Turner Ashby - The Black Knight Of The Confederacy

Jim Klag

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October 23, 1828 - Turner Ashby, Brigadier General (Confederate Army) born in Fauquier County, VA (d. 1862)

On July 23, 1861, Brigadier General Joseph E. Johnston appointed Ashby lieutenant colonel of the 7th Virginia Cavalry. Due to the illness of the regimental commander, Ashby had effective control of half of the regiment, which he operated separately. When the commander retired in February 1862, Ashby assumed command of the entire regiment on March 12. Ashby organized the first Confederate horse artillery, named Chew’s Battery, as part of this regiment.

https://www.encyclopediavirginia.org/ashby_turner_1828-1862#start_entry
 

5fish

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His blood of a warrior... form the link above...

The critical point in Ashby's life and career was the death of his younger brother Richard, who was mortally wounded in a Union ambush near Kelly's Island on the Virginia border with Maryland on June 26, 1861. From then on, according to his overheated admirers, Ashby was driven by a grim vengeance that bordered on bloodlust. Stories of his deeds became legends, fancy became fact. Those stories were not all myths—Ashby thrived and even thrilled in combat—and they became the source of a mesmerizing aura that was all the more powerful because it quelled fears while it idealized hopes. Young men began flocking to him, seeking in Ashby's afterglow something of his cavalier image. To call Ashby the "Knight of the Valley," as many did in 1861, was simultaneous to obscure the brutality of partisan war on the Maryland border and cast it in familial terms as a chivalric defense of home.

By the spring of 1862 Ashby had superseded Angus W. McDonald as colonel and commander of the 7th Cavalry, which thanks to Ashby's aura had grown into a loosely organized and undisciplined collection of twenty-six companies. Moreover, Ashby's cavalry, which operated independently for the first year of the war, was now co-opted into Jackson's Army of the Valley. By and large, Ashby served Jackson well in the latter's illustrious Valley Campaign, a stunning masterpiece of deception, movement, and quick striking that is often credited with discomfiting Union general George B. McClellan's attempt to capture the Confederate capital at Richmond and thus end the war.
 

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Here is the title... https://www.shenandoahatwar.org/history/turner-ashby/

Ashby cut a striking figure, called by many the “Black Knight of the Confederacy”. He generally rode horses that were pure white or pure black. A civilian in the Valley named Thomas A. Ashby (no relation) wrote about an encounter with him:

“He was just entering upon a career that soon made him an heroic character in the history of the Civil War. Dressed now in Confederate gray, with gilt lace on his sleeves and collar, wearing high top-boots with spurs and a broad-brimmed black felt hat with a long black feather streaming behind, his appearance was striking and attractive. He stood about five feet eight inches in height and probably weighed from 150 to 160 pounds (68 to 73 kg). He was muscular and wiry, rather thin than robust or rugged. His hair and beard were as black as a raven’s wing; his eyes were soft and mahogany brown; a long, sweeping mustache concealed his mouth, and a heavy and long beard completely covered his breast. His complexion was dark in keeping with his other colorings. Altogether, he resembled the pictures I have seen of the early Crusaders,—a type unusual among the many men in the army, a type so distinctive that, once observed, it cannot soon be forgotten.”

His two failings in the valley:

Ashby’s vigorous reconnaissance and screening were factors in the success of Jackson’s legendary Valley Campaign in the Shenandoah Valley in 1862. However, there were instances in which Ashby failed Jackson. At the First Battle of Kernstown, Jackson attacked a retreating Union column that Ashby had estimated to be four regiments of infantry, about the size of Jackson’s force. It turned out to be an entire division of 9,000 men, and Jackson was forced to retreat. At the First Battle of Winchester, as Union forces under Maj. Gen. Nathaniel P. Banks were retreating, Ashby failed to cut off their retreat because his troopers were plundering captured wagons. It is possible that the Union forces could have been substantially destroyed if it were not for this lack of discipline.

His death: He had been appointed brigadier general just two weeks before his death

As Jackson’s army withdrew from the pressure of Maj. Gen. John C. Frémont’s superior forces, moving from Harrisonburg toward Port Republic, Ashby commanded the rear guard. On June 6, 1862, near Harrisonburg, the 1st New Jersey Cavalry attacked Ashby’s position at Good’s Farm. Although Ashby defeated the cavalry attack, a subsequent infantry engagement resulted in his horse being shot and Ashby charging ahead on foot. Within a few steps, he was shot through the heart, killing him instantly. (The origin of the fatal shot has been lost to history. Soldiers of the 13th Pennsylvania Reserve Infantry, the “Bucktails”, claimed credit, but some accounts blame friendly fire.) His last words were “Charge, men! For God’s sake. Charge!” waving his sword, when a bullet pierced him in the breast and he fell dead.

“Later in the evening I saw a party of cavalry pass by with Ashby’s body, crying, most of them, like children” – Confederate Capt. Campbell Brown
 
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