A Confederate artillery officer, William Thomas Poague fought in General "Stonewall" Jackson's campaigns in the Shenandoah Valley and at Second Manassas, Sharpsburg, Fredericksburg, and elsewhere. After Jackson's death, Poague remained in the Army of Northern Virginia. Gunner with Stonewall sheds light on a neglected aspect of the Civil War, the role of the artillery in combat.

The notebooks containing these memoirs were edited by Monroe F. Cockrell, an expert on the Confederacy and graduate of Virginia Military Institute, and first published in 1957. A new introduction by Robert K. Krick has been added for this Bison Books edition. Krick is the author of Stonewall Jackson at Cedar Mountain and Conquering the Valley: Stonewall Jackson at Port Republic.