uunc university Libraries Life of Lieut. Conf Pam 12mo #324 LIFE OF HIT, DIN. THOMAS J, JACHOX. VOLUME L BY REV. R. I,. DABNEY, D. E>., ?aorsssoR of systematic and polemic theology axd sacred r? IN LNION THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY, VA. GREENSBORO'. N. C: FUBLISUEL" BY STEELING. CAMPBELL AND ALBRIGHT, RrotiMONu, Va., W. HAliOBATE W1HTK. Columbia, S. C, TOWN SEND & SOUTH. 1865. Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 18415, by STERLING, CAMPBELL AND ALBRIGI1T, 3n the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the Confederate States, for the District of Pamlico, North-Carolina. W. W. HOLDEN, Pkintbr, Hakgett St., Raleigh, N. 0. PREFACE. No pn?&ce will be needed by tbe people of tne Confederate States* to j ropitiat- their interest in a memoir of their beloved and lamented Jackson. The only motive for supplying this customary exordium tomy book, is the wish to answer the natural question ; what grounds I may have to suppose myself qualified for the task I ha-ve undertaken. And my answer ; i,- that it has been entrusted to me by the widow and family of General Jackson, supported by the urgency of bis successor, Lieut. Sen. •well, animauy other friends. One advantage for my work I may claim, which brings far more of responsibility tbun of credit to me, the possession of the fullest collection of materials. The correspondence of General Jackson with his family, his pastor, and his most prominent friends in public life, is in my hands, together ^itlv copies of all tbe importaut official papers on file in the War- Department In aidition to these materials, it was my privilege to enjoy his fries ifctrp, although not under bis orders, duriag tbe campaign of Manassas, in 1861 ; tfnd to serve under him, as Chief of his Staff;, during the memorable campaign of the Valley and tbe Chickabominy, in 13t>2;. so that I had personal iMiowledge of the events -jo which the structure of hi a military fame was Qtst reared. The most prominent trait of Jackson was bis scrupulous truthfulness, Th s life has been written under the profound impression that no quality could bt so appropriate as this, in the narrative which seeks to commem- orate his- noble character. Hence, tbe most laborious pains have been taken to verify every foot; and to give the story in its sober accuracy. If it presents- the hero without any of those bivirre traits, which the popular fancy so delights to throw arouDd its special favorites, it is hoped that the pic* ure will be, for this reasou, more symmetrical, and more pleasing to every cultivated mind, if not so startling. The reader may at least have the satisfaction of knowing that it is the correct picture; save that no pencil can do justice to bis devoted patriotism, his diligence, bis courage, and the Sanctity of his morals. The first volume is now presented to the reader, to be speedily followed by the conclusion,- in one more volume, if the favor of Providence permit. The work Las already beeu delayed, to the profound ragret of tbe author,. for a year, by the difficulties of publication in our dista-essed country. KCMBSRT L. DABN'EY. DEDICATION. THIS MEMOIR OF THE GREATEST OF Oltm DEAD, IIS DEDICATED TO THE GREATEST OF OUR LIVING GENERALS, ROBERT E. LEE 9 AS AN HUMBLE TESTIMONIAL OF THE CONFIDENCE IN HIM, AND VENERATION TOE EIM, IMBIBED FROM ITS SUBJECT, LIEUT. GEN. T. J. JACKSON, BY THE AUTHOR. ZJnion Theological Seminary, January, 18£A 1865. FATHER OF GENERAL JACKSON. 13 parents. His second marriage produced nine sons and daughters. His first wife, by birth a Hadden, bore hira three sons, George, David, and Jonathan, and three daughters, of whom one married a gentleman named White, and two, respectable farmers of German extrac- tion, named Brake. Jonathan Jackson, the father of the subject of this work, adopted the profession of law, having pursued his preparatory studies in the family. and under the guidance of his distinguished cousin, Judge i Jackson, of Clarksburg. Hi6 patronage induced him to go to that place, the last seat of his forefather's residence, to prosecute his calling. About the same time he married Julia Keale, the daughter of an intelligent merchant in the village of Parkersburg, in Wood county, on the Ohio river. The fruits of this marriage were four children; of whom the eldest was named Warren, the second Eliza- beth, the third Thomas Jonathan, and the fourth, Laura. Thomas was born in Clarksburg, probably about the ginning of the year 1S2±. The early death of hia parents, and dispersion of the little family, obliterated the record of the exact date, so that General Jackson him- self was unable to tix it with certainty. Of these children none now live save the youngest, who survives as a worthy matron in Ttandolph county, Jonathan Jackson, the General's father, is said to have been, what was unusual in his race, a man of short stature; his face was ruddy, pleasing and intelligent; iiis temper genial and affectionate, and susceptible of the warmest and most generous attachments. He was a man of strong, distinct understanding, and held a respectable rank as a lawyer. While, he displayed little of the pop- ular eloquence of the advocate, his knowledge and judgment made him $ valued counsellor, and his chief distinction was as a chancery lawyer. JJis patrimony 14: FATHEB OF GENERAL JACKSON. was adequate to ail reasonable -wants.-; the lands which he inherited from his father are now -so valuable as to confer independence on their ,present owners. But a temper too social and facile betrayed him into some of the prevalent dissipations of ;the country, incautious engagements embarrassed him with the debts of his friends, and high play assisted to swallow up his estate. He at length became dependent wholly upon his profes- sional labours, which yielded his family only a mod- erate support, while he owned no real estate but the house in which he lived. Not very long after the birth of his fourth child, and when Thomas was three years old, his daughter Elizabeth was seized with a malignant fever. He watched her .sick bed until her death, with a tender assiduity, which, combined with his grief at the bereavement, an$ .perhaps, with his business troubles, prostrated his strength ; and within a fortnight after his daughter, he sunk, by the same disease, into a premature grave. This unexpected end was all that was needed to complete the ruin 6f his affairs. Out of their wreck absolutely nothing seems to have been saved for his widow and babes. The Masonic Order, of which Jona- than Jackson was an officer, gave to the widow a little cottage of a single room. In this dwelling .she applied herself to the task of earning a living for herself and her children by her needle and the labours of a little school. She is represented as a lady of graceful and com- manding presence, spare, ar»d above the ordinary heignt of females, and of a comely and engaging countenance. Her mind was cultivated and intelligent ; and it is probable that much of the talent of her children was inherited through her. Her constitution had pulmonary tendencies, which were evidently entailed on her dis- tinguished son. Her mind was sprightly and her temper- HIS MOTHEK. 15 anient mercurial, at one time rising to gaiety under the stimulus of social enjoyment, and at another, sinking to despondency, under the pressure of her troubles. But her character was crowned with unaffected piety. ' While her parentage and education would have inclined her to the Presbyterian persuasion, the difficulty of reaching their ministrations caused her to become a member of the Wesleyan or Methodist communion*. General Jackson always spoke of her with tender affection, and traced his first sacred impressions to her lessons. When a daughter was born to him, a few months before his owa sJeath, he caused it to be baptised with his mother's name, Julia Laura. In the year 1830, Mrs. Jackson, whose youth and beauty still fitted her to please, married Mr. Woodson, a lawyer of Cumberland county, Virginia, whom the rising importance of the North- West had attracted, along with many other Eastern Virginians, to that country. He was a sort of decayed gentleman, much Mrs. Jackson's senior, a widower, without property, but of fair char- acter and of a popular social turn. The marriage was distasteful to Mrs. Jackson's relations. They threatened, as a sort of penalty for it, to take the maintenance and education of the children out of the widow's hands, and offered as an inducement on the opposite side, liberal pecuniary aid if she would continue to wear her first husband's name. But love, as usual, was omnipotent. Upon her marriage to Mr. Woodson, his scanty resources compelled her to accept the protection of, her former hus- band's kindred for her children, which stoe had at first de- clined as an infliction. The second husband's professional succens was very limited, and he very soon accepted fr ' '* friend, Judge Duncan, who had also intermarried Tackson family, the office of Clerk of the. court v v of Fayette, which lies on the New river, 16 HIS MOTHER DIES. west of Greenbrier. After one year of married life, Mrs. Woodson's constitution sank upon giving birth to a son ; she died two months after, on the 4th of December, 1831, and her remains await their resurrection not far from the famous Hawks Nest, of New rivet. Her hus- band announced her death to his friends in these words: " No christian on earth, no matter what evidence he might have had of a happy hereafter, could have died with more fortitude. Perfectly in her senses, calm and deliberate, she met her fate without a murmur or a struggle. Death with her had no sting — the grave could claim no victory. I have known few women of her equal, none of superior merit." The infant thus early bereaved of her care, lived to man's estate, and died of pulmonary disease, doubtless inherited from his mother, in the State of Missouri. Thomas, then seven years old, with his brother and sister, had been sent for to visit his mother in her sickness, and he remained to witness her death. To his christian friends he stated, long afterwards, that the wholesome impression of her dying instructions and prayers, and of her triumph over the grave, had never been erased from his heart. In his manly years he delighted to think of her as the impersonation of sweet- ness, grace and beauty ; and could never relate, without tenderness, the events of his departure for his uncle's house, when she had him mounted behind the last of his father's slaves, "good old uncle Kobinson," and recalled him so anxiously to give the last touch to the arrange- ments for his comfort. She had no other legacy to leave him than those prayers ; but they availed to shield him throug 1 •** untoward incidents of his orphanage and his life, and they were answered by the most glr Hollinger Corp. P H8.5