American Civil War trivia question (1 Viewer)

[UKReb]

Interesting to note that Jackson had a cousin whose reputation fell short of that attached to Jackson himself and who was consequently nicknamed "Mudwall" by his men.

Trooper

Not wanting to bore other froggers with continuing the "Stonewall" controversy but as you now raise "Mudwall" this may interest you in particular.

Like you I too had always associated the sobriquet "Mudwall" with Stonewall's cousin Brig Gen William Lowther Jackson-but was slightly confused at the apparently derogatory name as his war record was not that bad when aligned with other dubious Reb generals. Like his cousin he was born in Clarksburg Virginia (now West Virginia) where he became a very eminent lawyer. At the outbreak of war he enlisted as a private in a Reb infantry unit and swiftly rose through the ranks to captain. He then joined Stonewall's staff (obviously a little nepotism being put to work) during his Shenandoah campaign. Promoted to Colonel of the 19th cavalry finally promoted to Brig Gen in Dec 1864. Sure he got the odd mauling from the Federal army as most of his colleagues did but no downright disasters were ever recorded against him or his command. Subsequently, I put his nickname down to no more than a contradistinction to his more famous cousin.

And then I read Porter Alexander's "Fighting for the Confederacy" he was Longstreet's chief of artillery (now more well known as the young cocky artlllery officer portrayed in the movie Gettysburg). In his book whilst Longstreet's Corps were fighting in East Tennessee he mentions an inept and totally incompetent Confederate commander- Brig Gen Alfred Eugene Jackson- and refers to him as "Mudwall" Jackson should now be promoted to "Brickwall". I personally was unfamiliar with this A.E.Jackson who apparently was little known outside of Tennessee except to his poor suffering brigade. Then I happened upon yet another Jackson who had the nickname hung on him by several historians-this Jackson was Brig Gen John King Jackson nicknamed "Mudwall" for his attempts at defending Chattanooga. Confusion reigned!

Armed with all this contradictory info I placed it all on a civil war round table-inhabited with ACW nerds like myself-cutting a long story short the discussion which went on for months may or may not have prompted an article in the magazine Blue & Gray entitled "Will The Real "Mudwall" Jackson Please Stand Up"

Consensus from all of this is that the sobriquet "Mudwall" firmly belongs to the very inept A.E.Jackson and not Stonewall's cousin W.L.

Unless of course all three Jackson's were called sometime or other "Mudwall"

Reb

 

[trooper]

As always Reb, you are the man!! The one thing that arises is that there were too many Jacksons in the CSA. Was the question ever resolved?