The Stonewall Brigade

James I. Robertson, Jr. -- 247 pps.

This is a historical account of the Stonewall Brigade, the legendary brigade "likened to the Macedonian Phalanx of Alexander, the Tenth Legion of Caesar, the Paladines of Charlemagne, the Ironsides of Cromwell, and the Old Guard of Napoleon." Its leader, "Tom Fool" Jackson -- compared to the likes of "Alexander the Great, Caesar, Charlemagne, Napoleon, [and] Lee" -- is given good coverage and so are many other notable characters associated with the brigade. But this story is really about those men and they terrible hardships they faced right from the beginning.

The first few months or so were fine. Bull Run, where the "Rebel Yell" was first unleashed, was excellent for the Confederacy, and raised spirits. Occupying the area around Winchester was also great (men would approach the militia Jackson had commissioned to watch the town, tell the militia men they were there to wrangle up sneaks, and would then go drink and pillage) for the graycoats. But once the winter of '61 hit, the suffering began.

Suffer my snowball!

Robertson has an exceptional eye for interesting characters and anecdotes. A favorite is Robert Lewis Dabney, chaplain and Jackson's chief of staff, who was somewhat portly, could not control his horse, and spent much time attempting to keep his coonskin cap on his head and his Prince Albert jacket on his torso. Some of the more memorable tales include Jackson's men collecting whiskey in jars while Jackson forced their comrades to pour the "vile juice" off a cliff and a giant snowball fight in the winter of '64. "If all battles would terminate that way it would be a great improvement on the old slaughtering plan," remarked Chris Casler, famous for his autobiographical Four Years in the Stonewall Brigade.

Asides like this help the reader through the occasionally gruesome depictions of violence (people's faces getting shot through; horses being eviscerated; men being burned alive with the dead) and absolutely horrible conditions the men faced in camp, on the march, and during the winter. The admiration of the men for their leader allows us to accept his recalcitrant approach to discipline. Early in the campaign Jackson never allowed his men to take leave -- even to see their wives only a mile or two away -- and throughout his career he treated deserters without mercy, favoring death as punishment.

Desserter? I thought you said deserter!

These dark details, however, are overwhelmed by Robertson's respect for his subjects. He is very sincere and honest in his depictions, and while there is romanticism in his telling, the end of The Stonewall Brigade is truly special. In 1891, at a dedication of a memorial to Stonewall Jackson, the veterans were assembled in Lexington. After the townsfolk arranged a surprise celebration they went to find the men, but came up emptyhanded wherever they looked. Finally they went to Jackson's statue and found the old soldiers, one of whom stood up and announced: "We've slept around him many a night on the battlefield, and we want to bivouac once more with Old Jack." And bivouac they did. What a difference a century makes.

-Heathcliff