Joseph T. Derry , A. M. , Author of School History of the United States; Story of the Confederate War, etc., Confederate Military History, a library of Confederate States Military History: Volume 6, Georgia
Clement Anselm Evans, Ed.

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[429] 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