Early, Jubal Anderson

Life Span
to
Full name
Jubal Anderson Early
Place of Birth
Burial Place
Birth Date Certainty
Exact
Death Date Certainty
Exact
Gender
Male
Race
White
Sectional choice
South
Origins
Slave State
No. of Spouses
0
Family
Joab Early (father), Ruth Hairston (mother)
Education
West Point (US Military Academy)
Occupation
Military
Attorney or Judge
Writer or Artist
Military
US military (Pre-Civil War)
Confederate Army

Jubal Anderson Early (American National Biography)

Scholarship
[General Robert E.] Lee demonstrated his confidence in Early by assigning him difficult tasks. During the Chancellorsville campaign, for example, Early held the front at Fredericksburg while most of the army marched west to confront Joseph Hooker's flanking force. At Gettysburg, Early participated in the successful Confederate assaults on the afternoon of 1 July and advocated a joint attack against Cemetery Hill…. After a stinging reverse at Rappahannock Bridge on 7 November 1863, Early temporarily led the Second Corps during the Mine Run campaign before returning to head his division at the battle of the Wilderness. When illness incapacitated Hill on 8 May 1864, Lee chose Early, who he thought would "make a fine corps commander," as temporary chief of the Third Corps during fighting at Spotsylvania. Another brief stint with his division in mid-May preceded permanent assignment to command the Second Corps on 27 May and promotion to lieutenant general….

Poised to commence his most famous operations, Early was a respected if not loved officer with a reputation as a colorful, profane, and bitingly sarcastic character. A soldier described him in 1864 as "one of the greatest curiosities of the war," a man "about six feet high" whose "voice sounds like a cracked Chinese fiddle, and comes from his mouth somewhat in the style of a hardshell Baptist with a long drawl, accompanied by an interpolation of oaths." His men called him "Old Jube" or "Old Jubilee" and appreciated his aggressiveness in combat.
Gary W. Gallagher, "Early, Jubal Anderson," American National Biography Online, February 2000, http://www.anb.org/articles/04/04-01172.html.
Date Event
- The Virginia Convention on secession is meeting in Richmond
At the House of Delegates in Richmond, the Virginia Convention votes for secession
- The first pitched battle of the war between armies results in a Union disaster at Bull Run
Near Williamsburg, Virginia, forty-thousand pursuing Union troops clash with the Confederate rearguard
- The Army of the Potomac concentrates on Chancellorsville in preparation for an attack on Lee
Union and Confederate armies collide near Chancellorsville in Spotsylvania County, Virginia
"Stonewall" Jackson's flanking movement seizes the initiative in the Battle of Chancellorsville
Lee's Army of Northern Virginia forces back entrenched Union forces at the Battle of Chancellorsville
- Union reinforcements prevented from reaching Chancellorsville at Battle of Salem Church
Union infantrymen finally take Marye's Heights in the Second Battle of Fredericksburg
- The beaten Union Army retreats across the Rappahannock, ending the Battle of Chancellorsville
- In western Virginia, the second Battle of Winchester ends in heavy Union defeat
- The Second Corps of the Army of Virginia crosses the Potomac and marches on Pennsylvania
In Pennsylvania, Confederate soldiers destroy the iron works of Congressman Thaddeus Stevens
- Confederate infantry occupy York, Pennsylvania
- Battle of Gettysburg
In Pennsylvania, the third Confederate occupation of Chambersburg proves unlucky as the town is burned to the ground
In the Shenandoah Valley, Union forces triumph at the hard-fought Third Battle of Winchester
- In western Virginia, Union forces drive Confederates from entrenched positions at the Battle of Fisher's Hill
In the Shenandoah Valley, Union troops under Sheridan turn defeat into crushing victory at the Battle of Cedar Creek
How to Cite This Page: "Early, Jubal Anderson," House Divided: The Civil War Research Engine at Dickinson College, https://hd.housedivided.dickinson.edu/index.php/node/5607.