Re: What kind of person was Stonewall Jackson?

"That film  [Gods & Generals] really made me puke." --- Michael Wynn. 

Why did that film cause that reaction?

Jackson really did mourn the loss of his young friend. Jackson really
did pray all the time. Heck, the film was even accurate on trivia like
Jackson's preference for tart lemonade over sweet lemonade. 

The part of the movie that I objected to was that scene between Jackson
and his cook.  The cook asked Jackson how a people fighting for liberty
against an authoritarian government could nevertheless hold blacks in
slavery.  In the movie, Jackson responds that  he and General Lee share
the opinion that:

Slavery must end;  and  

The War will bring about the end of slavery one way or the other.  If
the Yankees win, they will emancipate all the slaves. If the Confederacy
wins,  it will be because blacks are actively recruited for Southern
Independence and slaves shall be free. Either way, in His wisdom,  God
had laid in motion the end of slavery.

That spiel is ahistoric, attributing abolitionist sentiments to Lee and
Jackson that neither man ever demonstrated in OTL. (For historical
accuracy, the proponent of such a opinion could only have been Pat
Cleburne in the West, and if the movie had accurately summarized
Richmond's response to the suggestion, it would go:

COOK: And what happened when you told that truth to the powers that be?

CLEBURNE:  My superior, Joe Johnston, was scared of the political heat
that emancipation would rouse, and he forwarded my re****t to Richmond
without any comment of his own. And President Davis ordered me to keep
my mouth shut.  Later, I was passed over for promotion and my Army was
handed over to John Bell Hood, and I cannot help but suspect that there
was a connection between my unpopular idea and my failure to receive
army command.) 

I can understand vomiting about a Government that is trying to destroy
the United States over a constitutionally elected Administration whose
anti-slavery  activity was limited to keeping slavery out of the
territories where it is a poor fit anyhow. Only by a complete disregard
of the human rights of their countrymen with African heritage could the
white Southrons keep fighting their War Against the Union. Alas, it is
the simple fact that 1860s Southrons did have a complete disregard for
the human rights of black Americans. 

For that, vomiting is a natural response. But surely Mr. Wynn was not
distressed by a nonhypocrite "wearing his faith on his sleeve,"