Stonewall Jackson
Thomas Jonathan "Stonewall" Jackson was a Confederate general and military officer who served during the American Civil War. He played a prominent role in nearly all military engagements in the eastern theater of the war until his death. Military historians regard him as one of the most gifted tactical commanders in U.S. history.
Born in what was then part of Virginia, Jackson received an appointment to the United States Military Academy, graduating in the class of 1846. He served in the United States Army during the Mexican–American War, distinguishing himself at the Battle of Chapultepec. From 1851 to 1861, he taught at the Virginia Military Institute.
When Virginia seceded from the United States in May 1861 after the Battle of Fort Sumter, Jackson joined the Confederate States Army. He distinguished himself commanding a brigade at the First Battle of Bull Run in July, providing crucial reinforcements and beating back a fierce Union assault. Thus Barnard E. Bee compared him to a "stone wall", which became his enduring nickname.
Jackson performed exceptionally well in various campaigns over the next two years. On May 2, 1863, he was accidentally shot by Confederate pickets. He lost his left arm to amputation. Weakened by his wounds, he died of pneumonia eight days later. Jackson's death proved a severe setback for the Confederacy. After his death, his military exploits developed a legendary quality, becoming an important element of the pseudohistorical ideology of the "Lost Cause".
Ancestry
Thomas Jonathan Jackson was a great-grandson of John Jackson and Elizabeth Cummins . John Jackson was an Ulster-Scots Protestant from Coleraine, County Londonderry, in the north of Ireland. While living in London, England, he was convicted of the capital crime of larceny for stealing ; the judge at the Old Bailey sentenced him to seven years penal transportation. Elizabeth, a strong, blonde woman almost tall, born in London, was also convicted of felony larceny in an unrelated case for stealing 19 pieces of silver, jewelry, and fine lace, and received a similar sentence. They both were transported on the merchant ship Litchfield, which departed London in May 1749 with 150 convicts. John and Elizabeth met on board and were in love by the time the ship arrived at Annapolis, Maryland. Although they were sent to different locations in Maryland for their bond service, the couple married in July 1755.The family migrated west across the Blue Ridge Mountains to settle near Moorefield, Virginia in 1758. In 1770, they moved farther west to the Tygart Valley. They began to acquire large parcels of virgin farming land near the present-day town of Buckhannon, including 3,000 acres in Elizabeth's name. John and his two teenage sons were early recruits for the American Revolutionary War, fighting in the Battle of Kings Mountain on October 7, 1780; John finished the war as captain and served as a lieutenant of the Virginia militia after 1787. While the men were in the Army, Elizabeth converted their home to a haven, "Jackson's Fort", for refugees from Indian attacks.
John and Elizabeth had eight children. Their second son was Edward Jackson, and Edward's third son was Jonathan Jackson, Thomas's father. Jonathan's mother died on April 17, 1796. Three years later, on October 13, 1799, his father married Elizabeth Wetherholt, and they had nine more children.
Early life
Early childhood
Thomas Jackson was born in the town of Clarksburg, Harrison County, Virginia, on January 21, 1824. He was the third child of Julia Beckwith Jackson and Jonathan Jackson, an attorney. Both of Jackson's parents were natives of Virginia. The family already had two young children and were living in Clarksburg, in what is now West Virginia, when Thomas was born. He was named for his maternal grandfather. There is some dispute about the actual location of Jackson's birth. A historical marker on the floodwall in Parkersburg, West Virginia, claims that he was born in a cabin near that spot when his mother was visiting her parents who lived there. There are writings which indicate that in Jackson's early childhood, he was called "The Real Macaroni", though the origin of the nickname and whether it really existed are unclear.Thomas's sister Elizabeth died of typhoid fever on March 6, 1826, with two-year-old Thomas at her bedside. His father also died of typhoid fever on March 26, 1827, after nursing his daughter. Jackson's mother gave birth to his sister Laura Ann the day after Jackson's father died. Julia Jackson thus was widowed at 28 and was left with much debt and three young children. She sold the family's possessions to pay the debts. She declined family charity and moved into a small rented one-room house. Julia took in sewing and opened a private school to support herself and her three young children for about four years.
In 1830, Julia Neale Jackson remarried, against the wishes of her friends. Her new husband, Captain Blake B. Woodson, an attorney, did not like his stepchildren. Warren, Julia's eldest son, moved to live with his uncle Alfred Neale near Parkersburg, and at the age of sixteen, he was hired to teach in Upshur County. Julia moved to Fayette County with her other two children, Thomas and Laura. Julia remained in such poor health, and caring for the children was such a strain on her strength, that she agreed to let their Grandmother Jackson take them to her home in Lewis County, about four miles north of Weston, where she lived with her unmarried daughters and sons. One of these sons was sent to Fayette County to care for the children by the grandmother. When he arrived and the purpose of his visit was revealed, there was quite a commotion among the children, who were very reluctant to leave their mother. Thomas, now six years old, slipped away to the nearby woods, where he hid, only returning to the house at nightfall. After a day or two of coaxing and numerous bribes, the uncle finally persuaded the children to make the trip, which took several days, with the help of their mother. When they arrived at their destination, they became the pets of an indulgent grandmother, two maiden aunts, and several bachelor uncles, all of whom were known for their great kindness of heart and strong family attachment. Thomas and Laura were indulged in every way, and to an extent well calculated to spoil them. In August 1835, Thomas and Laura's grandmother died.
The following year, after giving birth to Thomas's half-brother Willam Wirt Woodson, Julia died of complications, leaving her three older children orphaned. Julia was buried in an unmarked grave in a homemade coffin in Westlake Cemetery along the James River and Kanawha Turnpike in Fayette County within the corporate limits of present-day Ansted, West Virginia.
Working and teaching at Jackson's Mill
As their mother's health continued to fail, Jackson and his sister Laura Ann were sent to live with their half-uncle, Cummins Jackson, who owned a grist mill in Jackson's Mill. Their older brother, Warren, went to live with other relatives on his mother's side of the family, but he later died of tuberculosis in 1841 at the age of twenty. Thomas and Laura Ann returned from Jackson's Mill in November 1831 to be at their dying mother's bedside. They spent four years together at the Mill before being separated—Laura Ann was sent to live with her mother's family, Thomas to live with his Aunt Polly and her husband, Isaac Brake, on a farm four miles from Clarksburg. Thomas was treated by Brake as an outsider and, having suffered verbal abuse for over a year, ran away from the family. When his cousin in Clarksburg urged him to return to Aunt Polly's, he replied, "Maybe I ought to, ma'am, but I am not going to." He walked eighteen miles through mountain wilderness to Jackson's Mill, where he was welcomed by his uncles and he remained there for the following seven years.Cummins Jackson was strict with Thomas, who looked up to Cummins as a schoolteacher. Jackson helped around the farm, tending sheep with the assistance of a sheepdog, driving teams of oxen and helping harvest wheat and corn. Formal education was not easily obtained, but he attended school when and where he could. Much of Jackson's education was self-taught. He once made a deal with one of his uncle's slaves to provide him with pine knots in exchange for reading lessons; Thomas would stay up at night reading borrowed books by the light of those burning pine knots. Virginia law forbade teaching a slave, free black or mulatto to read or write; nevertheless, Jackson secretly taught the slave, as he had promised. Once literate, the young slave fled to Canada via the Underground Railroad. In his later years at Jackson's Mill, Thomas served as a schoolteacher.