| Blood Image: Turner Ashby in the Civil War and the Southern Mind Contributor(s): Anderson, Paul Christopher (Author) |
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ISBN: 080713161X ISBN-13: 9780807131619 Publisher: LSU Press OUR PRICE: $17.96 Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats Published: March 2006 Annotation: With Blood Image, his compellingly original biography of Confederate cavalry leader Turner Ashby, Paul Anderson demonstrates that the symbol of a man can be just as important as the man himself. Renowned as a born leader, graceful horseman, and violent partisan warrior, Turner Ashby was one of the most famous fighting men of the Civil War. Rising to colonel of the 7th Virginia Cavalry, Ashby fought brilliantly under Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson during the 1862 Shenandoah Valley campaign until he died in battle near Harrisonburg, Virginia. These bare facts of Ashby's wartime exploits scarcely convey the majesty and shaping force of the legend that grew around him while he lived and fought. Anderson explores how and why Ashby's admirers in the Shenandoah Valley made him into their essential icon of "home." Anderson also demonstrates that Ashby's image -- a catalytic, mesmerizing, and often contradictory combination of southern antebellum cultural ideals and wartime hopes and fears -- emerged during his own lifetime and was not a later creation of the Lost Cause. Recognizing the power of Ashby's fame as knightly horseman, family defender, natural man and savage, and Confederate warrior, Anderson boldly organizes his study in four radial chapters that capture and reflect the circular energy of those images, each facet reinforcing and refreshing the others. With superb scholarship he shows that the force of Ashby's image was double-edged: it inspired admirers in the Shenandoah Valley, but it also shielded them from the savagery of a war that challenged the very ideals at the heart of their defense of home. |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - History | United States - Civil War Period (1850-1877) - Biography & Autobiography | Military - Biography & Autobiography | Historical |
| Dewey: 973.742 |
| Series: Conflicting Worlds |
| Physical Information: 0.81" H x 6.02" W x 8.74" (0.89 lbs) 258 pages |
| Themes: - Chronological Period - 1851-1899 - Topical - Civil War - Cultural Region - South |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: With Blood Image, Paul Anderson shows that the symbol of a man can be just as important as the man himself. Turner Ashby was one of the most famous fighting men of the Civil War. Rising to colonel of the 7th Virginia Cavalry, Ashby fought brilliantly under Thomas J. Stonewall Jackson during the 1862 Shenandoah Valley campaign until he died in battle. Anderson demonstrates that Ashby's image -- a catalytic, mesmerizing, and often contradictory combination of southern antebellum cultural ideals and wartime hopes and fears -- emerged during his own lifetime and was not a later creation of the Lost Cause. The stylistic synergy of Anderson's startling narrative design fuels a poignant irony: men like Ashby -- a chivalrous, charismatic knight who had difficulty complying with Stonewall Jackson's authority -- become trapped by the desire to have their real lives reflect their imagined ones. |