Jackson, Thomas Jonathan

Life Span
to
Full name
Thomas Jonathan Jackson
Place of Birth
Birth Date Certainty
Exact
Death Date Certainty
Exact
Gender
Male
Race
White
Sectional choice
South
Origins
Slave State
No. of Spouses
2
Family
Jonathan Jackson (father), Julia Beckwith (mother), Eleanor Junkin (first wife, 1853), Mary Anna Morrison (second wife, 1857)
Education
West Point (US Military Academy)
Occupation
Military
Educator
Church or Religious Denomination
Presbyterian
Military
US military (Pre-Civil War)
Confederate Army

Thomas Jonathan Jackson (American National Biography)

Scholarship
Jackson swept into war with cool professionalism and grim determination. He viewed the Civil War as a test of America by the Almighty: bloodshed would be terrible, but victory would come to the more devout side. Hence, Jackson carried into the conflict the faith of the New Testament and the ferocity of the Old Testament.

Following his appointment as colonel of infantry in April 1861, Jackson took charge of volunteers and militia defending the important outpost of Harpers Ferry. On 17 June he was promoted to brigadier general and assigned to lead a brigade of five regiments from western Virginia. The most famous nickname in the Civil War came to the general and his men a month later in the first major battle of the war (First Manassas). Federals were driving southern troops back in confusion when South Carolina general Barnard E. Bee sought to rally his broken lines. Pointing to the top of a hill that was the key to the battlefield, Bee shouted something to the effect of: "Look, men! There stands Jackson like a stone wall! Rally behind the Virginians!" Jackson's subsequent attack helped turn the tide and bring victory to the Confederates as well as fame and the sobriquet of "Stonewall" to himself.
James I. Robertson, "Jackson, Thomas Jonathan," American National Biography Online, February 2000, http://www.anb.org/articles/04/04-00555.html.
Date Event
Virginia executes John Brown
- The first pitched battle of the war between armies results in a Union disaster at Bull Run
In western Virginia, the Confederate "Stonewall Brigade" occupies Bath in Morgan County
Confederate artillery shells Hancock, Maryland, firing across the Potomac from Morgan County, Virginia
- In western Virginia, Stonewall Jackson's infantry marches at a grueling pace towards Winchester
In the Shenandoah Valley, Stonewall Jackson suffers his only defeat at the first Battle of Kernstown
Confederate General "Stonewall" Jackson arrests a subordinate for "neglect of duty" at Kernstown
In the Shenandoah Valley, Union forces skirmish with retreating Confederates around Woodstock
The Confederate First Maryland meets the Union First Maryland at the Battle of Front Royal
In the Shenandoah Valley, Stonewall Jackson takes Front Royal after a three day forced march
Stonewall Jackson wins a major victory at Winchester and drives Union forces back into Maryland
Major General Banks completes his withdrawal from the Shenandoah Valley to Maryland
- The Army of the Potomac concentrates on Chancellorsville in preparation for an attack on Lee
Union and Confederate armies collide near Chancellorsville in Spotsylvania County, Virginia
"Stonewall" Jackson's flanking movement seizes the initiative in the Battle of Chancellorsville
"Friendly fire" strikes and wounds General T.J. Jackson and several members of his staff on the Chancellorsville battlefield
Lee's Army of Northern Virginia forces back entrenched Union forces at the Battle of Chancellorsville
- The beaten Union Army retreats across the Rappahannock, ending the Battle of Chancellorsville
General Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson dies of his wounds and pneumonia at Guinea Station, Virginia
In northern England, textile manufacturers honor General "Stonewall" Jackson and mourn his death
Chicago Style Entry Link
Cozzens, Peter. Shenandoah 1862: Stonewall Jackson's Valley Campaign. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2008. view record
Frye, Dennis E. "‘Through God's Blessing’." North & South 5, no. 7 (2002): 66-74. view record
Grimsley, Mark. " ‘Stonewall’ Jackson: The Life of a Confederate Hero." Civil War Times Illustrated 27, no. 2 (1988): 12-17. view record
Grimsley, Mark. "Jackson: The Wrath of God." Civil War Times Illustrated 23, no. 1 (1984): 10-19. view record
Jackson, Mary Anna. Life and Letters of General Thomas J. Jackson (Stonewall Jackson). New York: Harper & Brothers, 1892. view record
Robertson, James I., Jr. "Mexico and a Hero's Mantle: Stonewall Jackson in the Mexican War, 1846-1848." Virginia Cavalcade 46, no. 3 (1997): 100-117. view record
Robertson, James I., Jr. Stonewall Jackson: The Man, the Soldier, the Legend. New York: Macmillan Pub., 1997. view record
Waugh, John C. The Class of 1846: From West Point to Appomattox : Stonewall Jackson, George McClellan, and Their Brothers. New York: Warner Books, 1994. view record
How to Cite This Page: "Jackson, Thomas Jonathan," House Divided: The Civil War Research Engine at Dickinson College, https://hd.housedivided.dickinson.edu/index.php/node/5967.