By all accounts, Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson's childhood was that of a shy and lonely orphan--a nearly friendless introvert deprived of family love and rarely afforded the opportunity to live the life of an inquisitive, growing boy.
But Jackson matured to become one of this nation's great military strategists and leaders--revered by his troops, trusted by his superiors, and admired even by his adversaries.
The influences that guided this transformation from reticent boy to confident commander are explored in Stonewall Jackson's Book of Maxims, compiled and edited by James I. Robertson, Jr., Alumni Distinguished Professor of History at Virginia Tech and executive director of the university's Virginia Center for Civil War Studies.
The maxims--Jackson's self-selected principles of personal conduct and self-improvement--are brief and to the point. They were recorded by the general in a small blue-marbled notebook over a five-year period, starting in 1848, and are largely drawn from the collective practical and philosophical teachings of others who influenced Jackson's life, including Lord Chesterfield, John Bunyan, Joel Parker, O. S. Foster, George Winfred Hervey, and, most significantly to Jackson, the Bible.
The notebook disappeared after Jackson's death in 1863. More than 120 years later, in the course of researching a detailed biography of Stonewall Jackson, Robertson uncovered the maxim book while examining other materials in the Davis Collection of Civil War manuscripts at Tulane University.
In this new book, Robertson presents the maxims in full and precisely as written by their original author. They cover five primary categories: choice of friends, rules of conversation, guides for good behavior, motives to action, and politeness and good breeding. The author accompanies each maxim with supplementary commentary about such things as the origin of the adage, quotations that parallel Jackson's statement, and the manner in which the maxim was reflected in Jackson's day-to-day life.
Jackson died after one of his own men accidentally shot him during the Battle of Chancellorsville. When informed of what had happened, General Robert E. Lee likened Jackson's death to the loss of his right arm. And while the cause that Jackson served, fought, and ultimately died for did not prevail, the true measure of the man lies in how he lived his life and in understanding the values and principles that guided his daily conduct. This important book by Robertson takes us one step closer to gaining that understanding.
