The New International Encyclopædia/Jackson, Henry Rootes

JACKSON, Henry Rootes (1820-98). An American diplomat and soldier, born in Athens, Ga. He graduated at Yale in 1839, and in the following year was admitted to the bar in Georgia, where he was for several years United States district attorney. During the Mexican War he commanded the First Regiment of Georgia Volunteers. In 1850 he became judge of the Superior Court, an office which he held until 1853, when he was sent to Vienna as the United States chargé d'affaires, and from 1854 to 1858 was Minister Resident. After his return to Georgia he aided the United States district attorney in prosecuting the owners of the slave-ship Wanderer. Jackson was one of the Democratic delegates who seceded from the Charleston Convention in 1860. When his State seceded, he became a colonel on Governor Brown's staff, and was active in securing the United States arsenal at Augusta with its stores of arms and ammunition. He was then appointed major-general by the Governor, and was placed in command of all the State troops, but soon resigned this commission to accept one as brigadier-general in the Confederate service, and went to western Virginia, where he succeeded General Garnett upon the latter's death. Recalled by Governor Brown to aid in the defense of Georgia's seacoast, and unable to obtain leave of absence from the Richmond authorities, he resigned his Confederate commission, and was reappointed by the Governor major-general and commander of all the State troops. This office be held until the Georgia State troops were turned over to the Confederacy in 1862, when he was left without a commission. He was not again received into the Confederate service until near the close of the war, when he was made a brigadier-general in Hood's army, and after taking part in the battle of Franklin, was captured with his whole brigade at Nashville. He was appointed United States Minister to Mexico in 1885, but soon resigned. He published Tallulah and Other Poems (1850).