The Long Roll

By Mary Johnston

Book Overview

Before Gone with the Wind exploded into print, Mary Johnston's The Long Roll was one of the definitive novels about the Civil War. Johnston peels away some of the historical romance of the cavalry and shows how vital artillery was in the battles, while paying close attention to the importance of planning and patience, and the role of roads, rail, horse, and boat, mixing all of these elements with descriptions of raw courage and reckless abandon.

"The two rode on. To left and right were lighted streets of tents, visited here and there by substantial cabins. Soldiers were everywhere, dimly seen within the tents where the door-flap was fastened back, about the camp-fires in open places, clustering like bees in the small squares, everywhere apparent in the foreground and divined in the distance. From somewhere came the strains of 'Yankee Doodle.' A gust of wind blew out the folds of the stars and stripes, fastened above some regimental headquarters. The city of tents and of frame structures hasty and crude, of fires in open places, of Butlers' shops and canteens and booths of strolling players, of chapels and hospitals, of fluttering flags and wandering music, of restless blue soldiers, oscillating like motes in some searchlight of the giants, persisted for a long distance. At last it died away; there came a quiet field or two, then the old Maryland town of Frederick."from The Long Roll

Before Gone with the Wind exploded into print, Mary Johnston's The Long Roll was one of the definitive novels about the Civil War. Unlike Mitchell's novel of Southern aristocracy, however, Johnston sets her tale among the fighting armies. The Long Roll begins with secession and ends with the funeral of Stonewall Jackson. Our protagonists are Richard Cleave of Virginia, and General Jackson himself, who begins the novel as a major. Cleaves' action in the Confederate artillery alternates with Jackson's cavalry maneuvers to show a wide range of battle experience and combat effectiveness. Johnston peels away some of the historical romance of the cavalry and shows how vital artillery was in the battles. No less significant, she pays close attention to the importance of planning and patience, and the role of roads, rail, horse, and boat, mixing all of these elements with descriptions of raw courage and reckless abandon. As the narrative follows Cleave and Jackson, we are led through the most decisive engagements in the years of Confederate supremacy: Manassas, The Seven Days, Fredericksburg, Malvern Hill, and Sharpsburg. The Long Roll brings alive the differing motives for secession and war, and eerily evokes the suspicion and battered consciences of both North and South.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0801855241
• ISBN13: 9780801855245
• Release Date: October 1996
• Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press
• Length: 668 Pages
• Weight: 1.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.6" x 5.5" x 7.8"
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

Well Done

I was skeptical when I purchased this book. Women writing military fiction do not usually make me very happy. This lady hit it on the head! Her research and closeness to the subject was right on. She was born in Virginia in 1870 and her father was a Confederate Soldier. The British printing was odd at times but I followed the movements of my ancestors in the famous Stonewall Brigade (5th Virginia) and was amazed at her accurate attention to detail. I am used to ladies writing sappy stories and doing minimal research, producing a book like John Jakes or James Reasoner (two of my least favorite authors). Not in this case! Ms. Johnston tells an accurate and interesting story in proper time order. I have "Cease Firing" and will read it next.

Great Civil War novel

After reading this book you will have a new appreciation for Stonewall Jackson and the "Valley" campaign. The author makes you feel you are there, and the battles and Valley environment come alive. I visited the "Valley" area shortly after reading this novel (I just had to!) and looked at it through very different eyes after experiencing this book. It is one of my very favorites, and a "must read" for civil war buffs as history is entwined within the story.

Volume I of a good Civil War with excellent battle scenes

Written by CSA' General Joe Johnston's daughter, this first volume is an entertaining novel. Written at the turn of the century by one of the bestselling novelists of the day, this book is full of surprises for the modern, well-read reader. The first two chapters were difficult for this reader to adjust to the early 1900's style; but, became thoroughly enjoyable for the next 600 pages. Set primarily in Virginia, several characters are fully developed from 1860 through 1863. Several women attended to Confederate soldiers in hospitals around Richmond and they view the Battle of Seven Pines from the rooftops; this segment is very interesting due to the fact that the civilians view the battle through a variety of telescopes and interviews with stragglers from the battlefield. The Valley Campaign is viewed at times through the eyes of a CSA private who avoids fighting but nevertheless ends up between battlelines and charges a battery. Like other products of the times, their is a romantic interest that is conventional and suspensful. There is a military injustice which results from love denied and there are vignettes of bitter feuds in the relationships of Lee' lieutenants. Among the best battlefield scences, are the fates of three nameless CSA soldiers caught between the lines somewhere on the Emmitsburg Road. A long, well paced novel that not only gives a good story but also takes you back to the mindset of those who read for pleasure before TV and radio shortened attention spans