The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 65, July 1961 - April, 1962 Page: 283
663 p. : ill., maps (some col.), ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Book Reviews
ton, besides attending both the Army and Navy War Colleges. In
World War II, because of failing health, Thomason suffered the
great disappointment of his career in being unable to lead marines
in battle again. His biographer, having access to Thomason's
voluminous sketches, correspondence, and writings, has brought
together the essential facts in the life of this active man.
Colonel Thomason wrote about and drew sketches of fighting
men. He was a combat soldier himself, winning the Navy Cross
and the Silver Star for heroism in World War I. His illustrated
short stories concerning marines, although fiction, invariably were
based on his own experiences or on observations as a marine
officer whether in France, in the Caribbean countries, aboard ship,
or in North China. Colonel Willock writes interestingly and with
authority about the Marine Corps and the history of this period
in order to give a clear understanding of Thomason's professional
life which influenced his artistic and literary work. The reader
will be reminded of the 192o's when the United States, in keeping
with international law and without fear of unfriendly criticism,
did not hesitate to intervene in Cuba and other Caribbean coun-
tries to protect the lives and property of her citizens. In those
days United States policy makers realized that the average Latin
American was a realist who desired most of all to be on the strong-
est side.
The author emphasizes the point that Colonel Thomason's
books and sketches of the Southern soldier in the War Between
the States were the result of solid research or founded upon the
experiences of some Confederate whose stories and anecdotes he
had heard in his youth. His excellent biography of Jeb Stuart
necessitated a tedious study of historical sources and a thorough
knowledge of the terrain traversed by this incomparable cavalry-
man and his troopers. Growing up in Huntsville at the turn of
the century, John W. Thomason learned about the War Between
the States from the lips of combat veterans of that bloody conflict.
His maternal grandfather was one of Longstreet's staff officers;
four great-uncles were in Hood's Texas Brigade, and a fifth served
in the Trans-Mississippi. Thomason attended Confederate re-
unions where he listened to the old soldiers reminisce and met
and heard addresses by Generals Joseph Wheeler, Fitzhugh Lee,283
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 65, July 1961 - April, 1962, periodical, 1962; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101195/m1/317/: accessed April 23, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.