Rebel Yell: The Violence, Passion, and Redemption of Stonewall Jackson

S. C. Gwynne

Simon and Schuster, Sep 30, 2014 - Biography & Autobiography - 672 pages

From the author of the prize-winning 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.

Contents

• April 21 1861May 10 1863 xii: 1
• PART ONE The Unimagined: 11
• Away to Richmond: 13
• The Imperfect Logic of War: 20
• Fate Intervenes: 32
• Discipline and Other Novel Ideas: 37
• A Brilliant Retreat: 47
• Maneuvers Large and Small: 52
• All Green Alike: 65
• The Bullets Song: 73
• Scream of the Furies: 84
• PART TWO The Man Within the: 95
• Glory and Darkness: 97
• A Very Small Very Bitter Fight: 110
• A Highly Unusual Man: 119
• The Embattled Professor: 127
• Deliberately and Ingeniously Cloaked: 135
• An Upright Citizen: 151
• PART THREE VALLEY OF THE SHADOW OF DEATH: 159
• Where Is the Thunder of War?: 161
• A Preternatural Calm: 170
• A Season of Storms: 176
• A Looming Peril: 193
• The Realm of the Possible: 204
• Maps of Jacksons Valley Campaign: 208
• A Jagged Line of Blood: 212
• March 23 1862: 214
• The Shooting War: 229
• A Fools Paradise: 234
• Hazards of Command: 257
• Hunter as Prey: 266
• The Professors TimeSpeedDistance Equation: 274
• May 2325 1862: 276
• A Lethal Footrace: 282
• The Taking of Winchester: 291
• Lincolns Perfect Trap: 299
• A Strange Fondness for Traps: 312
• June 9 1862: 314
• Slaughter in a Small Place: 322
• PART FOUR STIRRINGS OF A LEGEND: 329
• Acclaim and a New Mission: 331
• The Hilljack and the Society Boy: 340
• The Defense of Richmond: 348
• June 25July 1 1862: 350
• Victory by Any Other Name: 363
• In Which Everything Changes: 383
• No Backing Out This Day: 394
• The Hum of a Beehive: 408
• At Bay on His Baptismal Soil: 423
• The Mongrel Barefooted Crew: 447
• The BloodWashed Ground: 461
• Stonewall Jacksons Way: 482
• PART FIVE: 505
• Cometh the Hour Cometh the Man: 519
• An Iron Sabre Vowed to an Iron Lord: 539
• Immortality: 552
• Acknowledgments: 563
• Notes: 577
• Bibliography: 623
• Insert Photograph Credits: 635

About the author

S.C. Gwynne is the author of His Majesty’s Airship, Hymns of the Republic, and the New York Times bestsellers Rebel Yell and Empire of the Summer Moon, which was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award. He spent most of his career as a journalist, including stints with Time as bureau chief, national correspondent, and senior editor, and with Texas Monthly as executive editor. He lives in Austin, Texas, with his wife.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Rebel Yell: The Violence, Passion, and Redemption of Stonewall Jackson
• Author: S. C. Gwynne
• Edition: illustrated
• Publisher: Simon and Schuster, 2014
• ISBN: 1451673280, 9781451673289
• Length: 672 pages
• Subjects: Biography & Autobiography / Historical; Biography & Autobiography / Military; History / United States / Civil War Period (1850-1877)