Stonewall Margaret Junkin Preston Stonewall's (sister in law)

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Brev. Brig. Gen'l
Honored Fallen Comrade
Joined
Dec 3, 2011
Location
Laurinburg NC
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Margaret Junkin Preston was the sister of Elinore Junkin Jackson, the first wife of Thomas Jonathan "Stonewall" Jackson. Elinore met Jackson while he was a professor of natural and experimental philosophy and artillery tactics at the Virginia Military Institute and married him in August of 1853.

The newlyweds set up housekeeping with Elinore's family on the campus of Washington College, where Elinore and Margaret's father, the Rev. Dr. George Junkin, was president. Margaret formed an immediate attachment to her sister's new husband and remained close to him even after Elinore died in childbirth 14 months later. (James Robertson's 1997 biography of Jackson goes so far as to suggest that Margaret and Jackson were actually in love but were prevented from marrying by Victorian social strictures.)

Margaret eventually married a VMI professor, J.L.T. Preston, in 1857, the same year that Jackson entered into his second marriage with Mary Anna Morrison.
 
Jackson also lost his newborn son with his wife. The whole thing hit him very, very hard. Often family members had to go get him from the graveyard - he'd stay there for days. Margaret was a big help to him. I think maybe Robertson was right but it would have been considered incest. As it was, she was instrumental in convincing him to visit Europe. He had planned that trip for when his child was old enough to appreciate it, and now thought it an extravagance. But finally he went. It was a good thing - he visited all the old country's churches and cathedrals, nothing else except the Waterloo battlefield! Decided life was for the living and came back with a determination to get married. His little black book was mighty little, though. Only one name, in fact. Mary Anna Morrison!
 
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