Guardian books biography of stonewall jackson

A magisterial new biography of Stonewall Jackson presents all sides of a complex, often inscrutable man.

By Richard F. Welch

At the time of his death in May , Lieutenant General Thomas J.

&#;Stonewall&#; Jackson was the best-known Civil War commander. Revered in the South and feared in the North, Jackson so personified the Confederacy&#;s military prowess that his portrait was featured on the highest-denomination bill issued by the Richmond government.

The ink was barely dry on the surrender papers at Appomattox when a legion of historians, biographers and memorialists of all stripes began to turn out a small mountain of publications devoted to his life and exploits. Now, with his new book, Stonewall Jackson: The Man, The Soldier, The Legend (MacMillan, New York, , $40), James I.

Robertson crowns a distinguished career devoted to the study of the Civil War with a rich, in-depth presentation of Jackson in all his complexity, tragedy and glory.

Drawing on the knowledge he accumula