Brig. General John King Jackson

Brigadier-General John K. Jackson was born February 8, 1828, at Augusta, Ga. He was educated at the Richmond Academy and at the South Carolina College at Columbia, where he was graduated with honors in 1846. He then studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1848, and followed his profession, with the exception of the four years of the Confederate war, until his death.

In 1849 he was married to Miss Virginia L. Hardwick, of Columbia county, by whom he had three sons, Thomas M., William E., and Hardwick.

His fondness for military experience led him to join the Oglethorpe infantry upon its organization, becoming first lieutenant of the company, and at the death of Capt. Andrew J. Miller was elected captain. He served in this position until elected lieutenant-colonel of the battalion of the companies in the city of Augusta. Upon the call of the State for troops to enter the Confederate army, he was among the first to respond, and was elected colonel of the Fifth Georgia regiment, at Macon, at its organization in May, 1861. The regiment was ordered to Pensacola, Fla., and Colonel Jackson remained in command of the regiment and of the post of Pensacola until January, 1862. On October 8, 1861, he was in command of one of the three detachments which fought the battle of Santa Rosa Island. He was promoted to brigadier-general in January, 1862, and commanded a brigade at Pensacola until some time in February, when he was ordered to Grand Junction, Tenn., put in command of the post there, and charged with the organization of troops which were arriving and being sent forward in brigades to Corinth, Miss. This was the beginning of the organization of the army of Tennessee. In the battle of Shiloh, April 6 and 7, 1862, he commanded a brigade of infantry, composed in part of two Alabama regiments (Colonel Wheeler's and Colonel Shorter's), one Texas regiment (Colonel Moore's)and Girardey's Georgia battery from Augusta. He commanded a Brigade composed of the Fifth Georgia, Fifth and Eighth Mississippi, and Coxe's Sharpshooters, in General Bragg's army during the campaign in Kentucky in the autumn of 1862. Subsequently his brigade was ordered from Knoxville to Bridgeport, Ala., where it successfully guarded the railroad communications from Chattanooga to Murfreesboro, while the balance of the army moved forward to Murfreesboro. On Christmas day, 1863, he received orders from General Bragg to bring up to the front all of his brigade that he could spare from guarding the bridges, and promptly obeying, his brigade was posted first on the right as part of the reserve and afterward was ordered to report to General Polk, at Duck river, near the Cowan house. General Polk ordered him into the fight at Cowan's house, where Withers' division had been repulsed. As Breckinridge's command, composed of three brigades, was coming up in the rear, General Jackson asked if it would not be better to wait until Breckinridge was in line, as the enemy was very strong; but General Polk replied, "Jackson, there's the enemy, go in." He went in, accordingly, and his brigade was cut to pieces. After the battle he was ordered back to Bridgeport and from there to Chattanooga, where he had charge of the communications from Atlanta to Tullahoma. Jackson's brigade, composed of the Fifth and Forty-fourth Georgia, and the Fifth and Eighth Mississippi regiments, fought with distinction at Chickamauga in Cheatham's division. The Fifth Georgia lost sixty-one per cent in that battle, the second heaviest loss of all the regiments engaged. He commanded his brigade in the battle of Missionary Ridge, and his, with General Moore's brigade, was the first to check the enemy after the Confederate lines were broken. When the army fell back to Dalton he was transferred to General Walker's division, with which he participated in the Georgia campaign up to July 1, 1864. He was then ordered with the Fifth and Forty-fourth Georgia regiments to report to Maj.-Gen. Sam Jones at Charleston, S.C.; was ordered to relieve Gen. Patton Anderson, in command of the district of Florida, at Lake City; later reported to General Mercer at Savannah in General Hardee's division; and in the siege of Savannah he commanded the center of the line. After the evacuation of Savannah he was ordered to Branchville, S.C., to establish a depot of ordnance and other stores, intended to supply General McLaws' division along the Salkehatchie river and to assist General Hood's army as it came through; from Branchville he was ordered to Cheraw, from there to Goldsboro, and finally to Augusta, but before he reached the latter city General Lee surrendered. After the surrender, as soon as he was permitted by the Federal authorities, he resumed the practice of law. He was employed by several State banks to obtain from the Georgia legislature relief for their stockholders from personal liability for bank bills which had been issued; and while at Milledgeville on this mission he was taken sick with pneumonia, and died on the 27th of February, 1866.