Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 06.djvu/49

 JACKSON

JACKSON

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rupt in 1827, aiul his widow married Capt. Blake B. "Woodsun, also a lawyer, about lb30. Her second husband was not able to support a large family, and Thomas Jonathan and his sister Laura were taken by their aunt, Mrs. White, and subsequently by their step-grand-

mother the second wife of Edward Jack- son, who lived on the Jackson estate in Lewis county. They remained with her till her death, and then with her son, their half-uncle, Cummins Jackson, a bachelor, mill-owner and far- mer, who was fond of horses and fox- hunting. Thomas Jonathan was sent to school when not training horses or riding them on the turf, and he was made a constable of Lewis ■county when onlj' eighteen years old. In ls4'3 he was appointed a cadet to the U.S. Military academj-. and passed the examination by favor, which made his freshman year at West Point especially trying to a Vii-ginia boy with but little school training, who had lived in the woods and was unaccustomed to restraint. His classmates included A. P. Hill, G. E. Pickett, D. H. Maury, D. R. Jones, W. D. Smith. C. M. Wilcox, subse- quently of the Confederate army; and G. B. Mc- Clellan, J. G. Foster, J. L. Reno, George Stone- man, D. N. Couch, John Gibbon, of the Federal army. He was graduated June 30, 1846; re- ceived the brevet rank of second lieutenant of artillery; was assigned to Capt. J. B. Magruder's battery in Col. Francis Taylor's 1st U.S. artillerj', and was ordered to Mexico by way of New Or- leans, La. He served in all the battles in General Scott's victorious marcli from Vera Cruz, March 9, 1847, to the Mexican capital, Sept. 14, 1847. He was made 2d lieutenant, and during the battle of Cluirubusco, 1st lieutenant, and for his action in this battle Captain Magruder com- mended him "to the major-genei'al's favorable consideration," and he received the brevet rank of captain. At the storming of Chapultepec he was for a time in command of the batterj-, and General Scott made honorable mention of Lieutenant Jackson in his official report, and Generals Pillow and Worth commended his con- duct in almost extravagant terms. He left the City of Mexico in the summer of 1848, and as Major Jackson, he was stationed with his regi- ment at Fort Hamilton, N.Y., 1848-50. On Sun- day, April "29, 1849, he was baptized in St. John's

Protestant Episcopal church, Fort Hamilton, N.Y., by the Rev. Mr. Parks, Colonels Taylor and Dimick being his sponsors, the clmrch record giving his name as " Thomas Jefferson Jackson." He was stationed at Fort Meade, Tampa Bay, Fla., 1850-51, and on March 27, 1851, he accepted the professor.sliip of natural and experimental philosophy and artillery tactics in the Virginia ]\Iiiitary institute, Lexington, called the " West Point of the Soutii." On Nov. 22, 1851, he con- nected himself with the Presbyterian church by a pul)lic profession of his faith, and he became a deacon in the church, but his religious views allowed \\\\\\ to commune, if more convi-nient. with the church in which he was baptized. He was married, Aug. 4, 1853, to Elinor, daughter of the Rev. Dr. George Junkin, president of Wash- ington college, who died in Octol)er, 1854, in giv- ing birth to a child, which also died. In 185G he made a tour of Europe. He uas married a .sec- ond time, July 16, 1857, by the Rev. Dr. Drury Lacy, to Mary Anna, daughter of the Rev. Dr. Robert Hall ^Morrison, of Lincoln county, N.C.. the lirst presiden t of Davidson college, N.C., and his wife, Mary, daughter of Gen. Joseph Graham and sister of the Hon. William A. Graham, governor of North Carolina. Jackson accompanied the cadets to Charlestown, Va.. when called out by the governor to preserve the peace at the execu- tion of John Brown, Dec. 2. 1859. The sum- mer of 1860 he spent with his wife at Nortli- anijjton, Mass. In 1860-61 he opposed seces- sion until April 17, 1861, when the Virginia convention voted conditionallj' to secede. He proposed a concerted movement of all Chris- tians in prayer for the preservation of peace, but when Governor Letcher notified the superin- tendent of the institution that he should need the services of the more advanced classes of the cadets as drill-masters, he prepared them for immediate military service. On Sundaj' morning, April 21, 1861, he received his orders, and assumed command of the cadets, marching with them to Staunton, where they took the cars for Richmond. On April 27, 1861, he was commissioned as colonel of Virginia volunteers and ordered to take command at Harper's Ferry. When the Confed- erate government assumed the military control of the state lie was superseded by Gen. Josepli E. Johnston, and the Virginia regiments stationed at the various posts were organized as the 1st Vir- ginia l)rigade and Colonel Jackson was appointed commander. This was afterward known as the " Stonewall Brigade."' On June 16. 1861. General Johnston evacuated Harper's Ferry, and Jackson's brigade had its first engagement, July 2, 1861, at Falling Waters, near Dranesville, Va. He re- ported theaffair to General Johnston, and received from General I^ee pronn)tion to the rank of