What shapes a legend? "Inventing Stonewall Jackson" by Wallace Hettle

Well, again… another book that I reviewed that is CIVIL War in nature…

This time we are reliving the Confederacy and a man well known in both the North and South.  Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson. 

It the novel “Inventing Stonewall Jackson” by Wallace Hettle and published by LSU Press, we see a novel not looking directly at Jackson but at those who wrote his Biographies.

What was their personal bent behind their looking at Jackson?  Some saw him as a stoic General, others as a Pious man.   This book looks at how those biographies shaped this very private and unknown man into the legend we have today. 

Here is what the publisher had to say about the book:

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.

Wallace Hettle, professor of history at the University of Northern Iowa, is the author of The Peculiar Democracy: Southern Democrats in Peace and Civil War.

Now, while trying to say they looked at the Bias of other authors we begin to see a bent in the writing of this author as well.  While not out and in your face, the bias is that all others had it wrong.  What is key is that they all saw a piece of the man.  For example you put 5 people in the room to express in words an object and you will have typically at least 3 different view’s.  

Yet this is a very clean, clear and open look at the enigma that is General Thomas J. Jackson.  I would say that it was a great read, very informative and intellectual!  I would recommend it to all who seek to understand better this legend of a man.

Stories of Faith and Courage from the Civil War

As I have stated before I am a fan of History.  Living in the Maryland and Virginia area is like a child’s dream of a treasure trove…  So when I had the opportunity to review for free from AMG publishers “Stories of Faith and Courage from the Civil War”. 

This book takes multiple stories of the Faith and Courage of folks like Gen. Lee and others.  I loved the way this book broke down these stories into daily easy reads for each day of the year. 

Here is what the publisher had to say:

The period from 1861-1865 proved to be one of the greatest periods of trial and suffering in our nations history. A significant lapse of time had passed since America had engaged in the horrors of war. After the war of 1812, little memory remained of the fact that war could be "hell." A veteran of the war with Mexico, General "Stonewall" Jackson wrote to his wife and said, "People who are anxious to bring on war don't know what they are bargaining for; they don't see all the horrors that must accompany such an event."

When the prospect of a War Between the States became a reality, the average age of a young soldier was twenty-two. To an aspiring young man who was bored with "life on the farm," the romanticism and exhilaration of battle was an allurement that soon tried the faith and physical stamina of all who crossed war's threshold. The threat of losing life and limb from a hailstorm of bullets and shrapnel was compounded by the ever-present danger of dysentery, and all sorts of diseases with little means for treatment. In spite of these frustrating circumstances, many of the soldiers found great consolation and relief through prayer and reading the Bible.

Stories of Faith & Courage from the Civil War is a devotional book that opens a rare treasure chest of intimate thoughts and feelings illustrated from the private letters and diaries of both men and women of faith during the Civil War period. The courage and faith examples of these "soldiers of Christ" will inspire both the mind and heart of every reader who desires to have a closer walk with God.

So if your looking for a devotional and you love history of this or any time frame; then this is a great book for you!

Confederate Outlaw: Champ Ferguson

I recently received an e-book copy of Confederate Outlaw by Brian D. McKnight.  This was sent to me by LSU press to review.

If you know me you know I am a fan of History.  As well, I am a huge fan of the Civil War time frame.  Well this book feeds my enthusiasm for both of these items.

The book Confederate Outlaw follows the story of Camp Ferguson primarily.  Camp Ferguson was a quite native of the Appalachian area of Kentucky and Tennessee who was a farmer until later in life.  Yet this story chronicles the events that took a simple, although some what rough and brutish farmer, and turned him into a mass murderer for the confederate cause.

This book not only delves into his story but also into the story of the Appalachian areas during this time frame.  This is a history of family against family, in fact Champ’s own brothers fought for the union, as well as one who spent time trying to hunt him.  The history is that of murder just for the ‘cause’ of the confederate or union.  It is the history of distrust, anxiety, and even paranoia.

Here is what the Publisher had to say on the book:

In the fall of 1865, the United States Army executed Confederate guerrilla Champ Ferguson for his role in murdering fifty-three loyal citizens of Kentucky and Tennessee during the Civil War. Long remembered as the most unforgiving and inglorious warrior of the Confederacy, Ferguson has often been dismissed by historians as a cold-blooded killer. In Confederate Outlaw: Champ Ferguson and the Civil War in Appalachia biographer Brian D. McKnight demonstrates how such a simple judgment ignores the complexity of this legendary character. In his fascinating analysis, McKnight insists that Ferguson fought the war on personal terms and with an Old Testament mentality regarding the righteousness of his cause. He believed that friends were friends and enemies were enemies–no middle ground existed. As a result, he killed prewar comrades as well as longtime adversaries without regret, all the while knowing that he might one day face his own brother, who served as a Union scout.

Ferguson’s continued popularity demonstrates that his bloody legend did not die on the gallows. Widespread rumors endured of his last-minute escape from justice, and over time, the borderland terrorist emerged as a folk hero for many southerners. Numerous authors resurrected and romanticized his story for popular audiences, and even Hollywood used Ferguson’s life to create the composite role played by Clint Eastwood in The Outlaw Josey Wales. McKnight’s study deftly separates the myths from reality and weaves a thoughtful, captivating, and accurate portrait of the Confederacy’s most celebrated guerrilla.

An impeccably researched biography, Confederate Outlaw offers an abundance of insight into Ferguson’s wartime motivations, actions, and tactics, and also describes borderland loyalties, guerrilla operations, and military retribution. McKnight concludes that Ferguson, and other irregular warriors operating during the Civil War, saw the conflict as far more of a personal battle than a political one.

Brian D. McKnight is associate professor of history at the University of Virginia’s College at Wise. His book Contested Borderland: The Civil War in Appalachian Kentucky and Virginia won the James I. Robertson Literary Prize in 2007.

So for all of you who are interested in history, or the Civil War, Appalachians or even just the sociology involved with those living in the secluded regions during this time frame… This book is for you.
So what moves a simple farmer into a brutish murderer?  Read and find out!  It will definitely capture your attention and paint, in specific details, the story for you.