Sidney D. Jackman

Jackman was born in Jessamine County, Kentucky, in the spring of either 1826 or 1828, the son of Thomas Jackman and his wife Mary Drake. Sometime in 1830, the family moved to Howard County, Missouri, where Sidney Jackman was taught some basic schooling. By late in the 1840s he was living in Boone County, Missouri, where he look up work as a schoolteacher as well as farming. On February 18, 1849, Jackman married his first wife, Martha Rachael Slavin, in Boone County, and they would have two daughters and four sons together.[1]

Soon after getting married Jackman moved his family to Howard County, Missouri, and in 1855 they settled in Papinville, located in Bates County. In both locales Jackman again was farming and teaching. Jackman organized local militias while in Papinville to deal with "Jayhawker" and other raids from nearby Kansas, and in 1860 he relocated his family further into Missouri's interior to try to avoid these troubles.[1] By the time of the American Civil War, Jackman was a captain in the Missouri State Militia.[2]

Jackman chose to follow the Confederate cause in 1861 and entered the Missouri State Guard. In May 1862 he led cavalry troops in the raid of Neosho, Missouri.[3] In the summer of 1862 was authorized to raise a cavalry regiment of Missourians in Arkansas. Finding this slow going, he obtained permission to recruit in Missouri.[4] On August 16 Jackman fought at the Battle of Lone Jack, where he led troops that helped defeat the Union forces occupying Lone Jack, Missouri.[3] While this unit was originally mounted, upon its return to Arkansas it was dismounted by Maj. Gen. Thomas C. Hindman. It was mustered into Confederate service on August 31 in Arkansas under Col. Jackman. It was designated the 7th, then the 16th Missouri Infantry. On October 25, 1862, Jackman resigned to resume recruiting in Missouri.[5]

Jackman would serve in the Trans-Mississippi Theater of the American Civil War, mainly participating in irregular guerilla style tactics against Union targets.[1] By the fall and winter of 1862 Jackman had successfully recruited enough troops to aid the regular Confederate Army raids into Missouri. On January 11, 1863, his men entered Union-held Columbia, hoping to free Confederates in the city's jail, but the attempt failed. On April 23 Jackman and his troopers kidnapped Missouri Militia (Union)[6] Brig. Gen. Thomas J. Bartholow and then set up camp at Glasgow. On June 1 Jackman's small command encountered and defeated a group of Federal cavalry, where he reportedly shot the leader of the Union horsemen.[3]

In May 1864 Jackman and his men entered Arkansas and were based near the Boston Mountains in the northwest part of the state. By June he had recruited a cavalry regiment that was to be called "Jackman's Missouri Cavalry"[3] which was added to Brig. Gen. Joseph Shelby's cavalry division of Maj. Gen. Sterling Price's Army of Missouri in the Trans-Mississippi Department.[2] That fall Jackman's command (a cavalry brigade consisting of two regiments and two battalions of raw recruits) participated in Price's Raid. During the first stages of the raid Jackman led the attack and capture of Union-held Glasgow.[3]

With the collapse of the Confederate States in 1865, Jackman and some of his men decided not to surrender and headed for Mexico. Along the way, Jackman reunited with his now-released family in Shreveport, Louisiana, and proceeded with them toward Texas and the border. Near the end of 1865 they arrived in the city of San Marcos, located in Hays County, Texas. Jackman entered northern Mexico, leaving his family in Texas while he ascertained whether to relocate there. Deciding against it, he crossed back into the United States and surrendered to Federal authorities in San Antonio. Taken to New Orleans, Louisiana, took the loyalty oath to the U.S. Government, and was subsequently paroled.[1]

During 1867 Jackman bought a ranch near Kyle, Texas, and settled his family there, farming and raising cattle.[3] He and his wife helped found the First Christian Church, Disciples of Christ, and he later was a Blanco Chapel Free School trustee. His wife of 21 years, Martha, died in 1870. In 1873 Jackman won election as representative to the Fourteenth Texas Legislature. Jackman remarried in 1875 to Cass (Kyle) Gains, a widow, and they would have two sons and two daughters together.[1]

On March 17, 1885,[8] Jackman was appointed the U.S. Marshal for western Texas by U.S. President Grover Cleveland.[3] He held this post until his death at his home in Kyle in June 1886. He is buried in the town's Kyle Cemetery.[1]

• List of American Civil War generals (Acting Confederate)

• Allardice, Bruce S. Confederate Colonels: A Biographical Register. Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 2008. ISBN 978-0-8262-1809-4.
• Allardice, Bruce S. More Generals in Gray. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1995. ISBN 978-0-8071-3148-0.
• Eicher, John H., and David J. Eicher, Civil War High Commands. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2001. ISBN 978-0-8047-3641-1.
• McGhee, James E., Guide to Missouri Confederate Units, 1861-1865, University of Arkansas Press, 2008
• Sifakis, Stewart. Who Was Who in the Civil War. New York: Facts On File, 1988. ISBN 978-0-8160-1055-4.
• www.tshaonline.org Texas St. Historical Assn. biography of Jackman.
• mmcwrt.missouri.org missouri.org biography of Jackman.
• www.usmarshals.gov U.S. Marshals List of Texas Western District Marshals.
• www.pricecamp.org Copy of Jackman's report concerning Price's 1864 Missouri Expedition.

• Hearn, Jo Ann Elam, and Kerbow, Dorothy Wimberley, comps., Hays County, Texas Cemetery Inscriptions, Hays County Historical Commission, 1990.
• Jackman, Sidney D. and Norton, Richard L., editor, Behind Enemy Lines: The Memoirs and Writings of Brigadier General Sidney Drake Jackman, Oak Hills Publishing, 1997.
• Mundie, James A. Jr., with Allardice, Bruce S., Letzring, Dean E., and Luckey, John H., Texas Burial Sites of Civil War Notables College Press, 2002.
• Stovall, Frances, et al., Clear Springs and Limestone Ledges: A History of San Marcos and Hays County, Hays County Historical Commission, 1986.