Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 2.djvu/349

 Brigadier-General William Lowther Jackson was born at Clarksburg, Va., February 3, 1825. He was educated for the legal profession and was admitted to the bar in 1847, soon afterward being elected to the office of commonwealth attorney for his native county. His career as a jurist and public official during the ante- war period was prominent and distinguished. He was twice elected to the Virginia house of delegates, served twice as second auditor of the State, and superintendent of the State library fund; held the office of lieutenant-governor one term, and in 1860 was elected judge of the Nineteenth judicial circuit of the State. He left the bench early in 1861 to enlist in the Virginia forces as a private, and was rapidly promoted. In May, 1861, Major Boy kin, writing from Grafton, recommended that General Lee appoint Judge Jackson to military command at Parkersburg, as "a gentleman of great personal popularity, not only with his own party, but with those opposed to him politically, and devoted to the interests of Virginia, to the last extremity." With the rank of lieutenant-colonel, Virginia volunteers, he reported for duty to Colonel Porterfield, in Randolph county, in June. Out of the companies collected at Huttonsville, two regiments were organized, and one, the Thirty-first, was put under his command, with which, after General Garnett's arrival June 14th, he took possession of the pass at Laurel mountain. After the disastrous close of the West Virginia operations, Colonel Jackson became the volunteer aide of his cousin, Gen. Stonewall Jackson, in the Valley campaign, and his services were gratefully mentioned in the official report of the battle of Port Republic. He continued in this capacity with Jackson through the cam-