Summary
Summary of The Story of a Cannoneer Under Stonewall Jackson
The Story of a Cannoneer Under Stonewall Jackson at a glance
Summary: 8 min to read
- Reading time
- About 4 h 35 min3 h 40 min fast, 5 h 25 min slow
- Length
- 65,400 words
- Library level
- Medium longer sentences, everyday words
- First published
- 1907by Edward Alexander Moore
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). How long the classics take to read · Updated
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Key ideas
Key idea 1
A divided town goes to war
Edward Moore is a college junior in Lexington when arguments over the Union divide the people around him. His college president refuses to teach beneath a secessionist flag, but Virginia's departure from the Union soon brings college life to a stop. Moore's father keeps him from joining the army at first, leaving him afraid he will miss the war.
That eagerness sits beside an early warning: fellow students are killed or maimed at Manassas. By March 1862, Moore joins the Rockbridge Artillery.
Key idea 2
The first battle makes fear ordinary
Moore has been a soldier for only five days when he comes under fire near Kernstown.
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Key idea 3
Friendship keeps the soldiers moving
Away from the guns, Moore's army life takes shape around meals, sleeping places and the men who share them.
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Key idea 4
Speed wins ground at a cost
Jackson's Valley campaign keeps Moore's battery moving across mountains and into battle.
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Key idea 5
War reaches into Moore's family
Near Richmond, the war presses on Moore through the people closest to him.
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Key idea 6
Confidence meets the cost of wounds
The march into Maryland begins with expectation and adventure.
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Key idea 7
Loss follows Moore back to camp
When Moore returns to the battery, traces of his wound remain: Abner Arnold points out a bloodstain on his shack's roof that rain has not removed.
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Key idea 8
Comedy travels beside grief
On the road to Gettysburg, familiar mountains draw cheers, and food in Pennsylvania gives the soldiers a welcome change.
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Key idea 9
War follows Moore toward home
A chest wound sends Moore home again, but home offers no escape from the war.
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Go deeper: the whole of The Story of a Cannoneer Under Stonewall Jackson
About 4 h 40 min to read.Start freeWho it’s for
This book suits readers who love Civil War history told by someone who was there, fans of Jackson and Lee, and anyone who enjoys camp stories and dry humor.
What this book is
Picture a college junior in Lexington, Virginia, in the spring of 1861, who fears the war will be over before he sees it. Edward Alexander Moore gets his wish, and a good deal more. Within a year he is serving a cannon beside Stonewall Jackson's army, ducking shells and wading through mud.
The Story of a Cannoneer Under Stonewall Jackson is Moore's memoir of the Rockbridge Artillery. It follows the battery from the Shenandoah Valley to Appomattox. You get a private's view of what a gunner sees, eats, fears and laughs about.
In this summary
- 1A divided town goes to warFree
- 2The first battle makes fear ordinary
- 3Friendship keeps the soldiers moving
- 4Speed wins ground at a cost
- 5War reaches into Moore's family
- 6Confidence meets the cost of wounds
- 7Loss follows Moore back to camp
- 8Comedy travels beside grief
- 9War follows Moore toward home
A college town splits and then goes to war
In the winter of 1860 and 1861, Edward Moore is eighteen and a junior at Washington College in Lexington. Most students favor the Union, though a few are eager secessionists.
The college president, Dr. George Junkin, is a firm Union man. When students raise a palmetto flag over the statue of Washington, he dismisses his class rather than teach under it. Then Lincoln calls for troops, Virginia leaves the Union, and the recitation bells stop ringing.
Moore's father forbids him to go, so he drills militia and fears the war will end without him. Of five fellow students he knew, four die at the first battle of Manassas and one is maimed. By March 1862 Moore enlists in the Rockbridge Artillery.
War enters a small town as a quarrel among neighbors and a rush of eager boys.
That’s 1 of 9 key points.
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Check yourself
What helps Moore and his comrades endure life between battles?
Right. “Humor and friendship keep soldiers marching when food and hope run low.”Not quite. “Humor and friendship keep soldiers marching when food and hope run low.”
What gives Jackson's smaller army its advantage in the Valley campaign?
Right. “Speed and surprise let a small army beat three larger ones.”Not quite. “Speed and surprise let a small army beat three larger ones.”
How does Jackson receive his mortal wound?
Right. “At Chancellorsville Jackson routs Hooker's right flank, rides past his own picket line and is mortally wounded by his own men.”Not quite. “At Chancellorsville Jackson routs Hooker's right flank, rides past his own picket line and is mortally wounded by his own men.”
Go deeper: the whole of The Story of a Cannoneer Under Stonewall Jackson
About 4 h 40 min to read.Start freePaperback, hardcover and large print, printed for you at cost, are on their way.Email me when it is printed
About this edition
Every format is free to start, and print and large print are at cost.
- LengthAbout 65,400 words
- Reading timeAbout 4 h 35 min
Questions about The Story of a Cannoneer Under Stonewall Jackson
What is The Story of a Cannoneer Under Stonewall Jackson about?
It is Edward Alexander Moore's memoir of serving in the Rockbridge Artillery, from his Lexington college days through Jackson's Valley campaign, the major battles of Lee's army and the final march to Appomattox, told from a gunner's point of view.
Who was the Rockbridge Artillery?
It was a Confederate battery formed in Lexington, Virginia, in April 1861, first under Captain John McCausland. It served with the Stonewall Brigade and later in a Virginia artillery regiment, and it fought in most of the army's major battles.
Is this a true story, and when was it written?
Yes, it is a firsthand account by a man who served in the battery. Moore began writing more than thirty years before his preface and later resumed the work, drawing on memory and quoting letters and histories.
Who are the famous people Moore meets in the book?
He sees Stonewall Jackson, Robert E. Lee, J. E. B. Stuart and Turner Ashby close up, and he serves beside Lee's son, R. E. Lee Jr., a private in the battery. He also describes meeting Generals Winder and Pendleton.
Is the book worth reading for the humor and daily life?
Readers often enjoy its short, lively anecdotes about foraging, camp pranks, songs and eccentric comrades, along with eyewitness scenes of the battles. The clear, personal voice makes the army's daily life easy to picture.
Cite this edition
Moore, Edward Alexander. The Story of a Cannoneer Under Stonewall Jackson. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-story-of-a-cannoneer-under-stonewall-jackson.
Moore, E. A. (2026). The story of a cannoneer under Stonewall Jackson. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-story-of-a-cannoneer-under-stonewall-jackson (Original work published 1907)
Moore, Edward Alexander. The Story of a Cannoneer Under Stonewall Jackson. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-story-of-a-cannoneer-under-stonewall-jackson.
@book{moore2026story,
author = {Moore, Edward Alexander},
title = {The Story of a Cannoneer Under Stonewall Jackson},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-story-of-a-cannoneer-under-stonewall-jackson},
note = {First published 1907}
}
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