He saw that two new weapons had made attacks against defended positions almost certain to fail. Once Jackson realized that Davis was never going to authorize a decisive invasion of the North, he developed another method of winning the war. He was committed to passive defense of the South, despite the fact that it was guaranteed to fail.1 Davis refused to endorse Jackson’s strategy, although he pressed it on Davis four times. But the Confederate president, Jefferson Davis, was a decidedly third-rate leader who possessed extremely little vision or imagination. Before any Union armies could be extricated from the South, Confederate troops could cut the single railway corridor connecting Washington with Northern states, force the Abraham Lincoln administration to abandon the capital, and, by threatening the railroads, factories, farms, and mines along the great industrial corridor from Baltimore to southern Maine, compel the Northern people to give up the struggle.Ī similar assault on Southern economic prosperity was precisely the strategy that Lincoln was using to conquer the South. The only thing the South had to do to win, Jackson saw, was to invade the eastern states of the Union, where the vast majority of Northern industry was located and where most of its population resided. He recognized that the North, with three times the population of the South and eleven times its industry, was so sure of victory that it had sent practically all of its military forces into the South and had left the North almost entirely undefended. Very early, Jackson discerned a way for the South to win the Civil War with speed and few losses. He was committed to his Presbyterian religious faith, devoted to his second wife, so reserved that even his close friends seldom knew what he was thinking, dedicated to duty and the cause of Southern independence, and by far the greatest general ever produced by the American people. (Stonewall) Jackson was a unique, incredibly complicated figure. I have relied for a long time on my agent, Agnes Birnbaum, for her friendship, sage advice, and surpassing knowledge of the publishing industry, but mostly for the inspiring example she presents of a caring and considerate human being.įinally, I am most honored that my sons Bevin Jr., Troy, and David, and my daughters-in-law, Mary and Kim, have always supported me steadfastly in my long and exhausting writing ventures. Clear and comprehensible maps are mandatory for understanding military operations, and Jeffrey, in my opinion, draws the best maps in America today. Ward, drew the exceptionally accurate maps that allow the reader to follow exactly where the actions took place. Corless conceived a tasteful and truly beautiful design for the interior text. Richard Hasselberger produced a superb cover design that conveys the content of the book most effectively. She corrected all my errors, removed all roadblocks, and turned the entire endeavor into an adventure. Robin is a most remarkably sensitive, understanding, and efficient person who expedited the project most wonderfully. It has been a pleasure working with her and with Robin Barletta, editorial assistant at Berkley. I am extremely grateful to Natalee Rosenstein, vice president and senior executive editor of the Berkley Publishing Group, for her splendid, insightful, and discerning support of this project.
But his military legacy lives on and finds fitting tribute in this book. Fiercely dedicated to the cause of Southern independence, Jackson would not live to see the end of the War. In Such Troops as These, Bevin Alexander presents a compelling case for Jackson as the greatest general in American history. Jackson believed invading the eastern states from Baltimore to Maine could divide and cripple the Union, forcing surrender, but failed to convince Confederate president Jefferson Davis or General Robert E. But one general had a vision that could win the War for the South-Thomas J. With triple the population and eleven times the industry, the Union had a decided advantage over the Confederacy. The Civil War pitted the industrial North against the agricultural South, and remains one of the most catastrophic conflicts in American history. Acclaimed military historian Bevin Alexander offers a provocative analysis of Stonewall Jackson’s military genius and reveals how the Civil War might have ended differently if Jackson’s strategies had been adopted. Now in paperback-a bestselling military historian reveals how Stonewall Jackson might have won the Civil War for the Confederacy.