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Historian ‘Resurrects’ Confederate General By Michael N. Graff
The Winchester Star
James I. Robertson doesn’t view Stonewall Jackson through the window of a history book.
To Robertson, Jackson is more than a Confederate general, more than a topic of discussion, and more than a subject for a term paper.
Robertson feels he and Jackson are nearly family, though the two never met.
Robertson has studied Jackson since elementary school. And for the better part of the 1990s, Robertson researched Jackson so thoroughly for a biography that the general came alive from the stacks of historical records.
“He and I lived together for eight years,” Robertson said. “People don’t believe me when I say that, but I feel like we did. I have a tremendous respect for him.”
That respect isn’t carried everywhere. Jackson’s legacy pales in comparison to that of his adversary, Abraham Lincoln.
Robertson wants to help along Jackson’s reputation.
As the keynote speaker at The Knowledge Point’s Civil War Day Friday, Robertson told an overflow crowd at the Shenandoah University Historical and Tourism Center that Jackson and Lincoln weren’t all that different.
“There are amazing similarities between the two men,” Robertson said.
The two leaders were on opposite sides of the Civil War, with Jackson in the South and Lincoln in the North.
But both were self-educated, both were raised without their mothers, both grew up in rural parts of the country, both suffered from depression, both were religious, and both died during America’s deadliest war.
Above all, according to Robertson, both respected each other.
But while Lincoln is revered almost everywhere, Jackson’s name is virtually synonymous with slavery.
Robertson said he believes Jackson actually was against slavery, and that he only fought so diligently for the South because he was protecting his homeland.
“Stonewall Jackson was difficult to understand,” Robertson said. “And he was difficult to understand because he was so simple.”
Robertson, a Danville native and professor of history at Virginia Tech, says his first term paper in the fifth grade was on Jackson.
His 950-page biography, “Stonewall Jackson: The Man, The Soldier, the Legend,” has sold more than 150,000 copies, he said.
More recently, Robertson was the chief historical consultant for the movie “Gods and Generals,” a film in which Jackson’s character was the protagonist.
The film was met with mixed reviews, and Robertson said those who didn’t like it “are scared to death of fact,” alluding to the movie’s positive portrayal of the Confederate soldiers.
The biography, published in 1997, created a more positive stir, Robertson said.
Robertson said the main criticism of the book was that it took too long to reach Jackson’s death.
“Well, I’m guilty,” Robertson said. “It took forever for me to let him go...The day I wrote the chapter of him dying, I cried. It was so hard for me to let him go.”
The Knowledge Point honored Robertson with a President’s Award for an outstanding Civil War publication.
Also, the Cornerstone Group, which works to preserve local battlefields Cedar Creek and Belle Grove, received an award for Civil Rights preservation. Trish and Harry Ridgeway of the Old Court House Civil War Museum were honored for Civil War education.
The Winchester Star
James I. Robertson doesn’t view Stonewall Jackson through the window of a history book.
To Robertson, Jackson is more than a Confederate general, more than a topic of discussion, and more than a subject for a term paper.
Robertson feels he and Jackson are nearly family, though the two never met.
Robertson has studied Jackson since elementary school. And for the better part of the 1990s, Robertson researched Jackson so thoroughly for a biography that the general came alive from the stacks of historical records.
 James Robertson, an expert on Stonewall Jackson, speaks at The Knowledge Point Lecture Series Civil War Day at Shenandoah University Friday. The historian said he cried when he wrote of Jackson’s death in his 950-page biography. (Photo by Ginger Perry) |
That respect isn’t carried everywhere. Jackson’s legacy pales in comparison to that of his adversary, Abraham Lincoln.
Robertson wants to help along Jackson’s reputation.
As the keynote speaker at The Knowledge Point’s Civil War Day Friday, Robertson told an overflow crowd at the Shenandoah University Historical and Tourism Center that Jackson and Lincoln weren’t all that different.
“There are amazing similarities between the two men,” Robertson said.
The two leaders were on opposite sides of the Civil War, with Jackson in the South and Lincoln in the North.
But both were self-educated, both were raised without their mothers, both grew up in rural parts of the country, both suffered from depression, both were religious, and both died during America’s deadliest war.
Above all, according to Robertson, both respected each other.
But while Lincoln is revered almost everywhere, Jackson’s name is virtually synonymous with slavery.
Robertson said he believes Jackson actually was against slavery, and that he only fought so diligently for the South because he was protecting his homeland.
“Stonewall Jackson was difficult to understand,” Robertson said. “And he was difficult to understand because he was so simple.”
Robertson, a Danville native and professor of history at Virginia Tech, says his first term paper in the fifth grade was on Jackson.
His 950-page biography, “Stonewall Jackson: The Man, The Soldier, the Legend,” has sold more than 150,000 copies, he said.
More recently, Robertson was the chief historical consultant for the movie “Gods and Generals,” a film in which Jackson’s character was the protagonist.
The film was met with mixed reviews, and Robertson said those who didn’t like it “are scared to death of fact,” alluding to the movie’s positive portrayal of the Confederate soldiers.
The biography, published in 1997, created a more positive stir, Robertson said.
Robertson said the main criticism of the book was that it took too long to reach Jackson’s death.
“Well, I’m guilty,” Robertson said. “It took forever for me to let him go...The day I wrote the chapter of him dying, I cried. It was so hard for me to let him go.”
The Knowledge Point honored Robertson with a President’s Award for an outstanding Civil War publication.
Also, the Cornerstone Group, which works to preserve local battlefields Cedar Creek and Belle Grove, received an award for Civil Rights preservation. Trish and Harry Ridgeway of the Old Court House Civil War Museum were honored for Civil War education.