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 WASHINGTON,
June 17, 2012 – A hundred and fifty years after Confederate Army
Maj. Gen. Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson's Valley Campaign, a
renowned Civil War historian spoke about it at the Pentagon,
describing how a great success can boost a military leader's
reputation to the point that it has a major impact on his future
operations.
Robert K. Krick delivered a presentation June 15,
titled “Stonewall Jackson's Rise to Prominence and the Shenandoah
Valley Campaign,” as part of a speaker series sponsored by the
Historical Office within the Office of the Secretary of Defense.
Krick spent four decades as a National Park Service historian and
retired as the chief historian at the Fredericksburg and
Spotsylvania National Military Park in Virginia. He is the author of
20 books and more than 200 articles on the American Civil War.
During the Valley Campaign, which lasted from late March until
early June 1862, Jackson used speed and bold tactics that enabled
him to successfully engage much more numerous Union forces and
prevent them from reinforcing an offensive against the Confederate
capital of Richmond, Va. Jackson drove his 17,000 men to march 646
miles in 48 days in Virginia's Shenandoah Valley, defeating Union
Armies totaling more than 52,000 men in several battles.
The
general's success in the Valley Campaign created an “unbelievable
metamorphosis” in his public image, according to Krick. Though
Jackson had earned his nickname of “Stonewall” for standing firm at
the First Battle of Bull Run on July 21, 1861, Krick said that
before the Valley Campaign he was known primarily for being “odd”
and “eccentric.” In fact, some of his subordinates held him in such
low esteem in early 1862 that they jointly wrote a letter
complaining about him to the secretary of war and the president
himself.
At the beginning of the Valley Campaign, Jackson's
soldiers were “decidedly uncertain” about his abilities, and some
were actually scornful of him, Krick said. The historian described
the general as a dour man who held a “generally stern worldview.” He
was partly deaf, very secretive and had almost no sense of humor.
Before the war, he had been a relative failure as a professor of
natural philosophy and instructor of artillery at the Virginia
Military Institute. Students complained about him, asked for his
removal and called him “Tom Fool.”
Everything changed for
Jackson in that spring of 1862. “By the time the Valley campaign was
over, everyone recognized Jackson's genius,” Krick said.
Jackson's success in the campaign was sorely needed good news for
the Confederacy, Krick said, and it made the general one of the most
famous and adored southern military leaders. His new status as a
genius boosted the morale of southern troops, who thought he could
help lead them to victory, and it demoralized Union forces, who had
come to believe he was such a formidable opponent that it would be
very difficult to defeat him. This attitude very likely helped
Jackson in subsequent military engagements, according to the
historian.
“People succeed far more often when they think
they will succeed,” Krick said. “And they fail far more often when
they think they will fail.”
The historian noted that Jackson
was an old-fashioned, devotedly religious man. He believed in
predestination and thought he was “God's instrument on earth” during
the conflict. Even when failed terribly during the Seven Days
Battles around Richmond from June 25 to July 1 1862, the general's
faith in himself did not waver, and neither did Confederate
soldiers' faith in his abilities as a commander.
“Jackson's
greatest talent on the battlefield was that he had his jaw clenched
more tightly than anyone else on either side,” Krick said. “He stuck
to it.”
In an interview with the American Force Press Service
conducted after the presentation, Krick reinforced the notion of
Jackson's determination as his biggest asset.
“When things
got chaotic and foggy and messy, he was more determined than
anyone,” Krick said. “That really was his number one
characteristic.”
Krick noted during the interview that
Jackson is among the dozen or so most famous American military
commanders of all time, despite lacking “that unbelievable capacity
to determine what the enemy might to do and make the perfect
counterpoint” that Frederick the Great and many other great
commanders seemed to have.
“Jackson had very few resources in
the valley. All he had was a small army and a lot of determination
and will power, and he built that into something more than it was,
which then gave him the opportunity on broader fields to do the same
thing again,” Krick said. “I imagine that's a universal ... human
equation. Since the first people started slinging javelins at one
another, determination and dedication have been an important
feature.”
During the interview, Krick said that those
qualities would also serve today's battlefield commanders.
“It's hard to imagine there will ever be a human period of stress,
turmoil and danger in which iron will, determination, dedication and
willingness to stick to it do not succeed in some degree and then
persuade the people who have to help you that you can succeed
further,” he said.
Jackson achieved the rank of lieutenant
general in the Confederate Army. He died on May 10, 1863, eight days
after being mistakenly shot by Confederate troops during the Battle
of Chancellorsville.
By John Valceanu
American Forces Press Service
Copyright 2012
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