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| Jubal Anderson Early | |
|---|---|
| Name | Jubal Anderson Early |
| Birth date | November 3, 1816 |
| Birth place | Franklin County, Virginia |
| Death date | March 2, 1894 |
| Death place | Halifax County, Virginia |
| Allegiance | United States (before 1861), Confederate States of America (1861–1865) |
| Rank | General |
| Battles | Mexican–American War, Valley Campaigns (1864), Battle of Gettysburg, Overland Campaign |
Jubal Anderson Early was a Confederate general, lawyer, and politician from Virginia who played prominent roles in the American Civil War and in postwar Southern memory. A graduate of the United States Military Academy and a veteran of the Mexican–American War, he commanded infantry in major campaigns such as Robert E. Lee's operations and led the 1864 invasion of the North culminating near Washington, D.C.. After the war he became an outspoken proponent of the Lost Cause of the Confederacy and a defender of Confederate memory in politics, journalism, and public speaking.
Born in Franklin County, Virginia, he was reared on a plantation culture tied to slaveholding households common in antebellum Virginia. He attended local academies before gaining appointment to the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York, where he graduated in 1837 alongside classmates who later served in the American Civil War on both sides, including Robert E. Lee and Joseph E. Johnston. After West Point, he served briefly on the frontier and then resigned to study law under established Virginia attorneys, entering the bar in Lynchburg, Virginia, where he practiced and engaged in regional politics tied to Democratic circles.
He returned to uniform for the Mexican–American War as a volunteer officer, serving with distinction under commanders such as Winfield Scott and gaining combat experience at engagements linked to the Siege of Veracruz and other actions. After 1848 he resumed legal practice but maintained militia involvement in Virginia volunteer units, advancing through state militia ranks and building relationships with future Confederate leaders like Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson and James Longstreet. His antebellum career combined military reputation from the Mexican campaign with a public profile as a planter-lawyer in the Upper South.
At the outbreak of the American Civil War, he joined the Confederate States Army and quickly rose to divisional and corps command within the Army of Northern Virginia. He fought in the Seven Days Battles, Second Battle of Bull Run, and the Battle of Antietam, earning promotion to lieutenant general. In 1863 he commanded a corps at the Battle of Gettysburg on the Confederate right during the pursuit following the battle and later took part in the Overland Campaign against Ulysses S. Grant. In 1864, given independent command in the Shenandoah Valley Campaign, he conducted a campaign of maneuver and raiding that culminated in an offensive that reached the outskirts of Washington, D.C. and led to engagements such as the Battle of Monocacy. His raid intended to relieve pressure on Lee's forces and to threaten Northern morale. Despite tactical successes, strategic outcomes were mixed; Union commanders including Philip Sheridan targeted his forces, and Confederate losses in the Valley eroded supply and manpower. His outspoken criticisms of Confederate high command and strategic decisions brought him into conflict with figures like Jefferson Davis and other Confederate leaders.
After Appomattox and the Confederacy's collapse, he fled to Mexico briefly and then settled in various United States locales, including Charleston, West Virginia and later returning to Virginia. He resumed legal work and became an active voice in journalism, contributing to newspapers and delivering lectures promoting the Lost Cause of the Confederacy narrative. He published memoirs and pamphlets defending Confederate strategy and leaders, criticizing figures such as Ulysses S. Grant while praising Robert E. Lee and other Southern commanders. In postwar politics he allied with conservative Democratic elements and supported veterans' organizations such as the United Confederate Veterans, shaping commemorative practices, monuments, and regional political memory during the Reconstruction era and the era of Jim Crow resurgence.
A scion of a Virginia planter family, he married and raised children within the social milieu of the prewar planter class. Family estates and household affairs were intertwined with antebellum plantation economies and slave ownership until 1865. Personal relationships connected him with other Confederate families and veterans; his kinship and social networks influenced his postwar activities in preservation of Confederate heritage and in veterans' societies. Health issues and wartime wounds affected his later years, and he eventually died on his Virginia farm in 1894.
His legacy is contested: historians debate his military competence, strategic judgment, and political influence. Some contemporary and early 20th-century writers lionized him as a bold tactician and defender of Southern rights, while revisionist and modern historians criticize his aggressive tactics that sometimes produced heavy Confederate casualties and question his postwar promotion of Lost Cause of the Confederacy myths that distorted causes and consequences of the American Civil War. Monuments, battlefield interpretive materials, and veterans' recollections honored him in Virginia and elsewhere, but 21st-century reassessment has led to critical inquiry by scholars and public officials into Confederate memorialization and its ties to white supremacy and Reconstruction-era politics. His writings remain primary sources for scholars studying Confederate ideology, memory, and 19th-century Southern nationalism.
Category:Confederate States Army generals Category:People from Virginia Category:United States Military Academy alumni