Civil War History

James I. “Bud” Robertson Jr. died on November 2, 2019, aged 89, in Richmond, Virginia. In a career that spanned six decades, Robertson shaped the field of Civil War history through his teaching, his scholarship, his central role in both the centennial and the sesquicentennial commemorations of the Civil War, his editorship of this journal, and his extraordinary work educating public audiences.

A native of Danville, Virginia, Robertson was educated at Randolph Macon College and Emory University, where his PhD research was supervised by renowned Civil War historian Bell Irvin Wiley. Following his PhD he taught at the University of Iowa from 1959 to 1961, during which time he also served as editor of Civil War History, followed by stints at George Washington University (1962–65) and the University of Montana (1965–67). In 1967 he found his long-term academic home at Virginia Polytechnic Institute—now known as Virginia Tech—where he taught until his retirement in 2011.

During his 44-year tenure, Robertson made a deep and lasting imprint on Virginia Tech, rising to become an Alumni Distinguished Professor and teaching the Civil War to more than 22,000 students, who fondly called him “Dr. Bud.” In some cases he taught the subject to two and even three generations of the same family. In his classroom, Robertson humanized the Civil War for his students, depicting the emotional impact of the war in a way that resonated on a personal level with twentieth- and twenty-first-century students. A consummate storyteller, he famously promised to make his students laugh and cry—a promise he delivered on by drawing students into the human experiences of Civil War Americans in a way few teachers can.

Robertson’s impact on Civil War history stretched far beyond campus boundaries. In 1961 President Kennedy appointed him executive director of the United States Civil War Centennial Commission. At a time when the centennial project was floundering, Robertson helped ensure the event’s success, lending a more academic and professional tone while steering a moderate course through the civil rights years. Fifty years later, Robertson was appointed to the Virginia Civil War Sesquicentennial Commission and played a prominent role in organizing the state’s commemorative activities, including [End Page 7] a series of popular public conferences, a primary document scanning project, a documentary film, and a memorable “Finale Concert” held on the steps of the state Capitol building in 2015.

Robertson was a prolific and popular author. He wrote or edited more than forty books, including academic monographs, volumes aimed at a popular audience, and several publications for younger readers. His first book, based on his PhD dissertation, was The Stonewall Brigade (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State Univ. Press, 1963), and his most recent book was Robert E. Lee: A Reference Guide to His Life and Works (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2019). In between, Robertson published on a wide variety of topics including the lives of Civil War soldiers, the impact of the war on Virginia, and various Confederate generals. He is best known for his authoritative biography, Stonewall Jackson: The Man, the Soldier, the Legend (New York: MacMillan, 1997).

Robertson reached his audiences in numerous other ways. He was much sought after as a public lecturer, delivering more than 1,000 talks to Civil War Roundtables, Virginia Tech alumni chapters, and other groups. His ability to connect with an audience—an ability still on full display during the last months of his life—was simply remarkable. He appeared in numerous historical documentaries, served as historical consultant for the 2003 film Gods and Generals, and cowrote and cohosted the PBS documentary “Virginia in the Civil War: A Sesquicentennial Remembrance.” During the 1990s and early 2000s Robertson’s distinctive voice could be heard on NPR stations from southwest Virginia to Alaska; he eventually delivered more than 350 five-minute radio essays on everything from Pickett’s Charge to Frederick Douglass to cartoonist Thomas Nast, “The Man Who Made Santa Claus.”

He expertly organized and hosted numerous symposia and conferences for the public, including “Campaigning with Lee,” a battlefield tour program that Virginia...