A Kentucky Unionist

Union Brigadier General James Streshly Jackson, a United State Representative from Kentucky was killed October 8^th 1862 during the Battle of Perryville.

James Streshly Jackson was born in Fayette County, Kentucky September 27^th 1823.  He attended Center College at Danville, Kentucky before graduating in 1844 from Jefferson College in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania.  He would also study law at Transylvania University in Lexington, Kentucky, practicing law afterwards in Greenup County, Kentucky.  When the Mexican American war started Jackson enlisted as a private in the 1^st Kentucky Cavalry, but after participating in a duel with a fellow soldier, he was sure he’d be court martialed and so resigned in 1846.  In 1859 Jackson ran for Congress, he was elected to the Thirty-seventh Congress serving until December 13^th 1861 when he entered the Union Army.

Jackson raised a company of cavalry that became the Union 3^rd Kentucky Cavalry.  He was elected their Colonel on December 13^th 1861.  He led the 3^rd in the Battles of Shiloh and Corinth.  He received a promotion to Brigadier General of Volunteers July 16^th 1862 and was placed in commanding a Brigade in the Union Army of the Ohio.

Jackson was shot in the chest and killed during the Battle of Perryville October 8^th 1862.  He was buried originally in the Cave Hill Cemetery in Louisville, Kentucky, but his body was moved and reburied March 24^th 1863 in the Riverside Cemetery in Hopkinsville, Kentucky.