Harper's Encyclopedia of United States History
Benson Lossing, Ed.

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Jackson, Henry rootes 1820-1898

Military officer; born in Athens, Ga., June 24, 1820; graduated at Yale College in 1839, and admitted to the bar in 1840, when he settled in Savannah. He was appointed United States district attorney for Georgia in 1843. During the Mexican War he was colonel of the 1st Georgia Volunteers. At the close of the war he became part proprietor of The Georgian, in Savannah. In 1853 he was sent to the Court of Austria as the United States charge d'affaires. In 1854-58 he was minister to Austria. Returning to the United States he was commissioned a special United States district attorney for Georgia, to aid in trying notorious slavetrading cases. When the Civil War broke out he entered the Confederate army with the rank of brigadier-general. During the battle of Nashville, in December, 1864, he was taken prisoner, and was held till the lose of the war. Returning to Savannah he resumed law practice. In 1875-88 he was a trustee of the Peabody Educational Fund. In 1885 he was appointed minister to Mexico, but served only a few months, owing to his opposition to the government in seizing the American ship Rebecca. He published Tallulah, and other poems. He died in Savannah, Ga., May 23, 1898.