) from 1861 through 1865. He wrote his memoir during an extended convalescence spent at his father’s Virginia plantation after being wounded at the battle of Five Forks on April 1, 1865. Hubard served under such Confederate luminaries as Jeb Stuart, Fitz Lee, Wade Hampton, and Thomas L. Rosser. He and his unit fought at the battles of Antietam, on the Chambersburg Raid, in the Shenandoah Valley, at Fredericksburg, Kelly’s Ford, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, Bristoe Station, and down into Virginia from the Wilderness to nearly the end of the war at Five Forks.
Hubard was like many of his class and station a son of privilege and may have felt that his service was an act of noblesse oblige. Unlike many of his contemporaries, however, he was a keen observer and a writer of unusual grace, clarity, humor, and intelligence. The editor has fleshed out his memoir by judicious use of Hubard’s own wartime letters, which not only fill in gaps but permit the reader to see developments in the writer’s thinking after the passage of time. Because he was a participant in events of high drama and endured the quotidian life of a soldier, Hubard’s memoir should be of value to both scholars and avocational readers.
[Civil War Memoirs] is richly illustrated with maps tracing the 3rd Virginia Calvary's movement from their time on the Virginia Peninsula to the time of Hubard's wounding at Five Forks on April 1, 1865, and should appeal to a wide array of historians interested in the war's Eastern Theater, the life of Confederate calvrymen, and soldiers' perceptions of their superiors, comrades-in-arms, and enemies.’
—Civil War News
‘Unlike many such memoirs, Hubard’s assessments are critical as well as complimentary of the events and individuals he observed. Thomas P. Nanzig provides editorial clarity and includes some of the soldier’s correspondence. The result is a substantial contribution to Confederate cavalry operations in Virginia.’
—Society of Civil War Historians
‘This volume is a worthy addition to the already copious amount of primary source material on the eastern theater.’
—The Journal of Southern History
‘Overall, The Civil War Memoirs of a Virginia Cavalryman is an important addition to the ever-expanding list of the conflict's first-hand accounts. In publishing this work, Nanzig has discovered a valuable manuscript in rough form and has delivered to the public, in turn, a polished gem.’
—H-Net Reviews
[ . . .] this work makes a nice contribution to the existing literature on Stuart's cavalry, and anyone with an interest in the Civil War's eastern theater, the military history of the Civil War, or Virginia history in general would do well to take notice of it.’
—The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography
‘Hubard’s memoir offers insightful remarks about religion and tensions in the ranks, Southern honor, the problems of conscription, and Confederate depredations against its own civilians. However, the document’s strength is the military narrative, particularly the 1864 cavalry operations in central Virginia. There are few other memoir/letter collections from one of Jeb Stuart’s troopers.’
—Peter S. Carmichael, author of Lee’s Young Artillerist: William R. J. Pegram
Thomas P. Nanzig is an editor with ProQuest in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and author of four other books, including 3rd Virginia Cavalry.
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