Touring the Jackson House Museum, in Lexington, Virginia
Dear Henry, While in Lexington, Virginia , I stopped by the Jackson House Museum. Let me tell you all about it! Thomas Jonathan "Stonewall" Jackson was born on January 21, 1824, in what is now Clarksburg, West Virginia. His father and one sister died of typhoid while he was young, and his mother remarried in 1830. The new stepfather did not want responsibility for either Thomas or his sister, so his mother sent the children to live with their uncle in what is now Jackson's Mill, West Virginia. Growing up in a rural area, Jackson did not have many opportunities for traditional schooling and was primarily self-educated. However, despite Jackson's lack of formal education, he enrolled in West Point in 1842 and struggled through, graduating 17th in his class of 59 in 1846. Jackson deployed to Mexico almost immediately after graduation for the Mexican-American War. He participated in the battle of Chapultepec and the capture of Mexico City. When the war ended in 1848, Ge