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Thomas Jonathan Jackson was born January 21, 1824, in Clarksburg, Harrison county, Virginia. His great grandfather, an Englishman by birth, emigrated to the western portion of Virginia; and Edward Jackson, grandfather of the general, was surveyor of Lewis county for a long time, representing it in the Legislature. His son, Jonathan Jackson, father of the general, moved to Clarksburg, where he studied and commenced the practice of law with his cousin, John G. Jackson, acquiring considerable reputation, and marrying Miss Neal, a daughter of Thomas Neal, of Wood county. He, however, became embarrassed in his circumstances by going security for friends, and all his property was eventually swept away. When he died, in 1827, his children were left penniless. These children were four in number—two sons and two daughters—Thomas, the subject of this sketch, being the youngest, and at the time but three years old.

The child was thus left upon the very threshold of life to learn the hard lesson of poverty. But this lesson, thus early learned, bore ample fruits in a soil so rich and suspicious to the Inez growth of the human soul.

The young man was taught from the tUMneeauenl "t ike up by honest toil fur the Deglecl of fortune, and, instead of frittering away 1 and faculties in the haunt* of pi a^iire «.r the frivolous pursuits rally, tip turn hi > to the more ennobling nil I for t! in which be v me.

- the death of hii parents he was tik> d to tin home of an uncle in

Lewis • il recaained al thai pen imily hon sons, in which his father h el b< I D born — until lo r ach< 1 tl

Here he labored on the farm in Human i in the winter. the rudiments of a plain English 'duration — what hi iubs( qnently was due to si and hi* ultimate studies at the Virginia Military Insl N wid to have been grave ami serious— hi « di- nscientiou* and complet. ||r - unels in the maoagemerr 'inn. are! noon ■ Kgencc and probity His . athy am "ho knew and - fliruggle to enrrc out his ovr ) dependence. A proof of this friendly