He served throughout the Revolutionary War, and when Savannah surrendered, Gen. Anthony Wayne, ordered that the keys of Savannah be given to Jackson, because of his gallant service to his state and country, and because "he was the first American soldier to tread the soil of a town, from which the arms of a tyrant had too long kept its lawful possessor."
At the close of the Revolutionary War, James Jackson began the practice of law in Savannah.
Like Joseph, in the Bible story, he remembered and longed for his youngest brother; so he sent a request to his parents that his brother Henry be permitted to come to America, promising to educate him and care for him as a son, but in his stead the family sent his brother, Abram. He kept his brother and gave him advantages, but again sent for Henry. The latter came and James Jackson educated him, and at his death left him a child's share of his property. This Henry was for years professor at the Georgia State University, and was interpreter to William H. Crawford, when the latter was minister to France. His son was General Henry R. Jackson, of Savannah, who was a poet and a distinguished officer in both the Mexican and Confederate Wars.
General James Jackson had a brother, John, who was in the British Navy and was killed during the Revolutionary War.
In one of her letters to James, his mother wrote how much she wished she could see him, and said: "It is a great and a deep water that divides us and when I think of it my thoughts turn to my poor John." You see John had been buried at sea, and it was not an easy matter in those days for James to visit across the ocean, when it took weeks to make the journey.
General Jackson held many offices and was one of Georgia's greatest governors. He defeated the Yazoo Fraud, resigning his place in the National Senate, and going from there to the Legislature of his State in order to do it. He is the only man in the history of our country who ever gave up being a Senator to go to the Legislature.
It has been said that if Jackson's heart were cut out after his death, on it would have been found the beloved word, "Georgia."
He died in Washington years after, again a Senator, and is buried in the Congressional burial ground. His epitaph was written by his friend John Randolph, and is as follows:
"In the memory of Major-General James Jackson of Georgia, who deserved and enjoyed the confidence of a grateful country, a soldier of the Revolution, he was the determined foe of foreign tyranny, the scourge and terror of corruption at home."
James Jackson's maternal grandfather never forgave him for fighting against England in the Revolutionary War, and in his will left to his grandson, James, only money enough to buy a silver cup.—Caroline Patterson, Mary Hammond Washington Chapter, D. A. R.