Searching for Stonewall Jackson

May 6, 2019
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.

June 1, 2019
Virginia-based writer and teacher/historian Cleary takes on a thorny modern issue: How do we commemorate those dead who fought for the Confederates? Thomas Jonathan "Stonewall" Jackson spent a decade teaching at Virginia Military Institute, a job for which he was perhaps not entirely suited. "Then suddenly, with the war," writes the author, "he came into his own: commanding, organizing, fighting." Beloved of his soldiers and honored by foe Ulysses S. Grant as "a gallant soldier and Christian gentleman," he fought doggedly for the Confederate cause in what he called "our second War of Independence" while, as Cleary notes, never apologizing for or openly supporting slavery. (Jackson did, however, own six slaves.) The author's investigation into Jackson's life and times begins with our own, with a Virginia monument that park rangers called "Stonewall on steroids," which was sculpted just before World War II and has the feel of an anti-Axis superhero. While an antihero to many, Jackson is revered in the South, especially among Virginians. On that score, Cleary gamely recalls a showdown with a New York academic who disparaged Southern boorishness: "My assertion that I was a Virginian--which to a southerner would have stopped her diatribe immediately--did nothing to check the flow." Yet, of course, that New Yorker had a point to make. Furthermore, writes the author, who spent many years teaching mostly African American students in the juvenile justice system and laments the "consequences of poverty and neglect, the legacy of the slavery that Johnson was fighting to defend," that point needs to be heard out in Southern quarters. Cleary, who observes that "interest in the Civil War is a middle-aged white guy kind of thing," is both sensitive and sensible, and readers along the way will learn both of Jackson's gallantry and the essential wrongness of the enterprise for which he died. An honest, searching book sure to tread on the toes of supremacists and iconoclasts alike.

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June 21, 2019

Historian Cleary's debut is part reverent tribute to Confederate Gen. Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson and part vacation diary of visits to historic sites associated with the Southern Civil War hero. The author's admiring account of Jackson's campaigns also documents his own reactions, as he follows the general's path from Manassas, VA, through the Shenandoah Valley to his mortal wounding at the Battle of Chancellorsville. Cleary's sources for the historical narrative reflect traditional takes on Jackson's successes and setbacks. What distinguishes this book from others is the author's juxtaposition of Jackson's exploits with his own hagiographic reflections. Besides recording his efforts to follow Jackson's route, Cleary opines that contemporary lack of appreciation for the sort of Southern valor that Jackson represented decries the demise of historical knowledge and preservation of Civil War history. Cleary's discursive commentary includes quirky remarks about popular culture and occasional condescending observations about people he encounters. He mentions the nation's current racial and social divisions and expresses his disappointment that more people do not revere Jackson as much as he does. VERDICT Although the book may appeal to devoted fans of this hero of the Confederacy, it fails to provide new insight into Jackson's character or accomplishments.--Charles K. Piehl, Minnesota State Univ., Mankato

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