By S. C. Gwynne
From the author of the prizewinning New York Times
bestseller Empire of the Summer Moon comes a thrilling account of how Civil War
general Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson became a great and tragic American hero.
Stonewall Jackson has long been a figure of legend and
romance. As much as any person in the Confederate pantheon, even Robert E. Lee,
he embodies the romantic Southern notion of the virtuous lost cause. Jackson is
also considered, without argument, one of our country’s greatest military
figures. His brilliance at the art of war tied Abraham Lincoln and the Union
high command in knots and threatened the ultimate success of the Union armies.
Jackson’s strategic innovations shattered the conventional wisdom of how war
was waged; he was so far ahead of his time that his techniques would be studied
generations into the future.
In April 1862 Jackson was merely another Confederate general
in an army fighting what seemed to be a losing cause. By June he had engineered
perhaps the greatest military campaign in American history and was one of the
most famous men in the Western world. He had, moreover, given the Confederate
cause what it had recently lacked—hope—and struck fear into the hearts of the
Union.
Rebel Yell is written with the swiftly vivid narrative that
is Gwynne’s hallmark and is rich with battle lore, biographical detail, and
intense conflict between historical figures. Gwynne delves deep into Jackson’s
private life, including the loss of his young beloved first wife and his
regimented personal habits. It traces Jackson’s brilliant twenty-four-month
career in the Civil War, the period that encompasses his rise from obscurity to
fame and legend; his stunning effect on the course of the war itself; and his
tragic death, which caused both North and South to grieve the loss of a
remarkable American hero.
About The Author
Sam Gwynne is an award-winning journalist whose work has
appeared extensively in Time, for which he worked as bureau chief, national
correspondent and senior editor from 1988 to 2000, and in Texas Monthly, where
he was executive editor. His work has also appeared in the New York Times,
Harper's, and California Magazine. His previous book Outlaw Bank (co-authored
with Jonathan Beaty) detailed the rise and fall of the corrupt global bank
BCCI. He attended Princeton and Johns Hopkins and lives in Austin, Texas with
his wife Katie and daughter Maisie.
ISBN 978-1451673289, Scribner, © 2014, Hardcover, 688 pages,
Maps, Photographs, Appendix, End Notes, Bibliography & Index.
$35.00. To purchase this book click HERE.
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