Historians' attempts to understand legendary Confederate General Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson have proved uneven at best and often contentious. An occasionally enigmatic and eccentric college professor before the Civil War, Jackson died midway through the conflict, leaving behind no memoirs and relatively few surviving letters or documents. In Inventing Stonewall Jackson, Wallace Hettle offers an innovative and distinctive approach to interpreting Stonewall by examining the lives and agendas of those authors who shape our current understanding of General Jackson. Newspaper reporters, friends, relatives, and fellow soldiers first wrote about Jackson immediately following the Civil War. Most of them, according to Hettle, used portions of their own life stories to frame that of the mythic general. Hettle argues that the legend of Jackson's rise from poverty to power was likely inspired by the rags-to-riches history of his first biographer, Robert Lewis Dabney. Dabney's own successes and Presbyterian beliefs probably shaped his account of Jackson's life as much as any factual research. Many other authors inserted personal values into their stories of Stonewall, perplexing generations of historians and writers. Subsequent biographers contributed their own layers to Jackson's myth and eventually a composite history of the general came to exist in the popular imagination. Later writers, such as the liberal suffragist Mary Johnston, who wrote a novel about Jackson, and the literary critic Allen Tate, who penned a laudatory biography, further shaped Stonewall's myth. As recently as 2003, the film Gods and Generals, which featured Jackson as the key protagonist, affirmed the longevity and power of his image. Impeccable research and nuanced analysis enable Hettle to use American culture and memory to reframe the Stonewall Jackson narrative and provide new ways to understand the long and contended legacy of one of the Civil War's most popular Confederate heroes.

Mary Anna Jackson was the second wife of the legendary Confederate general Stonewall Jackson. Jackson never remarried after her husband's death in 1863 and she wrote two books on him.Memoirs of Stonewall Jackson, published in 1895, is an excellent book for Civil War scholars as it shows some of her personal reflections on the war as well as letters that he wrote her.

Excerpt from Memoirs of Stonewall Jackson by His Widow, Mary Anna Jackson On pages 56 to 88 there appear frequent and extended extracts from an interesting article by Mrs. Margaret J. Preston, entitled Personal Characteristics of Stonewall Jackson, which was pub lished in the Century Magazine for October, 1886. The appropri ate credit for the use of these extracts was inadvertently omitted from the first edition of this work, and the Publishers are glad of the opportunity to make this acknowledgment to the author of the article referred to. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

Finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, the epic New York Times bestselling account of how Civil War general Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson became a great and tragic national hero. Stonewall Jackson has long been a figure of legend and romance. As much as any person in the Confederate pantheon—even Robert E. Lee—he embodies the romantic Southern notion of the virtuous lost cause. Jackson is also considered, without argument, one of our country’s greatest military figures. In April 1862, however, he was merely another Confederate general in an army fighting what seemed to be a losing cause. But by June he had engineered perhaps the greatest military campaign in American history and was one of the most famous men in the Western world. Jackson’s strategic innovations shattered the conventional wisdom of how war was waged; he was so far ahead of his time that his techniques would be studied generations into the future. In his “magnificent Rebel Yell…S.C. Gwynne brings Jackson ferociously to life” (New York Newsday) in a swiftly vivid narrative that is rich with battle lore, biographical detail, and intense conflict among historical figures. Gwynne delves deep into Jackson’s private life and traces Jackson’s brilliant twenty-four-month career in the Civil War, the period that encompasses his rise from obscurity to fame and legend; his stunning effect on the course of the war itself; and his tragic death, which caused both North and South to grieve the loss of a remarkable American hero.

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1895 edition. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER XII. WINCHESTER AND ROMNEY EXPEDITION--1861-1862. We will now follow General Jackson to Winchester, which he made his headquarters during the winter of 1861-1862. He had been ordered to the command of the Valley District, without troops being assigned to him; having, as we have seen, to leave behind him his chief reliance in battle, his invincible Stonewall Brigade. He found at Winchester only a small force, consisting of a part of three brigades of militia and a few companies of cavalry, all of which were imperfectly organized and poorly equipped, and with but little training or experience. He lost no time in calling out all the remaining militia of the district, and in a few weeks his little army was increased to about three thousand men. To the instruction and drilling of these new recruits he devoted himself with the utmost energy; and, already forming plans for a vigorous forward movement, he sent a petition to the government for reinforcements. In response to this request he had the great gratification of having his own Stonewall Brigade sent to him, about the middle of November, together with the Rockbridge Battery, now commanded by Captain McLaughlin. The attachment which General Jackson felt for the men that had been trained under him, and his pride in them, were fully reciprocated; as one of them expressed it: "Wherever the voice of our brave and beloved general is heard, we are ready to follow. I have read of the devotion of soldiers to their commanders, but history contains no parallel case of devotion and affection equal to that of the Stonewall Brigade for Major-General Jackson. We do not look upon him merely as our commander--do not regard him as a severe disciplinarian, as a politician, as a man seeking...