James Jackson was a judge advocate in the American Civil War, and a chief justice of the Supreme Court of Georgia.
Background
Jackson was born on October 18, 1819, in Jefferson County, Georgia. His father, William H. Jackson, was the son of Gov. James Jackson, who took a leading part in the early history of Georgia. His mother, Mildred Lewis Cobb, was the aunt of Howell and Thomas Reade Rootes Cobb. When James was ten years old his parents moved to Athens, Georgia.
Education
After a few years' preparation in private schools, Jackson entered the University of Georgia. He was graduated in 1837 and began the study of law in the office of Howell Cobb.
Career
Upon his admission to the bar in 1839, Jackson moved to Monroe, Walton County, and entered upon the practice of law. Three years later he was made secretary of the state Senate, and from that time until the end of the Civil War he was, in one capacity or another, continually in the public service. From 1845 to 1849 he represented Walton County in the General Assembly, for the next eight years he was judge of the superior courts for the western circuit, and during the four years following, a representative from Georgia in Congress. When Georgia seceded he resigned from Congress, and soon after the beginning of the war he was made a judge-advocate, with the rank of colonel, on the staff of "Stonewall" Jackson. At the conclusion of the war he went to live in Macon, where he practised law in partnership with Howell Cobb and, after Cobb's death, with Nisbet, Bacon, and Lyon. In 1875 he was chosen an associate justice of the supreme court of Georgia and five years later, chief-justice, which position he held until his death. Jackson filled all of the offices he held creditably and acceptably, but his upright character and charming personality seem to have impressed his contemporaries more than his intellectual attainments. He had the faculty of making difficult tasks seem easy because of his quiet efficiency. His death occurred in Atlanta, on January 13, 1887.
Achievements
Religion
Jackson inherited from his mother a deeply religious temperament and was a prominent layman in the Methodist Episcopal Church, South.
Personality
Cultured, courteous, and with unusual magnetism, Jackson endeared himself to those about him. His judicial opinions are not erudite but are clear, well written, and convincing; some of them reveal a high ability.
Connections
Jackson was twice married, first, in 1853, to Ada Mitchell of Milledgeville, Georgia, by whom he had five children; she died in 1867, and in 1870 he married Mrs. Mary Schoolfield of St. Louis, Missouri.