Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 38.djvu/282

 STONEWALL JACKSON

By Captain RANDOLPH BARTON, Assistant Adjutant General of the Stonewall Brigade I. Stonewall Jackson and the American Civil War. By Major in the York and Lancaster Regiment, Professor of Military Art and History in Staff College. In 2 volumes. Longmans, Green & Co., London and New York: 1898.

An English military critic, reviewing General Longstreet's book, "From Manassas to Appomattox," says "the reminiscences of soldiers who have seen much active service are always fascinating reading. Even if the writer played but a minor part in some famous campaign, the realistic touches of a personal narrative give a life and spirit to the picture of events which is necessarily absent from more elaborate compositions." And so we have thought, after reading Lieutenant-Colonel Henderson's captivating life of Stonewall Jackson, if in its preparation he was compelled to take so much of his material second-hand, how intensely interesting his work would have been if he had been thrown in close contact with the subject of his memoir in his private life and military career. From sources which he has diligently followed, he has from time to time enlivened his books by incidents in the life of the great soldier which bring the man more and more before the reader with the interesting touch of familiarity,—but yet there is wanting the eyes that have seen him and the hands that have touched him.

We almost feel the yearning that must have possessed Colonel Henderson, as time and again he bursts into enthusiastic praise of General Jackson, to have been with him, to have looked upon the face rejoicing in the approach of battle, bracing for the awful clash, and following the well-delivered blow with the fierceness of a Nemesis. But these advantages were denied the writer, and his work was built upon the next best data, a visit to the country over which Jackson fought, a diligent correspondence with those