Stonewall Jackson

One in a million. What brilliant and tactical leader could be remembered as so, but commander Thomas Jonathan "Stonewall" Jackson. Stonewall Jackson was a natural born leader. Through his dabbling in teaching to his excellence in being a commander for the Confederacy. Jackson, the third child of parents Julia and Jonathan was born January 21, 1824 in Clarksburg( now known as West Virginia). In Jackson's earlier years, he helped out at his uncle's farm and later became a schoolteacher. Shortly after, Jackson began attending one of the preeminent institutions in New York known as West Point. There, Jackson showed his abilities to pull through adversity and graduate high in his class. Afterwards, Jackson begun his promising and memorable career as a solider. He began his career in the First U.S. Artillery Regiment. Shortly thereafter he was sent off to fight in the Mexican War which lasted from 1846 through 1848. During the war Jackson proved how quick minded he could be as he called upon more troops as he thought they could help win the war faster. His quick thinking served to be effective and also landed him a promotion in his rank as a solider. While serving in the Mexican War, Stonewall met Robert E. Lee, a person that would end up becoming one of Jackson's strongest allies. In the spring of 1851, Thomas Jackson accepted a newly created position to teach at the Virginia Military Institute in Lexington, Virginia. He became Professor of Natural and Experimental Philosophy and instructor of Artillery. Jackson's teachings are still in use at the VMI today because there are military essentials. During this time Jackson began a Sunday school for blacks, both slave and free. In 1861 as the American Civil War broke out became a drill master for some new recruits in the confederate Army. On April 27, 1861 Governor John Letcher ordered Colonel Jackson to take command at Harper's Ferry where he would assemble and command the famous "Stonewall Brigade" consisting of the 2nd, 4th, 5th, 27th, and 33rd Virginia infantry