A month before South Carolina went out of the Union, Major Jackson called upon his pastor, Dr. White, and said: “It is painful to know how carelessly they speak of war. If the Government insists upon the measures now threatened, there must be war. They seem not to know what its horrors are. Let us have meetings to pray for peace.” Dr. White agreed to his request, and the burden of Major Jackson’s prayer was that God would preserve the land from war.
After the election of Mr. Lincoln, in November, 1860, to be President of the United States, the Southern States saw no hope of getting their rights and resolved to secede, or withdraw from the Union of the States.
South Carolina took the lead and seceded on the 20th of December, 1860. She was quickly followed by Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas.
On the 9th of January, 1861, these States united and at Montgomery, in Alabama, formed a government called “The Confederate States of America,” with Jefferson Davis as President.
Virginia was slow to withdraw from the Union formed by the States; but, when President Lincoln called for seventy-five thousand soldiers to invade the Southern States, she delayed no longer. On April 17th, 1861, she seceded and began to prepare for war.
“In one week,” says Dabney, “the whole State was changed into a camp.” The sons of Virginia rushed to arms, and soon the city of Richmond was filled with men drilling and preparing to fight.
At daybreak on Sunday morning, April 21st, 1861, an order came to Lexington from the Governor of the State (Governor Letcher) to march the cadets that day to Richmond. As the senior officers were already in Richmond, Major Jackson at once prepared to go forward with his corps.
View of the Business Portion of Richmond, Va., after the Evacuation Fire of 1865.
At eleven o’clock A. M. he went to his home to say good-bye to his wife. They retired to their own room, where he read the 5th chapter of Second Corinthians, which begins with these beautiful words: “For we know, if our earthly house of this tabernacle be dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.”