June 3rd, 1863-Dated Civil War, J.E.B. Stuart’s Partially-Printed “Confidential Dispatch” Telegraph Message on a Southern Telegraph Companies Form with the station manager’s proxy signature signing, “J.E.B. Stuart / Major General etc.”, his message to Miss Sue Maupin, inviting Confederate Women to attend his well documented cavalry review on Friday (5th of June) at 10:00, Choice Very Fine.
This excptional content Telegraph is fully completed in manuscript from Culpeper Court House, Virginia on June 3rd, 1863. It is on the standard Southern Telegraph Companies Form, tan in color with black typeset, nicely handwritten in deep brown ink that is easily readable, with a secretarial proxy signature “J.E.B. Stuart / Major General etc.” being addressed to Miss Sue Maupin of Charlottesville, Virginia. The form is 1 page, measuring about 4PROBLEM: ¾ x 7PROBLEM: ¾ inches; mounted on a heavy cardboard backing, having choice eye appeal.

History records that just a few days before the major Battle of Brandy Station, Confederate Cavalry General J.E.B. Stuart staged a “grand cavalry exercise” with thousands of his mounted troops June 5th, 1863. Stuart was criticized for this event as being a display of vanity. Here he sends a “Confidential Dispatch” Telegraph, inviting the ladies of Charlottesville (many miles from Culpeper), to attend the review. This well documented unique complete telegraph form reads, in full:

"Received at Charlottesville 3 June 1863 at 1 o’clock - By telegraph from Culpeper C.H. (Court House). To Miss Sue Maupin. -- Please inform the Ladies represented in Confidential Dispatch received by mail that there will be a review here on Friday ten 10 o'clock, Providence permitting. I would be glad to see any or all of them on that or any other Occasion. -- (Proxy Signed) J.E.B. Stuart / Major General etc."

In late May and early June 1863, Stuart staged two elaborate "Grand Reviews" of his cavalry near Brandywine Station/Culpeper. One such event on June 5th (with a mock battle) and a repeat, simpler parade on June 8th for Robert E. Lee, who had missed the first grand event.

Stuart cultivated himself as the epitome of Virginia's mythical Cavalier, and he enjoyed staging these elaborate reviews, which attracted many local women. The very next day, June 9th, the reviews' aftermath fell directly into the Battle of Brandy Station, the largest cavalry battle of the Civil War, and the opening clash of the Gettysburg Campaign.
The Maupin family, to whom “Sue” was to receive this message, is a well-documented, old Albemarle County family with deep Charlottesville roots, Socrates Maupin was a UVA professor and Faculty Chairman through the Civil War years, so a young woman named Sue/Susan Maupin from that family attending or being connected to such a high-society social event of the Confederate cavalry, is entirely plausible. She being young women from prominent local families across Virginia who did travel to these reviews as spectators, and were often written about in soldiers' and officers' letters and diaries afterward.