Stonewall Jackson

Robertson, a specialist in the Army of Northern Virginia (General A.P. Hill; The Stonewall Brigade), has written the definitive narrative biography of America's greatest battle captain. Eschewing the romanticism of Clifford Dowdey (The Land They Fought For) and Frank Vandiver (Mighty Stonewall) as well as the theoretical approach exemplified in Charles Royster's The Destructive War, Robertson relates Jackson's life (1824-1863) from the available documentation. In the process, he explodes such familiar legends as Jackson's fondness for lemons and charges such as the one that Jackson fathered a child during his service in Mexico. Robertson's principal contribution, however, is his demonstration that Jackson was shaped by a deep sense of duty and a profound religious faith. His behavior as a cadet in and an officer of the U.S. Army, as a professor at Virginia Military Institute and as a Confederate general reflected consistent commitment to both principles. Jackson's unbending emphasis on discipline was at least as important to the Confederacy as his performance on the battlefield. His achievements at First Manassas and in the Shenandoah Valley made him an icon to a South that badly needed symbols, and his insistence on ruthless, uncompromising war helped shape Confederate strategy in the war's most prominent theater. Jackson, Robertson makes clear, made his share of military mistakes but benefited from ""obliging enemies"" such as Nathaniel Banks, John Pope and Joseph Hooker. Robertson makes a case as well that Jackson's inward focus precluded his rise to higher command. Within his limits, however, Jackson was the moral and tactical focal point of the Army of Northern Virginia. Without him, Second Manassas and Chancellorsville would have been impossible, and with his death the Confederacy's principal army lost its mainspring--and perhaps part of the faith needed for survival in a war growing more absolute with each month. BOMC alternate selection; History Book Club main selection. (Mar.)