John K . Jackson John King Jackson ( February 2 , 1828 – February 27 , 1866 ) was an American lawyer and soldier . He served as a Confederate general during the American Civil War , mainly in Florida and the Western Theater of the conflict . Afterward Jackson resumed his law practice until dying from pneumonia a year after the war ended . Early life and career . John King Jackson was born in 1828 in Augusta , Georgia . He received his education first at Richmond Academy in his home state , and later at the University of South Carolina in Columbia , where he graduated " with honors " in 1846 . Jackson then began to study law and was admitted to his state ' s bar association in 1848 , practicing in Augusta until 1861 . In 1849 , Jackson married a woman from Columbia County named Virginia L . Hardwick . The couple would have three sons together , named Thomas M . , William E . , and Hardwick . He also was active as an officer in the Georgia State Militia , elected a lieutenant and later a captain . By 1861 was serving as a lieutenand colonel , in command of an Augusta infantry battalion . Civil War service . When the American Civil War began in 1861 , Jackson chose to follow his home state and the Confederate cause . In April he entered the Confederate Army as lieutenant colonel of the 5th Georgia Infantry Regiment , and in May was elected its commander and colonel . Jackson ' s regiment was ordered to Pensacola , Florida , where he also commanded the post at Pensacola that May and June . Jackson was in command of one of the three battalions which fought in the Confederate defeat during the Battle of Santa Rosa Island on October 8 , 1861 . Jackson and his regiment would remain n Florida for the rest of 1861 . On January 14 , 1862 , he was promoted to brigadier general , assigned command of a brigade in the Army of Pensacola a week later . In February Jackson was sent to Grand Junction , Tennessee , where he was to organize the Confederate soldiers sent there into brigades on their way to Corinth , Mississippi . Beginning on March 29 , he commanded a brigade in the recently created Army of Mississippi , and led it with distinction during the Battle of Shiloh on April 6 – 7 . During the late evening attack by Maj . Gen . Braxton Bragg on April 6 , Jackson ' s men and another brigade charged a strong Union position upon a ridge . Despite being very low on ammunition , the force made " a brave bayonet attack " which was ultimately unsuccessful . During the Kentucky Campaign of 1862 , Jackson and his brigade were ordered from Knoxville to Bridgeport , Alabama , where they were to guard Confederate communications along the railways bridges from Chattanooga to Murfreesboro . Jackson next saw combat during the Stones River Campaign of late 1862 . On December 25 Bragg , by now the army ' s commander , ordered Jackson to leave the bare minimum of his command to protect the rail bridges and join the main force gathering at Murfreesboro . Sent to Lt . Gen . Leonidas Polk for orders , Jackson and his men participated in the Battle of Stones River from December 31 to January 2 , 1863 . An account of Jackson ' s participation follows : Following the fight at Stones River , Jackson and his men were sent back to Bridgeport and then again to Chattanooga , ordered to defend railroad communications from Atlanta to Tullahoma . From February 23 to July 25 he commanded the District of Tennessee of the Confederate Department No . 2 . When Bragg ' s army fell back on that city , Jackson ' s brigade was assigned to Major General Benjamin F . Cheatham ' s Division of Lieutenant General Leonidas Polk ' s Corps . He fought with distinction during the Battle of Chickamauga on September 19 – 20 , 1863 , where one of his regiments , the 5th Georgia , " lost sixty - one per cent in that battle , the second heaviest loss of all the regiments engaged . " He participated in the Chattanooga Campaign that October and November , most notably in the Battle of Missionary Ridge , where his brigade and that of Brig Gen . John C . Moore greatly slowed the Union breakthrough on November 25 . While the Army of Tennessee fell back to Dalton , Georgia , Jackson and his brigade were transferred to Maj . Gen . William H . T . Walker ' s division on February 20 , 1864 . He participated in the Atlanta Campaign until July 3 , when he was separated from the Army of Tennessee . Jackson and two of his regiments ( 5th & 47th Georgia ) were ordered to Charleston , South Carolina , to report to Maj . Gen . Samuel Jones . There Jones gave him orders to proceed to Lake City , Florida , and relieve Brig . Gen . James P . Anderson , in charge of the District of Florida in the Confederate Department of South Carolina , Georgia , & Florida . Jackson would command at Florida from August 30 to September 29 , 1864 . During Sherman ' s March to the Sea in late 1864 , Jackson and his command were then sent to Savannah , Georgia , and participated in the siege of Savannah . He was given command of the center line in the Confederate defenses , which were evacuated when the city was abandoned that December . Following the actions at Savannah , Jackson was sent to Branchville , South Carolina , where he was to establish military depots as the quartermaster of the Army of Tennessee . He then went to Cheraw , next to Goldsboro , North Carolina , and finally his home town of Augusta , all for the same purpose . Jackson was in this role when Gen . Joseph E . Johnston surrendered his forces on April 26 , 1865 , which included the Army of Tennessee . He was paroled from Augusta on May 17 and returned to his civilian life . Postbellum career and death . After the American Civil War ended in 1865 , Jackson resumed his career as a lawyer in Augusta , Georgia . Several of the state ' s banks hired Jackson to obtain financial relief from the Georgia General Assembly on behalf of their stockholder s , many of whom were returning Confederate officers . He was on this mission when he was stricken with pneumonia while in Milledgeville , located in Baldwin County , Georgia . Jackson died in early 1866 , a few weeks after his 38th birthday , and was buried in Augusta ' s City Cemetery .