During the Civil War, both the Federal and Confererate armies suffered setbacks and losses. However, the loss of perhaps the most well-known military strategist in the annals of american history caused irreprable damage to the South from which it would never recover. Due to his personal integrity, strong faith, and military strategies, General Thomas Jonathan Jackson,"Stonewall Jackson", significantly influenced the Civil War before his untimely death. Yet, if he were to have survived, and live to see the end of the war, the outcome may have been very different.
Jackson was born in Clarksburg Virginia in 1827. After age 2 was an orphan moving all over, being passed on from family member to family member. although young Stonewall Jackson lived with family, ".they did not provide for his emotional health. (McMurry)". Prior to age twelve, he had already faced the ".death of his father, mother and infant sister, and his stepfather, while at the same time being separated from two younger siblings. (McMurry)". A young man in his position has two places to go, up or down. Never a child, and rarely experiencing childhood, Jackson decided to follow a path of success and never looked back. With his solitary past, Jackson went into the United States militay Academy with the desire, determination, and drive to overcome his horrific .
childhood. Only a man with great personal integrity would fight back from a loveless past, to graduate seventeenth of his class at West Point Academy.
Immidiately following his graduation from West Point, he served in the Mexican War, carrying two brevets and rank of major. After his time in the Mexican war, Jackson accepted a professorship at the Virginia Military Institute. At the institute he taught cadets in astronomy, optics, mechanics, and his main theme, artillery. He would teach for ten years before rejoining the army. During that ten years he had married, had kids, and for a while, it seemed like Jackson had finally attained happiness.