May 10 1863 General Thomas J Jackson example essay topic

General Stonewall Jackson was one of the most widely well known leaders in the American Civil War. He was second best only to the famous General Lee, who also greatly admired him. His tactics are still studied today in Military Institutes around the world. On January 21, 1824, Thomas Jonathan Jackson was born in Clarksburg, Virginia to Jonathan Jackson, an attorney and Julia Beckwith Neale.

They had three other children; Elizabeth, Warren, and Laura Ann. When Jackson was two years old his father and his sister, Elizabeth died of typhoid fever. Julia gave birth to Laura the next day. In 1830 Julia was remarried to Blake Woodson. He disliked his new stepchildren and was financially unstable.

A little while after the marriage, Thomas and Laura were sent to live with their Uncle Cummins Jackson at Jackson Mill. While there he helped around his uncles farm, tending sheep with help from a sheepdog, driving teams of oxen and helped harvest the fields of wheat and corn. (Gilchrist-Internet) Most of Jacksons education was self-taught. He would sit up at night reading by the flickering light of burning pine knots.

There is a story that says Thomas once made a deal with one of his uncles slaves to provide him with pine knots in exchange for reading lessons. This was in violation of a Virginian law at the time that forbade teaching a slave to read or write. Jackson taught the slave as promised and the slave wrote himself a traveling pass and escaped to freedom in the north. Jackson attended school whenever possible.

In 1837 he attended classes in the community of Westfield for only 39 days. Two years later he attended a school in the assembly room of the first Lewis County courthouse in Weston Thomas lived at his uncles house until the summer of 1842 when he was appointed to the United States Military Academy at Westpoint. Jackson graduated in June 1846 standing 17th out of 59 graduates. (VMI- Internet) While at Jackson Mill, Thomas served as a schoolteacher for four months during the winter of 1840-1841 then he was elected a Lewis County constable.

He was only seventeen at the time, a year to young of the legal age of 18 necessary to hold the position. It is believed that his uncles influence in the county helped bend the age requirement. After serving in the Mexican War, Jackson resigned from the army to take a teaching job at the Virginia Military Institute in lexington to become a professor of Natural and Experimental Philosophy and Artillery Tactics. (Gilchrist-internet) Jackson was a horrible teacher. He just couldnt get the ideas he was trying to teach into the heads of his students.

His students ridiculed and disliked him very much. In 1856, members of the VMI Society of Alumni presented to the board of visitors a petition to have Jackson removed from office, which was unsuccessful. Jackson was unaware of the controversy until a full year later. He was also the subject to many cadet pranks such as throwing spitballs, making noises when his back was turned, dropping a brick as he passed underneath a barracks window (ouch), and pulling linchpins from canon wheels during artillery drills. (VMI- Internet) After his graduation from Westpoint, Jackson served as a lieutenant in the Mexican War. He was commended twice for bravery and received more promotions than any other officer during the war.

He then took the teaching job at VMI for 10 years before returning to the army once again as general to fight on the confederate side in the Civil War. (VMI-internet) On July 21, 1861, Jackson was in command of a brigade during the Battle of Bull Run, when Confederate General Bernard Bee was trying to rally his own troops and he saw Jackson holding his own brigade then he shouted, There stands Jacksons brigade like a stonewall! Rally behind the Virginians! From then on Jackson was known worldwide as Stonewall Jackson. During the Shenandoah Valley campaign in 1862, Jackson with no more than 16000 troops defeated 60,000 Union Troopers in a series of marches and battles. Then Jackson raced to the aid of General Robert E Lee at Richmond.

He also fought in the seven days battles and at Cedar Mountain, the second Battle of Bull Run, Antietam, and Fredrcksburg. In May 1863, Jackson and his troops struck from behind and drove the enemy back near Chancellorsville. At nightfall Jackson scouted ahead and some of his own troops shot him mistakenly. Doctors amputated his left arm and eight days later, May 10 1863 General Thomas J (Stonewall) Jackson died of pneumonia.

His last words were Let us cross over the river, and rest under the shade of the trees. (World Book- Enclycopedia) In conclusion, General Stonewall Jackson is the one of the most famous confederate generals because of his skilled tactics. (Colliers- Encyclopedia) He is still an idol all throughout the south, and he will be remembered forever as the legendary Stonewall Jackson.