NEWS
For Immediate Release
from the Austin
Civil War Round Table,
Inc.
Contact: David White
Phone Number: (512) 497-4832
Email: hdwhite1978@att.net
Texas Monthly Journalist Wins 20th Annual Austin
Civil War Round Table’s Laney Book Prize
(Austin, Texas) – S. C. Gwynne has won the twentieth annual Daniel M. & Marilyn W. Laney
Book Prize given by the Austin Civil War Round Table, Inc., for his book, Rebel Yell: The
Violence, Passion, and Redemption of Stonewall Jackson, published by Scribner. Gwynne is
an Austin based journalist and Contributing Editor to Texas Monthly magazine.
Rebel Yell is a biography of Confederate general Thomas Jonathan “Stonewall” Jackson that
tells a story about the transformation of an eccentric and unpopular professor at a small military
school to one of the greatest military leaders in western history. This transformation occurred
over the short span of thirteen months in 1861 and 1862 and Gwynne chronicles it from the First
Battle of Bull Run where Jackson earned his famous nickname, through his brilliant
Shenandoah Valley Campaign and his winning partnership with Robert E. Lee. Under Lee
Jackson performed brilliantly at the Second Battle of Bull Run, Antietam and at perhaps
Jackson’s greatest and last hours at Chancellorsville, where he was tragically killed by his own
men.
John Hennessy, a National Park Historian and author of Return to Bull Run commenting on the
book says, "The great tragedy of modern historiography is that more historians don’t write like
S.C. Gwynne. In this book on Stonewall Jackson’s Civil War career, Gwynne has fashioned a
fast-paced narrative of a man complex and enigmatic, awkward and exceptional. Gwynne has
taken on a giant figure of quirks and brilliance who demands both restraint and a facile pen, and
he delivers in vivid form.” University of Texas at Austin history professor H. W. Brands’
description of the book is, “With the reporter’s eye for the revealing vignette and the story-teller’s
ear for the rhythm of human striving, S. C. Gwynne gives us a beautifully penetrating account of
the meteoric rise and tragic death of the most legendary of Civil War soldiers.”
The Laney Prize money of $2,000 will be awarded to Gwynne at the June 25, 2015 meeting of
the Austin Civil War Round Table, Inc.
The Daniel M. & Marilyn W. Laney Prize is awarded yearly by the Austin Civil War Round Table,
Inc. for distinguished scholarship and writing on the military or political history of the Civil War.
Established by the membership of the Round Table, the Prize honors the Laneys for their
splendid efforts on behalf of the Austin Civil War Round Table, Inc. and especially, for their
many efforts to protect the endangered battlefields of the Civil War.
Previous winners of the Laney Prize are: Daniel Sutherland for Seasons of War (Free Press),
William C. Davis for The Cause Lost (University Press of Kansas), Gary Gallagher for The
Confederate War (Harvard University Press), Jeffry D. Wert for A Brotherhood of Valor (Simon
& Schuster), Joseph Harsh for Taken at the Flood (Kent State University Press), Richard
McMurry for Atlanta: 1864 (University of Nebraska Press), Richard B. McCaslin for Lee in the
Shadow of Washington (Louisiana State University Press), Gordon C. Rhea for Cold Harbor
(Louisiana State University Press), Frank A. O’Reilly for The Fredericksburg Campaign,
(Louisiana State University Press), Edward T. Cotham, Jr. for Sabine Pass (University of Texas
Press), Jeffry D. Wert for The Sword of Lincoln, (Simon & Schuster), A. Wilson Greene for Civil
War Petersburg (University of Virginia Press), Nelson D. Lankford for Cry Havoc! (Viking), Craig
L. Symonds for Lincoln and His Admirals (Oxford University Press), Donald S. Frazier for Fire in
the Cane Field (State House Press), Edwin Bearss and J. Parker Hills for Receding Tide
(National Geographic), Gary Gallagher for The Union War (Harvard University Press), Dennis
Frye for September Suspense (Antietam Rest) and Elizabeth Varon for Appomattox (Oxford
University Press).
For more information, contact the President of the Austin Civil War Round Table, Inc., David
White, at the number listed in the heading.
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