Military career of Stonewall Jackson

Stonewall Jackson’s military career consists of a combination of various brevet, temporary, and permanent appointments in no less than five different military organizations.

Stonewall Jackson was also a civilian military instructor (while still granted military status as an officer) and when the Civil War began Jackson became an officer in the state forces of Virginia. He was later appointed in the Provisional Army of the Confederates States (PACS) while also holding a permanent rank as a major in the Confederate States Army.

Stonewall Jackson was appointed to the United States Military Academy in the summer of 1842, at the age of eighteen years, after Cadet Gibson Butcher resigned after one day of service. After petitioning Congressman Samuel Hays to appoint Jackson as an emergency replacement for Butcher, Jackson reported for duty on June 18, 1842.

Considered simply as a "plebe" during his first semester at West Point, Jackson finished his first term in January 1843 and was appointed a Cadet Fourth Class on February 20, 1843. Jackson's 1842-1843 4th Class year ended on a high note with the visit of Winfield Scott to West Point in June 1843.

Jackson assumed duties as a Third Class Cadet in July 1843 and finished his sophomore year without incident in the spring of 1844. Now twenty years old, he was then appointed a Second Class Cadet and granted his first ever summer vacation from West Point returning on August 28, 1844. For the 1844 -1845 school year Jackson was appointed a Cadet Sergeant, the only leadership position he would hold in the Corps. When his junior year ended in the spring of 1845, Jackson was advanced to Cadet First Class but was not granted a Senior leadership position. He was thus referred to as a "Cadet High Private".

Jackson graduated from West Point at the age of twenty two in June 1846. The academy at the time had no graduation ceremonies or formal presentation of diplomas with Jackson departing on July 1, 1846 as a Brevet Second Lieutenant.

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