to create an illusion of depth and complexitynin what is essentially a childishlynsimple story. Historical trappings arenprovided by the appearance of a figurennamed “Tom Jackson.” who is supposednto represent Stonewall Jackson, one ofnthe two authentic military geniuses producednby the Confederacy. Mr. Keneally’snmethod of “humanizing” GeneralnJackson appears when one of his aides,nfollowing his leader at a gallop, reflects:n”Tom Jackson was answering some secretnurgency, most likely one of thosencrazy black urgencies that were moreninside his bowels than in the outsidenworld.” Other details are provided: thatnStonewall Jackson was a “hypochondriac”nwhen he taught at military school:nthat he was a “country boy.” This is ansomewhat astonishing way to treat sonrenowned and well-known a figure, evennin a novel. It is as if a writer chose tonset his tale during the Italian campaign,ncentered his concentration upon anFrench foot soldier, and introducednNapoleon mainly in terms of beingnshort, of having been the butt of hisnfellow cadets in an earlier time, and ofnbeing subject to “black urgencies” basednon his digestion.nNevertheless. Mr. Keneally chose ansignificant personage and an importantnperiod: there is no doubt that Jacksonnrose to fame after his brilliant Shenandoahncampaign. Allan Nevins. a morenserious observer, wrote: “the legend ofnhis ways — his insistence on action,nmovement, quick-step, ‘bay”nets andngrape’ always characteristic, but so toonhis rocklike firmness in defense—possessednthe South, and helped animatenhis soldiers:n’We see him now—the queer slouchednhatnCocked o’er his eyes askewnThe shrewd dry smile, the speech sonpatnSo calm, so blunt, so true.’ “*n*Allan Nevins, The War for the Union,n”Vol.IIiCharlesScribner’sSons, New York),np. 129.nThis does not come through innKeneally’s version: neither does thenincompetence of the Northern GeneralnPope, whom Stonewall Jackson andnRobert E. Lee so signally defeated. Fornthat matter. Robert E. Lee does not appearnat all. There might as well havenbeen no General McClellan: Lincoln isnglimpsed only briefly. Instead the Australiannnovelist chose a fictional warncorrespondent for the London Times,nwhom he calls Stearcy. Stearcy is inventednto express an anti-Southern positionnat a time when the Times and virtuallynall upper-class Englishmen werenactually bitterly anti-Northern. In general,nthe British government and its topnintellectuals believed the United StatesnSouth—a’Dout a short war. Within anweek after Antietam. Lincoln issued hisnProclamation and slaves began to desertnthe South. Further and deeper still thannthese results was the realization thatnthe old United States, with its intellectualnlinks to the 18th century and itsnfaith in the power of logic and reason,nhad ended at Antietam to be replacednby power. This great turn in the road,nwith all its implications for Americansnand other peoples as well, is invisiblento a Keneally caught in the lubricitiesnof a Bumpass scenario.nHis final pages attempt to bring thenreader some information on the eventualnfate of the Bumpasses. of StonewallnJackson’s death and other conclusions.n”The best novel about the American Civil “War since The Red Badge of Courage. “n—Newsweeknwas about to collapse due to inherentnflaws. That view was shared by NapoleonnIII, who decided Mexico was hisnfor the taking. It was shared by most ofnthe chancellories of Europe, wherenAmericans were held in general contemptnas upstarts, democrats, rabblerousersnand demagogues, “Von Moltkensaid the armies in the field in the firstnyear of the Civil War were nothing butn”armed mobs.” There was a generalnEuropean sense that Americans hadnfailed to live up to their own rhetoricnby not resolving the issue of slaverynand tariffs in a civilized manner.nUnfortunately Keneally does notnallow the reader to see any of this: hisnattention is fastened upon loins andnrumps and not on higher regions. Heneven indulges in evil speculations aboutnthe marital bed of Stonewall Jacksonnand his wife. The narrative is brought tona close shortly after Antietam. Oncenagain Keneally fails to tell the audiencenwhy this bloody collision was so significant.nHe is mesmerized by dismemberednbodies and amputations, death and gore.nCertainly the record verifies these, butnit is also clear that it was Antietamnwhich ended all illusions—North ornnna la Robert Bolt’s fascinating summarynin A Man for All Seasons. But Keneallynlacks Bolt’s ability to penetrate the spiritualnessence and the moral significancenof the historical characters he has chosennto portray, or of the fictional personsnhe has introduced.nWere it not for the eminence andninternational character of the publishernone would simply turn trom such a travestynof a novel with a shrug. But thennumber of writers who have turnedntoward trashing America’s history isnbeginning to assume the proportions ofna movement. A Wall Street Journalncritic recently commented on GorenVidal’s tendency to spread “highly tendentiousnviews of our history calculatednto spread ill-founded notions about ournpast to younger readers lamentably illeducatednin history and inclined to acceptna plausible fiction as gospel.”* Thencredulity of younger Americans andntheir propensity to accept versions of ournnational history that equate our forbearsnwith nazis and fascists, genooidaln*Edmund Fuller, Wall Street Journal,nMarch 23, 198L p. 22.nSeptember/October 1981n