Talk:Stonewall Jackson

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Moved to Talk:Military career of Stonewall Jackson

More vandalism

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Somebody changed his middle name to "loser" can somebody please fix? I don't even care about the civil war, this is just obviously not supposed to be there. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.10.95.2 (talk) 15:03, 23 February 2010 (UTC)

Fixed, although I can't understand why you didn't fix it yourself. Hal Jespersen (talk) 16:10, 23 February 2010 (UTC)

Unsure how to begin a new section here. I removed a sentence claiming that Bill Paxton would be depicting Jackson in an upcoming miniseries. That website it cities is obviously an unprofessional, amateur effort- and some digging revealed that no filming locations have been named or scouted out. Furthermore the only references I see to this miniseries are from the website itself and blogs where the showrunner- someone named Michael F. Beckner- is personally verifying the information. This doesn't seem to me to be a credible television effort, and if anything, is in fact a form of promotional advertising, so that Mr. Beckner can drum up support for the project. Regardless, it doesn't make sense to call a project not yet greenlighted by any network as "upcoming," and therefore this warrants removal. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.55.123.100 (talk) 23:44, 4 October 2011 (UTC)

Proper name

Granted, I've yet to go through this article with a fine-toothed comb, but I don't see a citation for the attribution of "Jonathan" as Jackson's middle name. From everything I've read, "Jonathan" is only an inference; perhaps an educated one, but an inference nonetheless. Jackson was only known to use "J." as a middle initial, which he started at West Point to distinguish himself from another Thomas Jackson. Did I miss something? intooblv (talk) 02:38, 2 May 2010 (UTC)

We don't normally provide citations for names unless there is some controversy, but consult any of the References cited. Eicher, p. 319, for instance. Hal Jespersen (talk) 15:25, 2 May 2010 (UTC)

That's my point; it's controversial because it's not clearly cited. Since I don't have Eicher's book available, some elaboration would be helpful. Farwell's Stonewall: A Biography... clearly states the following in the Forward (page xi): "I have been unable to find the source for the belief that Jackson's middle name was Jonathan and that he was named after his embezzling father. Jackson gave himself a middle initial but was never known to call himself Jonathan. He signed his name simply 'T.J. Jackson.'"

On page 3: "Named Thomas after Judith Jackson's father, Thomas Neale, the newborn was not given the dignity of a middle name or initial; these became attached much later."

On page 17, we have a footnote regarding letters to Congressman Samuel Lewis Hays recommending Jackson for attendance at West Point: "This is Jackson's first known use of a middle initial. The 'J.' was (and by most, is still) thought to stand for 'Jonathan,' the name of Jackson's father, although Jackson himself never said so, nor did he ever use other than the initial. He also never expressed any affection or regard for the father he never knew."

On page 74, regarding Jackson's baptismal record: "The Reverend Michael Schofield not only failed to get the titles of the sponsors right but carelessly conferred on Jackson a middle name [Jefferson]. It scarcely mattered, for Jackson, although he often signed his name 'T.J. Jackson,' never used more than a middle initial at any time." intooblv (talk) 18:08, 4 May 2010 (UTC)

Well, this is rather interesting because the 20 references for this article do not mention anything about this being controversial. I had not heard of this Farwell book previously. Bud Robertson's arguably definitive biography came out five years after Farwell's, and he does list Farwell in the bibliography. I did some more thorough reading and find that Robertson acknowledges that the first recorded use of Jackson's middle initial was on February 28, 1841, and that it is unknown whether the initial stood for his father's name. (This is a year earlier than Farwell was able to find.) Robertson also cites Farwell's contention on page 17 and contradicts the claim that four of the recommendation documents use the middle initial, stating that only two did, and also stating that there was no obvious reason for Jackson to change his view about his father at this particular point. About Michael Schofield, Robertson says that it was very common that when a Virginian had the initials T.J., most people assumed he was named for Thomas Jefferson. The reason this "controversy" did not come to light is that Robertson places all of this discussion into footnotes, presumably considering it a lot less interesting than Farwell did. I will update the article. Thank you for bringing this to my attention. Hal Jespersen (talk) 22:44, 4 May 2010 (UTC)

Edit request from 173.200.83.53, 24 May 2010

{{editsemiprotected}}

faith is cool 173.200.83.53 (talk) 22:29, 24 May 2010 (UTC)

Do you have any suggestions for improving the article? That is the function of {{editsemiprotected}}; if not, good day. Intelligentsium 22:33, 24 May 2010 (UTC)