Stonewall Jackson as Military Commander (review)

BOOK REVIEWS183 court testimony as to the legitimate political nature of the Sons of Liberty was "a tissue of half-truths," and that under cross-examination Vallandigham "was forced to resort to more direct perjuries (p. 243)." With none of this docs Klement agree, either in his Copperheads in the Middle West, which Starr explicitly challenges, or in his Vallandigham biography, The Limits of Dissent, which evidently appeared too late for Starr to use. Starr's most convincing evidence of conspiracy is a letter that Grenfcll wrote to a friend in England on August 31, 1864. In it he says that he is "engaged in rather dangerous speculations" and that "The North West states are ripe for revolt. If interfered with in their election they will rise (p. 179)." More evidence of this nature would add needed weight to Starr's effort to revise the revisionists. It should be noted that Starr offers his readers more than the Northwest Conspiracy. So far as the rather scant sources on Grenfell allow, he examines this reckless man's pre-Civil War adventures, his exploits in the Confederate cavalry, and his last years as a prisoner in the Dry Tortugas, where he served his sentence. There he fought with the authorities , yet selflessly nursed the sick during an epidemic of yellow fever. Then in March, 1868, he escaped in an open boat, and vanished forever in a storm in the Gulf of Mexico. Hal Bridges University of California, Riverside Stonewall Jackson as Military Commander. By John Selby. (London: B. T. Bctsforel, Ltd.; Princeton, N. J.: D. Von Nostrand Co., 1968. Pp. 251. $8.95.) For countless Americans and many Englishmen the Civil War is the great single event of United States history. The continuing interest in the struggle of the sixties is nowhere more clearly manifest than in the great number of books that have been published on the subject. The flood of literature has varied in volume but has never ceased since the early stages of the conflict itself. Even before Appomattox writers had produced works on "Stonewall " Jackson. English interest in the war, it seems, dates back primarily to the writings of Colonel G. F. R. Henderson who in 1895 came out with his classic on Jackson. Earlier he had written a tactical study of Fredericksburg. According to Jay Luvaas: "Through his (Henderson 's) teaching at the Staff College and his immensely popular writings , the Civil War acquired new significance (in England) and by the turn of the century it was the war most often cited to illustrate official doctrine." In this tradition we have the volume under review. Selby is a senior lecturer on military history at Sandhurst. The book begins at First Bull Run. After this prologue the author describes briefly Jackson's early years, education at West Point, combat experience in Mexico and life in Lexington, Virginia, as a member of 184CIVIL WAR HISTORY the Virginia Military Institute faculty. The major portion of the volume , though, is devoted to the General's Civil War campaigns. The final chapter is entitled "Assessment." Stonewall Jackson as Military Commander is good military history written by a capable professional, but unfortunately the reader will find in it little that is new of even controversial. In the valley campaign Jackson "displayed strategic and tactical skill of the highest order . . ." (p. 95) but his "part in the Seven Days' Battles did not match up to the reputation he had gained in the valley (p. 119)." Lee won the Battle of Chancellorsville "thanks to his own skill, and the spectacular genius of his principal lieutenant. ... (p. 202)." To the author Jackson "was more than a Cromwell. It would be fairer, he writes, "to call him an American Napoleon (p. 221)." Interesting illustrations and useful maps do, however, add to the value of the work. John G. Barrett Virginia Military Institute The Englishman in Kansas. By T. H. Gladstone. Introduction by Frederick Law Olmsted. Foreword by James A. Rawley. (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1971. Pp. lxvi, 328. $6.50.) Thomas Gladstone, a junior correspondent for the London Times, visited the United States in 1856. Aroused by the mass of contradictory assertions on the Kansas question...