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Facts and Events
"James lived with his brother John in Kentucky after he left Catholic College in St. Louis." And it was in Kentucky that he met Susan Adams, fell in love and married, bringing her home to Fairfax County, Virginia.
The first fatalities of the North and South in the American Civil War occurred in Alexandria, Virginia. Within a month of the Battle of Fort Sumter, Union troops occupied Alexandria, landing troops at the base of King Street on the Potomac River on May 24, 1861. Secessionist feelings were strong in this Virginia city as a ban on slavery would ruin the area's slave trade. And folks did not take kindly to being invaded by Northern troops. A few blocks up King Street from their landing site, the commander of the New York Fire Zouaves, Colonel Elmer E. Ellsworth, came with a small detachment to remove a large Confederate flag displayed so prominently on the roof of the Marshall House Inn where James William Jackson made his home and was proprietor. That Confederate flag was visible from the White House and was deemed so offensive that Col. Ellsworth decided it must come down. Col. Ellsworth stormed up the center stairs to remove the flag and as he descended from the roof, he was shot by James William Jackson. One of the soldiers in Ellsworth's party shot Jackson immediately. The incident generated great excitement both in the North and in the South; in the North Ellworth was publicized as a Union martyr; in the South Jackson was considered a Southern Hero defending his home and honor. Jackson was a strong secessionist and proud of that flag.
The book "The Life of James William Jackson,<bt>
Page 39 & 40:
"The next day the body of Jackson was removed from Alexandria to be buried, the family leaving with it. He left, besides his wife, three little children, daughters, the eldest about twelve years old. They are children of exceedingly attractive appearance and interesting manners. Thus was the Marshal House left behind. It was taken possession of by the Federal officers, and the office used by the Provost Marshal. The house at once became a scene of attraction for Northern soldiers and newspaper correspondents, who, wishing to have each a memento of Ellsworth, began to chip off the railing and cut up the floor of the landing where he had fallen. That being demolished--entirely cut away--they attacked indiscriminately the whole house and furniture. Some of the citizens tried to save the furniture by packing it all in one room, but the officers would not protect it, and on the 7th of June, house, furniture, and all were one common ruin.
James' body was carried first to Fairfax Court House, and thence to the old homestead, on the Georgetown and Leesburg turnpike, where it was interred. Whether it has been suffered there to rest in peace, even thus far, we cannot tell. For a long time the old lady, the widowed mother of Jackson, has lived there alone. . . Whether the old lady has been permitted the peaceful possession of her home since the Yankees extended the lines of their protection (!) around it, we cannot tell. The torch has been ruthlessly applied to many a lately peaceful and happy home in that neighborhood, and it may be that this, for the sake of the associations that encircle it, has met the same fate. . .The hand of violence may not even have permitted the frame of Jackson to remain in the sepulcher wherein we saw him "quietly inurned." Their vandalism may easily have extended thus far."
From description posted at Find-a-Grave:
Jackson Family Cemetery
1157 Swinks Mill Road, McLean, Fairfax County, Virginia
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=cr&GRid=33894657&CRid=2350507&
"James W. Jackson was buried with his mother in the Jackson Family Cemetery, but according to information on file in the Virginia Room of the Fairfax City Regional Library, he was later disinterred and buried with his wife Susan in Section I, Lot 43, Fairfax City Cemetery."
1860 U.S. Census dist n/s, Fairfax, Virginia
James W. Jackson 37 M Hotel Keeper 1800. VA
Susan M. Jackson 37 F married KY
Amelia Jackson 13 F VA
Allice J. Jackson 11 F KY
C. M. Jackson 8 F VA
William M. Harper 28 M Dentist 500. PA
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Tibbetts, Jean. Reflections: 1988-1991; The Jackson Family. (Great Falls Historical Society, Great Falls, Virginia, 1991)
Page 39.
Author's source: "Life of James W. Jackson", Richmond, West & Johnson, 1862. (In Virginia State Historical Society collection, Richmond, Virginia.)
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Life of James W. Jackson, the Alexandria Hero.
"buried on his parent's home farm."
- ↑ United States. 1850 U.S. Census Population Schedule. (National Archives Microfilm Publication M432)
Fairfax, Virginia, USA.
- ↑ United States. 1860 U.S. Census Population Schedule. (National Archives Microfilm Publication M653)
Dist n/s, Fairfax, Virginia.
- Find A Grave.
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