Chapter 1
In the broad field of American biography, there are found but few names more prominent than those of Generals Andrew and Thomas J. Jackson. As these remarkable men represent different generations, and belong to different periods of history, their similar traits of character are not distinctly discernable by a casual observer. It is believed that by contrasting them a nearer view will be obtained that may prove interesting and instructive to all intelligent readers.
Being descended from the same stock, the striking similarity of character that General Thomas J. Jackson, or General Stonewall Jackson, as he is best known, bears to General Andrew Jackson is doubtless due to their common origin. Both of these distinguished men claim a
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On great questions, too, which left the mind above sectarian trivialities, they will, as a people, be invariably found on the anti-diabolic side; equally strenuous for liberty and for law, against “Mobs and Monarchs, Lords and Levelers”, as one of their own stump orators expressed it.” The repeal of the laws of primogeniture in the United States and the consequent forgetfulness of ancestry makes it difficult to trace individual pedigree, for beyond a few generations the search for family history must enter the uncertain realm of tradition, or the obscure region of conjecture, so it appears in tracing the genealogy of the Jacksons. It is believed however that the researches of James Parton, a biographer of Andrew Jackson, and of Doctor Dabney, the biographer of Thomas J. Jackson, have correctly traced their origin. Parton tells us that Ian McSkinnin, the historian of Carrickfergus, mentions in a foot note as early as 1708 on John Jackson as a member of the grand jury of Carrickfergus. The town had not then been overshadowed by Belfast, and had become a place of considerable importance on account of its linen trade and fisheries; and as according to the custom in Great Britain, the grand juries were always composed of men of position, it may be inferred that John Jackson was a man of some prominence, and it is also within the scope of probability that he was a member of the family of Jacksons that were subsequently identified as the immediate ancestors of Andrew Jackson, who will later claim our