Jackson, Henry R. (Henry Rootes), 1820-1898

Henry R. Jackson (1820-1898), Brigadier General, Confederate States of America Army.

Henry Rootes Jackson, son of Henry and Martha Jacqueline Jackson, was born in Athens, Georgia on June 24, 1820. He received his education from Yale University and the University of Georgia. During his life, Jackson held many prominent positions. These included, United States District Attorney (1843-1849), Colonel of the First Georgia Regiment in the Mexican War, Judge of the Supreme Court of Georgia (1849-1853), United States Minister to Austria (1853-1859), delegate to the Charleston Convention of 1860, Judge of the Confederate Courts for Georgia (1861), Major General of the state troops of Georgia (1861-1865), United States Minister to Mexico (1885), and President of the Georgia Historical Society (1875-1898). Henry Rootes Jackson married Cornelia A. Davenport in 1843. Their children were Henry, Davenport, Howell Cobb, and Cornelia. After the death of his first wife, Jackson married Florence King in 1866 and moved to Savannah where he resided until his death on May 23, 1898. Jackson is buried in Bonaventure Cemetery in Savannah, Georgia.

Achieving the rank of major general in the Georgia militia during the Civil War, Henry Rootes Jackson is best known for organizing and commanding state troops during the Atlanta Campaign. He was born on June 24, 1820, in Athens to Martha J. Rootes and Henry Jackson. Tutored by his father, a professor at the University of Georgia, Jackson entered Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, and graduated with honors in 1839. Jackson then returned to Georgia and studied law. He passed the bar in Columbus in 1840, moved to Savannah to practice law, and was appointed a U.S. district attorney of Georgia before his twenty-fourth birthday. In January 1843 he married Cornelia Augusta Davenport, and they had four children before Cornelia died in 1853. In 1850 Jackson published a volume of his poetry, Tallulah and other poems. The editor and literary critic Evert A. Duyckinck described the poetry as "spirited and manly" and "of a patriotic interest." New Georgia Encyclopedia http://georgiaencyclopedia.org (Retrieved Dec. 19, 2009)

Henry Rootes Jackson, a grandson of General James Jackson, was a lawyer, minister to Austria, Brigadier General in the Confederate States Army, minister to Mexico, and long-time president of the Georgia Historical Society.

Henry R. Jackson was an American diplomat and Confederate Army general. Joseph E. Brown was governor of Georgia from 1857 to 1865, and later served as a U.S. senator from that state.

"Achieving the rank of major general in the Georgia militia during the Civil War, Henry Rootes Jackson is best known for organizing and commanding state troops during the Atlanta campaign." - "Henry Rootes Jackson." New Georgia Encyclopedia. http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org (Retrieved August 21, 2008)

"Known as the "Macaulay of the South," Charles C. Jones Jr. was the foremost Georgia historian of the nineteenth century. Also a noted autograph and manuscript collector and an accomplished amateur archaeologist, Jones in later years became a prominent memorialist of the Lost Cause and critic of the New South." - "Charles C. Jones Jr." New Georgia Encyclopedia. http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org (Retrieved August 21, 2008)