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Submitted: 8/27/16 • Approved: 9/15/16 • Last Updated: 3/13/18 • R56256-G0-S3
LIEUTENANT COLONEL US Army
11 Infantry
Civil War Union
May 18, 1842 - November 1, 1905
Husband of Emma Louise Cooper Jackson
Kansan, Thursday, November 2, 1905
The body of Colonel T J Jackson will probably arrive in Newton this afternoon on train No 1 though it may not get here until No 7 arrives. No arrangements have been made for the funeral and will not be until it is known when the son Cooper can get here should he be able to come.
Mrs Graybill and Miss Jackson had gotten only as far as Osage City when the telegram announcing their fathers death reached them [Colonel Jackson died the the night before in Kansas City after he fell from the train platform at Union Station, while trying to board the train back to Newton. The train had started to leave when he tried to board and fell under the moving passenger car loosing a arm and both legs below the knee.] They immediately came back to Newton and are now at the home here. Dr Graybill stayed in Kansas City and will accompany the body home. Cooper Jackson had gotten to Washington before the news of the accident reached him and it would require a couple of days for him to get back to Newton. The body was not brought on to Newton last night for the reason that it was thought best by the coroner to go through the forms of an inquest, though there was no question as to the manner of death.
Colonel Jackson was born in New Albany, Indiana, May 18, 1842. He was educated in the grade schools there and afterwards attended a university at Louisville. He practiced law previous to the war and was very successful, as he was also in politics. He was council for a railroad company. He enlisted in the Federal Army in July,1861, as a second lieutenant of Company B, Forty-second Indiana Volunteer Infantry and fought with that regiment until he was promoted to lieutenant colonel of a negro regiment, the Eleventh U. S. infantry, with which he fought until the massacre at Fort Pillow, when he was so severely wounded that he was incapacitated for service. The following is an account of his wounds he received in the battle. He was shot bayoneted, smashed in the side of the head by the butt of a musket and kicked into the river to drown. In that particular bunch of men which was surrounded in this fight he and one of the negro privates were all that were left alive. Col. Jackson was found 48 hours after he had been kicked into the river, by a federal gun boat lying in the stream, his arms clinched around a log and in dying condition. He was brought back to life and went to a hospital for a long time. Here a silver or metal plate was placed in the side of his head where the rebel musket had made a hole. This metal plate, or others that were substituted, was worn up to the time of his death. He was also nearly killed as a man could be to live, but he survived to again enter the war and be captured in a later fight. This time he was thrown in a prison at Memphis. After a time he managed to escape to be again captured by blood hounds and returned. The hot-headed southerners had then never learned that he had been in command of a negro regiment or he would never have lived over night. He finally managed to escape the second time by jumping into a cess-pool through which he managed with an Irish man from a West Virginia regiment, to reach the Mississippi river. They finally got across and after days of wandering, reached an old darky's home. Here food, shelter and new clothing was given them. Rebels hunting them one day came to this cabin. Jackson and his friend were put under the big heavy feather bed and the old nigger mammy, who was large and fat, laid down on it, rolling and tumbling as though in terrible pain. A search of the house failed to find their hiding place, but the old mammy laid there for a long time, it seemed to the men imprisoned below. Some time after this they managed to reach the federal lines and got back with the stars and stripes once more. The effects of these wounds remained with him to to his dying day, the bayonet wound in the foot frequently being very painful. Colonel Jackson's escape from death at Fort Pillow was almost miraculous, as he was one of the very few that got away with their lives. No quarter was shown by the confederate troops to white officers of colored troops. Returning to New Albany after the war, Colonel Jackson was married to Miss Louise Moore, who died November 28th of last year.
Colonel Jackson is survived by three children, four brothers and sisters. His children are Cooper Jackson, Miss Agnes Jackson and Mrs J W[Joanna] Graybill.
As well as Colonel Jackson was known in Newton, he was almost equally as widely acquainted throughout the state of Kansas. Through his long connection with the state legislature and his prominence in state G A R matters, as well as his part in politics in general, the colonel has made many acquaintances. He was Harvey county's representative in the state legislature one term and for years has been associated with the legislative body as journal clerk of the senate. No session of the legislature is considered complete without him. No man perhaps, has more thorough knowledge of the workings of the legislature. He systematized the work in the office and kept fully posted as to every detail in the legislature
Contributed on 8/27/16
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Record #: 56256