48 Facts About Jubal Early

Jubal Anderson Early was an American lawyer, politician and military officer who served in the Confederate States Army during the Civil War.

Jubal Early commanded a division under Generals Stonewall Jackson and Richard S Ewell, and later commanded a corps.

Robert E Lee in 1870, Early delivered speeches establishing the Lost Cause of the Confederacy, cofounding the Southern Historical Society and several Confederate memorial associations.

Jubal Early was born on November 3,1816, in the Red Valley section of Franklin County, Virginia, third of ten children of Ruth and Joab Jubal Early.

The Jubal Early family was well-established and well-connected in the area, either one of the First Families of Virginia, or linked to them by marriage as they moved westward toward the Blue Ridge Mountains from Virginia's Eastern Shore.

Jubal Early willed it to his sons Joseph, John, and Jubal Early.

Jubal Early only lived a couple of years after his marriage.

Joab Early married his mentor's daughter, as well as like him, served in the Virginia House of Delegates part-time, and become the county sheriff and led its militia, all while managing his extensive tobacco plantation of more than 4,000 acres using enslaved labor.

Jubal Early's eldest son Samuel Henry Early became a prominent manufacturer of salt using enslaved labor in the Kanawha Valley, and was a Confederate officer.

Jubal Early had the wherewithal to attend local private schools in Franklin County, as well as more advanced private academies in Lynchburg and Danville.

Jubal Early was deeply affected by his mother's death in 1832.

Jubal Early passed probation and became the first boy from Franklin County to enter the Military Academy.

Jubal Early graduated from the United States Military Academy in 1837, ranked 18th of 50 graduating cadets and sixth among its engineering graduates.

Franklin County voters the next year elected Early as one of their delegates in the Virginia House of Delegates ; he was a Whig and served one term alongside Henry L Muse from 1841 to 1842.

Jubal Early served from 1847 to 1848, although his Virginians arrived too late to see battlefield combat.

Major Jubal Early was assigned to logistics, as inspector general on the brigade's staff under West Pointers Col.

However, his legal career was not particularly remunerative when he returned although Jubal Early won an inheritance case in Lowndes County, Mississippi.

Jubal Early handled many cases involving slaves as well as divorces, but owned only one slave during his life.

On June 19,1861, Jubal Early formally became a colonel in the Confederate army, commanding the 24th Virginia Infantry, including his young cousin, Jack Hairston.

Lee appreciated Jubal Early's aggressive fighting and ability to command units independently.

The 24th Virginia suffered 180 killed, wounded or missing in the battle; Jubal Early himself received a shoulder wound and convalesced near home in Rocky Mount, Virginia.

Jubal Early received accolades for his performance at the Battle of Cedar Mountain.

Jubal Early's troops arrived in the nick of time to reinforce Maj.

At the Battle of Antietam, Jubal Early ascended to division command when his commander, Alexander Lawton, was wounded on September 17,1862, after Lawton had assumed that division command while Maj.

Lee retained him as commander of what had been Ewell's division; Jubal Early formally received a promotion to major general on January 17,1863.

Jubal Early was able to delay the Union forces and pin down Sedgwick while Lee and Jackson attacked the rest of the Union troops to the west.

Jubal Early threatened to burn down any home which harbored a fugitive slave.

Jubal Early burned an iron foundry near Caledonia owned by abolitionist US Representative Thaddeus Stevens.

Troops under Jubal Early's command were responsible for capturing escaped slaves to send them back to the south, which resulted in the seizure of free Blacks who were unable to evade the invading army.

At Spotsylvania, Jubal Early occupied the relatively quiet right flank of the Mule Shoe.

Later in the month, Jubal Early attempted to extort funds from Cumberland and Hancock, Maryland, and his cavalry commanders burned Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, when that city could not pay sufficient ransom.

Jubal Early's invasion caused considerable panic in both Washington and Baltimore, and his forces reached Silver Spring, Maryland, and the outskirts of the District of Columbia.

At the Second Battle of Kernstown on July 24,1864, Jubal Early's forces defeated a Union army under Brig.

Jubal Early's forces burned the region's only bridge across the Susquehanna River, impeding commerce as well as Union troop movements.

Jubal Early barely escaped capture with his cousin Peter Hairston and a few members of his staff, returning almost alone to Petersburg.

Jubal Early proceeded to Mexico, and from there sailed to Cuba and finally reached Canada.

Jubal Early spent the rest of his life defending his actions during the war and became among the most vocal in justifying the Confederate cause, fostering what became known as the Lost Cause movement.

Jubal Early returned to Lynchburg, Virginia, and resumed his legal practice about a year before the 1870 death of General Robert E Lee.

However, Jubal Early's father died in 1870, and the mother of his four children married another man in 1871.

In one letter to Jubal Early, Lee requested information about enemy strengths from May 1864 to April 1865, the war's last year, in which his army fought against Lt.

Jubal Early had not done this from mere caprice or whim, but for wise purposes.

In 1873, Jubal Early was elected president of the Southern Historical Society, an association he continued until his death.

Jubal Early frequently contributed to the Southern Historical Society Papers, whose secretary was former Confederate chaplain J William Jones.

Jubal Early corresponded with and visited former Confederate President Jefferson Davis, who retired to Mississippi's Gulf Coast near New Orleans, Louisiana, to write his own memoirs.

Former Confederate First Lady Varina Davis, while furthering the Lost Cause and corresponding with Jubal Early, characterized Jubal Early as a "crabby bachelor with a squeaky, high-pitched voice".

Jubal Early tripped and fell down granite stairs at the Lynchburg, Virginia, post office on February 15,1894.

Jubal Early's doctor did not specify an exact cause on the death certificate.

The Lost Cause that Jubal Early promoted and espoused was continued by memorial associations such as the United Confederate Veterans and the United Daughters of the Confederacy, as well as by his niece Ruth Hairston Jubal Early.