James Jackson

James Jackson (November 21, 1833 – October 21, 1916) was an American officer in the U.S. Army during the mid- to late-19th century. He was a captain with the 12th Iowa Volunteer Infantry Regiment during the American Civil War and with the 1st U.S. Cavalry in the Indian Wars. While fighting the Nez Percé at Battle of Camas Meadows in 1877, he risked his life to recover the body of another soldier, preventing its mutilation by the enemy. For this act, he received the Medal of Honor nearly 20 years later.

Biography

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.