DANVILLE, Va. - Danville native Dr. James I. "Bud" Robertson Jr. was honored by the Danville Museum of Fine Arts and History Sunday by being inducted in the museum's Hall of Fame. He is the 16th person to be so honored.
Accepting the award tearfully, Robertson said, "I cannot tell you how overwhelmed I am. I wish I could, but I can't, and I'm having a hard time.
"I left here 15 months ago with a broken heart and said I'd never come back, but I did," he said. "I have plaques hanging all over my walls, but this one will occupy a special place."
Fifteen months ago, he made the decision not to pursue placing his proposed Civil War museum in Danville due to lack of funding and support from the city government, he said in an interview with the Register & Bee at that time.
The museum's Hall of Fame was begun in 1974 to recognize and honor local citizens with outstanding achievements. The following criteria are used, according to a museum press release: "Those included should be persons of note who have worked within the area and who by achievement in their respective field have attained such national stature as to reflect credit upon themselves and consequently upon Danville and Pittsylvania County."
A great-grandson of a Confederate soldier, Robertson has authored more than 20 books and hundreds of articles on the Civil War, besides receiving "every major award in the field of Civil War history," according to the release.
The movie "Gods and Generals" was based on his biography of Stonewall Jackson, for which he served as an historical consultant. He is the alumni distinguished Professor in History at Virginia Tech and the executive director of the Virginia Center for Civil War Studies.
In December, Robertson published Robert E. Lee, a biography of the Civil War hero for young people.
"It is designed for teenagers," he said, "but Simon & Schuster said most buyers are grandmothers, and the numbers sold correspond to the numbers of grandchildren."
He is currently "between books," he said, because for the first time he had to abandon a writing project.
"I was going to do a medical history on Lee's Army, but the National Archives contacted me and told me that the medical records had been destroyed when Richmond was burned in April of 1865," he said.
He did, however, finish compiling a list Saturday of Confederate surgeons. "The traditional count of Confederate surgeons was 2,200, but I have found over 6,000," he said.
He hopes to receive a grant to publish the list and then donate the book to historical societies, public libraries and college libraries.
"The Confederate surgeons have bee totally overlooked, but they at least deserve to have their names listed," he said. "We need to see these guys who knew so little about medicine but gave their all."
In a question-and-answer session after the presentation, Robertson kept the audience laughing with his Civil War anecdotes.
But he ended on a serious note by speaking of the need for heroes like Lee in America today.
"If you keep looking at the ground, you never know where you're going, but if you raise your eyes and see the peaks, which are heroes, you know where you are going," he said.
He then challenged members of the audience to ask themselves when they left if "America is morally better in any way than 30 years ago."
One solution is to study history, he suggested. "The only way we can hope is to know from whence we came so we'll know where we're going."
Contact Susan Elzey at selzey@registerbee.com or (434) 791-7991.
