Gwynne’s storytelling of the life of Stonewall Jackson gets
better and sharper as this history goes along. Chancellorsville is particularly
animated and thorough and in this ultimate moment Jackson’s actions and
responses mesh well with Gwynne’s evocation of the character throughout. The
biography peels back the legend. The difficulty in treating Jackson, or any Confederate,
in our modern moment, is how to treat the cause; perhaps those difficulties are
given too short shrift. Gwynne does show that, while the conflict tore the country
apart, a type of camaraderie existed across the lines.
“Let us cross over the
river and rest under the shade of the trees.”
