The Other Side of the River

A wounded Stonewall Jackson has a chance to reflect on his life and finds himself in a spiritual battle, greater than the one on the battlefields outside his window.

Robert D. Halpert's historical novel is a thought-provoking journey into an era of America's greatest civil upheaval and into the mind of one that era's unique characters. It is a time when men and women are forced to decide between state and nation, family and cause, and the morality of a predicament that has plagued the nation from its inception.

Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson emerges from the conflict as one of the great legends of American history. Gaining fame in both North and South, as well as across the world for his gifted military abilities, he wages a war a "civil war" within himself to subdue what he knows, if left unbridled, will destroy him. To the modern reader, he is generally considered an eccentric religious military genius. But the role of his spiritual life is often glossed over or ignored. In telling this story, the author has not neglected the dearly held and deep-rooted faith of the man, which in turn will hopefully help readers, and especially those for whom the Civil War is a compelling interest, to appreciate Lt. General Thomas "Stonewall " Jackson in a different light.

Within the context of historical fiction and making use of abundant research, the author attempts to draw a picture of a man of deep-rooted faith, at war with himself within a parallel breathtaking background of a nation at war with itself. It is time of agonizing national conflict and pain, with a resultant resolution for the nation and soaring spiritual resolution for the man.