The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 61, July 1957 - April, 1958 Page: 552
591 p. : ill., maps, ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
Extracted Text
The following text was automatically extracted from the image on this page using optical character recognition software:
Southwestern Historical Quarterly
Virginia, it was published in London soon after the appearance
there of her better remembered Life in the South (2 vols., 1863).
Of the 1863 biographies, that by Cooke, a member of Jeb
Stuart's staff and an established literary figure, was the only one
of more than passing interest. (A biography attributed on the
spine to "Daniels of Richmond," i. e., John M. Daniel, editor
of the Examiner, was actually a pirated New York and London
edition of Cooke.) A second version of the book, substantially
improved and enlarged by two revisions, was brought out by
Appleton in 1866 under title Stonewall Jackson: A Military
Biography, and handsomely reissued with an appendix in 1876.
Writing hastily from inadequate sources, Cooke had little to offer
the scholar, but his book possessed enough vividness and pace to
be kept in print a half century or more and to be called "still
deservedly popular" in 1898 and again in 1924.
Immediately after Jackson's death the preparation of an author-
ized biography was entrusted to the Reverend R. L. Dabney, then
a forceful teacher of conservative Presbyterian theology, later a
member of the original faculty of the University of Texas.
Dabney's intellectual powers, his three months' service as chief
of Jackson's staff from McDowell to Malvern Hill, and his access
to private and official papers, enabled him to produce a major
biography. Published first in England (2 vols., London, 1864,
1866; 333+527 pp.), then in America (New York, 1866; 742 PP.),
his Life and Campaigns of Jackson remained for more than thirty
years easily the best life. It had grave faults, to be sure, and Henry
Kyd Douglas, whose posthumously published I Rode With Stone-
wall (1940) was to enjoy phenomenal popularity, tells us that
Dabney's book was never a favorite with those who had been
"around and about Jackson in the dust and blood of his cam-
paigns." To readers of a later day Dabney would inevitably seem
a strong-minded, incipiently bigoted clergyman, a bitter Southern
partisan, and an involved stylist. Yet all subsequent serious biog-
raphers have been heavily in Dabney's debt, and Texans are par-
ticularly obliged to him for telling how Jackson, after examining
the position carried by Hood's Texas Brigade at Gaines' Mill,
paid them his supreme compliment: "These men are soldiers
indeed!"552
Upcoming Pages
Here’s what’s next.
Search Inside
This issue can be searched. Note: Results may vary based on the legibility of text within the document.
Tools / Downloads
Get a copy of this page or view the extracted text.
Citing and Sharing
Basic information for referencing this web page. We also provide extended guidance on usage rights, references, copying or embedding.
Reference the current page of this Periodical.
Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 61, July 1957 - April, 1958, periodical, 1958; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101164/m1/660/: accessed March 29, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.