Books by "James Daniel Lynch"
12 books found
Here, seen through the eyes of the men themselves, is the story of the Confederacy’s legendary Stonewall Brigade. Most Civil War accounts treat of battles and armies. The focus of this exciting account is sharper, narrower: a single brigade, the basic unit of attack of one of those armies. The Stonewall Brigade and its first commander, Thomas J. Jackson, won their nickname at the bloody baptism of First Manassas. Over the next four years "Jackson’s foot cavalry" achieved fame and sustained losses matched by few American military units before or since. There were some 2,600 men serving in the brigade at the start of the war. At Appomattox-thirty-nine engagements later-only 210 remained, none above the rank of captain. But these men from out of the Valley of Virginia had written their names upon the pages of history. In The Stonewall Brigade the author, a distinguished scholar of the Civil War, has given equal billing with the immortal Jackson to such soldiers as Lieutenant David Barton, Captain Kyd Douglas, and Private John Casler. He has attempted to capture the camp life, the marches, the personal experiences in battle rather than concentrate on well-known strategy and familiar Confederate leaders. Similarly, descriptions of battles are written from within the ranks rather than from command posts. The result is a vivid and often moving account of courage and cowardice, triumph and heartbreak-and endurance perhaps without parallel.
James L. Robertson focuses on folk encountering their constitutions and laws, in their courthouses and country stores, and in their daily lives, animating otherwise dry and inaccessible parchments. Robertson begins at statehood and continues through war and depression, well into the 1940s. He tells of slaves petitioning for freedom, populist sentiments fueling abnegation of the rule of law, the state’s many schemes for enticing Yankee capital to lift a people from poverty, and its sometimes tragic, always colorful romance with whiskey after the demise of national Prohibition. Each story is sprinkled with fascinating but heretofore unearthed facts and circumstances. Robertson delves into the prejudices and practices of the times, local landscapes, and daily life and its dependence on our social compact. He offers the unique perspective of a judge, lawyer, scholar, and history buff, each role having tempered the lessons of the others. He focuses on a people, enriching encounters most know little about. Tales of understanding and humanity covering 130 years of heroes, rascals, and ordinary folk—with a bundle of engaging surprises—leave the reader pretty sure there’s nothing quite like Mississippi history told by a sage observer.