For Lana's Hubby & MIL

 OK, since you commented on my genealogy post on Herndons, Arthurs, Pinkertons and James' I went down another genealogy rabbit hole about Jacksons.

Jonathan Jackson and Julia Beckwith Neale were the parents of 3 children, including Thomas Jonathan "Stonewall" Jackson. Seems Jonathan Jackson, an attorney, died young of typhoid after nursing their child Elizabeth(who also succumbed to typhoid)and left his wife, Julia Beckwith Neale Jackson, a widow at the age of 28.  Julia gave birth to their 4th child, Laura Ann, the day after Jonathan died in 1827.

Julia and her children, Warren, T.J. and Laura were left destitute and in 1830 she remarried to another  attorney named Captain Blake Baker Woodson.  Mr. Woodson was like many men who don't wish to raise another man's children and he made his new wife sent her offspring away to live with assorted family members(Grandmother and unmarried Uncles and Aunt).  Then Blake and Julia had a son together named William Wirt Woodson in 1831 and Julia died of childbirth complications shortly afterwards leaving her three older surviving children orphans.

Blake Baker Woodson is my 2nd cousin 7x removed and his son, William Wirt Woodson is my 3rd cousin 6x removed but also the half-brother to Thomas Jonathan "Stonewall" Jackson. 8-))

This is a photograph of William Wirt Woodson as a young man.  It is known that Stonewall Jackson and WW Woodson had some sort of relationship even though they weren't raised together as brothers as Stonewall talks about Wirt in letters. Stonewall wrote letters that survive to this day to his sister Laura and mentioned Wirt often.

Wirt's father Blake and his black heart got his in the end as he died in early 1833 when William Wirt was only 1 year old putting his "real son" in the same circumstance as when he had forced his late wife Julia to abandon her three older children.
So my third cousin was Stonewall Jackson's half-brother?   

           Stonewall Jackson as photographed by Nathaniel Routzahn  in Winchester, Virginia , 1862

Awesome!

BTW--
There use to be a restaurant called "Lee's Retreat" at the Blue and Gray Brewery in Fredericksburg, Va.  They brewed a stout beer called "Stonewall Stout" and the bottle label had the slogan "I'd give my left arm for a Stonewall Stout!" hehehe  And if you know your American history you will "get it".

And yes, I have visited Stonewall Jackson's arm buried near Guinea Station outside of Fredericksburg, VA.

And Wirt must be a family name passed down the Woodson line as my maternal grandfather's given name was Wirt. 8-)))

Sluggy