The Smoothbore Valley That Doomed the Confederacy: The Death of Stonewall Jackson and Other Chapters on the Army of Northern Virginia

by Krick, Robert K.

• ISBN13: 9780807127476
• ISBN10: 0807127477
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2002-03-01
• Publisher: Louisiana State Univ Pr

Summary

No military unit in all the annals of American history exceeds in reputation Robert E. Lee's illustrious Army of Northern Virginia. In ten chapters based on exhaustive research, esteemed Civil War scholar Robert K. Krick gives eloquent examination to aspects of the army ranging from biographical sketches and the best and worst books on the subject, to Confederate troop strengths and locating soldier records. He begins with two key events: Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson's mortal wounding at Chancellorsville; and Jackson's most famous quarrel with a subordinate, which resulted in the unsuccessful court martial of General Richard B. Garnett.

Krick continues with chapters on James Longstreet's failure at Knoxville and the prickly relationship between Jubal A. Early and the undisciplined Valley Cavalry. His piece on Robert E. Rodes is the first complete portrait of Lee's best division commander, whose wife methodically burned all of his letters sent home, forever preventing a full-scale biography. Krick, however, has uncovered a wide array of unpublished material o

Author Biography

Robert K. Krick is the author of fourteen books on the American Civil War, including Stonewall Jackson at Cedar Mountain, winner of the Douglas Southall Freeman Prize, and Conquering the Valley: Stonewall Jackson at Port Republic. For thirty years he was chief historian of the national military park that preserves the battlefields of Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, the Wilderness, and Spotsylvania, and the house where Stonewall Jackson died

Table of Contents

Preface	ix
Abbreviations	xi
The Smoothbore Volley That Doomed the Confederacy	1	(41)
The Army of Northern Virginia's Most Notorious Court-Martial: Jackson vs. Garnett	42	(15)
``If Longstreet . . . Says So, It Is Most Likely Not True'': James Longstreet and the Second Day at Gettysburg	57	(28)
Longstreet Versus McLaws---and Everyone Else---About Knoxville	85	(32)
``We Have Never Suffered a Greater Loss Save in the Great Jackson'': Was Robert E. Rodes the Army's Best Division Commander?	117	(27)
Maxcy Gregg: Political Extremist and Confederate General	144	(28)
The Coward Who Followed J. E. B. Stuart	172	(13)
``The Cause of All My Disasters'': Jubal A. Early and the Undisciplined Valley Cavalry	185	(29)
Confederate Books: Five Great Ones and Two Bad Ones	214	(24)
Confederate Soldier Records: Finding Them and Using Them	238	(27)
Index	265