Harrison-Lewis County WV Archives Biographies.....Jackson, Thomas Jonathan 1824 - 1863
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Alice Warner http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00015.html#0003503 July 21, 2009, 6:28 pm

Author: Virgil A. Lewis


Thomas Jonathan Jackson, popularly known as " Stonewall," was a native of
Harrison county, having been born in Clarksburgh, January 21, 1824. His
great-grandfather, a native of England, early in life found a home in the wilds
of Virginia, and his grandfather, Edward Jackson, was a prominent surveyor in
the Monongalia Valley. Jonathan, son of the last, adopted the legal profession,
and located at Clarksburgh, soon after which he married Julia, a daughter of
Thomas Neal, of Wood county. Four children—two sons and two daughters—were the
issue of this marriage, the youngest being Thomas J., the subject of this
sketch. His father died in 1827 and his mother in 1831 ; thus he was an orphan
at the age of seven years. He now found a welcome home in the family of his
uncle, Cummins Jackson, who resided on a farm eighteen miles distant from
Clarksburgh, and here remained until he was eighteen years of age, in the
meantime performing the usual labor of the farm and attending the schools of the
neighborhood. At the age of sixteen he served as constable of Lewis county. He
was ambitious, with an insatiable thirst for knowledge, and in 1842, learning of
a vacancy in the United States Military Academy at West Point, he determined to
make application for the appointment. His friends cordially supported him, and
dressed in a suit of homespun, made his way to Washington, where he at once
appeared before the Secretary of War, Hon. John C. Spencer, who was so much
pleased with his appearance, that he ordered a warrant for his appointment to be
immediately made out. Young Jackson entered the Academy July 1, 1842, and at the
expiration of four years, was graduated with the rank of brevet second
lieutenant, standing seventeenth in a class of fifty-nine members. Among his
classmates were Generals George B. McClellan, John G. Foster, Jesse L. Reno, D.
N. Couch, Truman Semour, M. D. L. Simpson, S. D. Sturgiss, George Stoneman,
Innis N. Palmer, Alfred Gibbs, George H. Gordon, Frederick Myers, Joseph N. G.
Whistler, and Nelson H. Davis, of the United States Army, and Generals John A.
Brown, John Adams, Darbney H. Maury, D. R. Jones, Cadmus M. Wilcox, Samuel B.
Maxey, and George E. Pickett, of the Confederate Army. The Mexican War was in
progress, and Lieutenant Jackson was at once ordered to join the First Regiment
of Artillery, then at New Orleans. Complying, he entered Mexico with the army of
General Taylor, under whom he served until transferred to the command of General
Scott. His military career was one of distinction and rapid promotion. He was
engaged in the siege of Vera Cruz, and in the battles of Cerro Gordo, La Hoya,
Oka Laka, Contreras, Cherubusco, Molino del Rey, the storming of Chapultepec,
and the capture of Mexico. In the conquered city, he received the rank of Major.
Returning home with the army, he served in Fort Columbus, New York, in 1848, in
Fort Hamilton, New York, in 1849, and was engaged in the Seminole War in
Florida, in 1851. February 29, 1851, he resigned his commission and returned to
Virginia, where he was elected Professor of Natural and Experimental Philosophy
and Instructor of Artillery Tactics in the Virginia Military Institute at
Lexington, which position he filled until the beginning of the Civil War.
Immediately upon the secession of Virginia, Governor Letcher issued to Jackson a
colonel's commission, and he took command of a small body of troops in the
vicinity of Harper's Ferry. We can here make but a brief recapitulation of his
subsequent career. Promoted to the rank of Brigadier General, June 17, 1861, he,
on the 2d of July, checked for a time the advance of General Patterson at
Falling Waters. He bore an important part in the battle of Bull Run, where, in
the language of General Barnard E. Bee, of South Carolina, " he stood like a
stone wall." October 7, he was commissioned a Major-General, and in January,
1862, marched into western Virginia, striking Bath and Romney. March 23, he
engaged General Shields at Kernstown, and early in May, forced Banks to abandon
Front Royal. Hastening his command to Richmond, he threw it against McClellan's
rear and saved the fortunes of the Confederate arms at Games' Mills. His
achievements of the next few days won for him the distinction of one of the
great commanders in the world's history. He was engaged in the invasion of
Maryland, and September 15, captured Harper's Ferry with more than 11,000
prisoners, then joined Lee in time to do the severest fighting at Antietam.
October 11, 1862, he was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant-General, and
witnessed the battle of Fredericksburg in December. May the 2d, 1863, he
succeeded in turning Hooker's flank at Chancellorsville, but in the darkness of
the evening, as he was returning to the rear with his staff, he was fired upon
by mistake by his own men and received a wound from the effects of which he died
May 10, 1863. The last hours of the distinguished chieftain have been variously
described. Within a few hours of his death he was informed by the surgeon that
there was no hope ; that he was dying; he answered, " Very good; it is all
right." It was Sunday, and a long cherished wish was now to be gratified. In
life he had often been heard to express the hope that he might die on the
Sabbath day. So it was to be. A few moments before he died, he cried out in
delirium, " Order A. P. Hill to prepare for action; pass the infantry to the
front rapidly; tell Major Hawks—" The sentence was never completed. A smile
spread over the pale face, and he whispered, " Let us cross over the river and
rest under the shade of the trees." With these beautiful and typical words
trembling upon his lips, the Christian soldier sank to eternal rest. His remains
repose in the cemetery at Lexington, Virginia.


Additional Comments:
From Harrison County section of History of West Virginia, 1889.

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