Searching for Stonewall Jackson
A Quest for Legacy in a Divided America
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- $14.99
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
Historian Ben Cleary takes readers beyond the legend of Stonewall Jackson and directly onto the Civil War battlefields on which he fought, and where a country once again finds itself at a crossroads.
Thomas Jonathan "Stonewall" Jackson was the embodiment of Southern contradictions. He was a slave owner who fought and died, at least in part, to perpetuate slavery, yet he founded an African-American Sunday School and personally taught classes for almost a decade. For all his sternness and rigidity, Jackson was a deeply thoughtful and incredibly intelligent man. But his reputation and mythic status, then and now, was due to more than combat success. In a deeply religious age, he was revered for a piety that was far beyond the norm. How did one man meld his religion with the institution of slavery? How did he reconcile it with the business of killing, at which he so excelled?
In SEARCHING FOR STONEWALL JACKSON, historian Ben Cleary examines not only Jackson's life, but his own, contemplating what it means to be a white Southerner in the 21st century. Now, as statues commemorating the Civil War are toppled and Confederate flags come down, Cleary walks the famous battlefields, following in the footsteps of his subject as he questions the legacy of Stonewall Jackson and the South's Lost Cause at a time when the contentions of politics, civil rights, and social justice are at a fever pitch.
Combining nuanced, authoritative research with deeply personal stories of life in the modern American South, SEARCHING FOR STONEWALL JACKSON is a thrilling, vivid portrait of a soldier, a war, and a country still contending with its past.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this complex contemplation, former Virginia park ranger Cleary follows the Confederate general Stonewall Jackson's wartime trail in a quest to understand both the maddeningly secretive man and the cultural value of studying a 150-year-old war. That Jackson had marched down Cleary's childhood road sparked an early, intense interest in the Confederate leader, seemingly at odds with Cleary's egalitarian beliefs. Throughout the narrative, Cleary reflects honestly on lessons he learned from teaching African-American teens in juvenile prison while struggling to understand Jackson, who started a Sunday school for black children but fought with passion for the slaveholding South. This dichotomy results in engaging depictions of war, including discussions of Jackson's military genius and jaw-dropping mistakes (such as vindictively court-martialing a fellow officer for allowing his ammunitionless unit to retreat from a battle), alternating with contemplations of recent events including the racially motivated Charleston church shooting. Beginning with the First Battle of Manassas, Cleary retraces Jackson's steps in chronological order, visiting preserved battlefields and others turned into highways, commercial development, and subdivisions. Cleary enlists National Park Service experts to help him navigate lesser-known places and access isolated private properties, some of which allow easy visualization of the war's events amidst thick undergrowth. While he finds no resolution, Cleary provides a thoughtful, accessible look into both Jackson and the continued relevance of the Civil War.