Early life and military career James Jackson was born in New Jersey on November 21, 1833. Sometime after graduating from Philadelphia High School, he went west to the frontier and eventually settled in
Iowa. At the beginning of the Civil War, Jackson actively recruited volunteers for the
12th Iowa Volunteer Infantry Regiment. He attained this position from Colonel
William B. Allison, then an aide to Governor
Samuel J. Kirkwood, who would go on to have a successful political career as a Congressman in
Washington, DC. In 1862, he left
Dubuque with the 12th Infantry to join the
Army of the Potomac and saw action at
Fredericksburg,
Chancellorsville,
Gettysburg,
the Wilderness,
Cold Harbor, and
Spotsylvania. Jackson was cited for "gallant service" in several major engagements throughout the war and twice brevetted at the
Battle of North Anna and the
Second Battle of the Weldon Railroad in August 1864. Jackson joined the
Regular Army after the war's end. In 1867, he was assigned to frontier duty in
Nebraska, where he protected
Union Pacific Railway workers during the construction of the
Transcontinental Railroad. He also made several trips to Iowa from time to time including an 1873 visit to his mother in
Mason City shortly before her death. Jackson also married Ida Jane Jackson, a woman 18 years his junior, and they had one child together. A month later, Jackson's unit encountered Chief Joseph's warriors at
Camas Meadows in the
Idaho Territory on August 20, 1877. His commanding officer, Captain Randolph Norwood, had moved ahead of the main force under orders to find and engage the renegades, but were instead taken by surprise when the Nez Percé launched a frontal assault. In the first moments of battle, trumpeter Bernard Brooks was killed. Jackson and another nearby soldier dismounted while under heavy fire and risked their lives to take Brooks' body with them and hid his body in a clump of bushes before rejoining their unit in retreat. The Nez Percé, wanting to return to Chief Joseph and their people as quickly as possible, escaped into the wilderness once the cavalry's horses and mules were secured. Jackson and his men buried Brooks before returning to camp. It was believed by the Nez Percé and other tribes that if they maimed captured or dead soldiers, then they would be so in the afterlife, as well. Consequently, the recovered bodies of soldiers would frequently be found badly mutilated and Jackson hoped to spare his fallen comrade a similar fate. It would be 18 years before Jackson's actions were recognized by the government. In 1895, Major
Eugene Carr of the
8th U.S. Cavalry petitioned for Jackson to receive the
Medal of Honor. Carr's request was initially declined by the then Acting Secretary of War who believed the incident occurred too long ago to merit issuing the award. Additional support from General Howard and other officers, however, made the War Department reconsider its position and a decision was made in April 1897 to give the award to Jackson who received the medal by registered mail that same month.
Retirement and later years After Camas Meadow, Jackson commanded several frontier posts in the
Pacific Northwest, including
Fort Klamath and
Fort Walla Walla, as well as a
recruiter for the U.S. Army in
New York City, and later for the
Oregon National Guard. He was also a professor of
military science and
tactics at
Bishop Scott Academy in
Portland, Oregon. Jackson retired from active service on November 21, 1897, with the rank of
lieutenant colonel. However, several of his friends in Oregon sought, on his behalf, an appointment to the rank of
brigadier general to honor his long military service. Government bureaucracy and changing presidential administration delayed the process for well over a decade. Jackson died in Portland on October 21, 1916, at the age of 82. He was interred at
River View Cemetery. Thirteen days after his death, a telegram was delivered to his address notifying him of his promotion to brigadier general. ==Medal of Honor citation==