But no one has labeled Thomas Jonathan Jackson a "marble man," as impenetrable as the statues which commemorate his valor, because his pious Christian character, his service to the church and teaching vocation, his unwavering commitment to duty, his affectionate role as husband and father, as well as his magnificent service to Virginia and the Southern Confederacy were carefully recorded by his close friend and confidant Robert Lewis Dabney. Dr. Dabney understood, far better than most subsequent biographers, the animating principles of Stonewall Jackson's life - his personal faith in Jesus Christ and his absolute trust in the Providence of God. Labeled by some a religious fanatic, General Jackson was simply a consistent biblical Christian who lived out his faith every day, seriously and without compromise.

    

    The author, a Bostonian, was in a unique position to expose and criticize the actions of his own State, beginning with her earliest threats of secession immediately following the ratification of the Constitution and up to the outbreak of hostilities between North and South in the 1860s. Also discussed are the disastrous effects of a premature emancipation upon the Negro population of the South, including the shockingly high death toll of the former slaves due to starvation and disease, as well as the indifference of their alleged Northern benefactors to their desperate plight.