To the Editors:
In regard to Richard Tillinghastβs review of S. C. Gwynneβs new biography of Thomas J. Jackson:
The 1st Tennessee Volunteer Infantry Regiment, the unit in which Sam Watkins served, most certainly did not fight βunder Jackson in the famous Valley campaign.β Sam Watkins and the rest of his regiment were in Corinth, Mississippi, licking their wounds after the Battle of Shiloh in the spring of 1862 when Jacksonβs βfoot cavalryβ were performing their spectacular feats in the Shenandoah Valley. The 1st Tennessee did, however, participate in the (West) Virginia mountain campaign of the previous year. Presumably this is the βValleyβ campaign Tillinghast is thinking of.
Also, long before the War in which he earned the nickname βStonewall,β Jackson was derisively called βOld Blue Lightβ by the students at VMI as a poke at his Presbyterian piety. Tillinghast apparently thinks this appellation was granted as a comment on his wartime nobility.
Either Tillinghast is passing on Gwynneβs errors unnoticed, or they are Tillinghastβs own errors. In either case, doubts are raised as to whether he is the right person to review this book.
Stewart White
Gainesville, Florida
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To read Richard Tillinghastβs reply please click here.
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