Virginia Historical Society Podcast

On May 7 at noon, S. C. Gwynne delivered a Banner Lecture entitled "Rebel Yell: The Violence, Passion, and Redemption of Stonewall Jackson." Stonewall Jackson has long been a figure of legend and romance. He is considered, without argument, one of America’s greatest military figures. Jackson’s brilliance at the art of war tied Abraham Lincoln and the Union high command in knots and threatened the ultimate success of the Union armies. In April 1862, Jackson was merely another Confederate general in an army fighting what seemed to be a losing cause. By June he had engineered perhaps the greatest military campaign in American history and was one of the most famous men in the western world. S. C. Gwynne’s Rebel Yell is a vivid narrative that delves deep into Jackson’s private life, including the loss of his beloved first wife and his regimented personal habits. Gwynne traces Jackson’s brilliant twenty-four-month career in the Civil War; his stunning effect on the course of the war itself; and his tragic death, w