Thomas Jonathan "Stonewall" Jackson served as a Confederate general during the American Civil War, became one of the best-known Confederate commanders after General Robert E. Lee. Jackson played a prominent role in nearly all military engagements in the Eastern Theater of the war until his death, played a key role in winning many significant battles. Born in what was part of Virginia, Jackson received an appointment to the United States Military Academy at West Point, served in the U. S. Army during the Mexican–American War of 1846–1848 and distinguished himself at Chapultepec. From 1851 to 1863 he taught at the Virginia Military Institute, where he was unpopular with his students. During this time, he married twice, his first wife died giving birth, but his second wife, Mary Anna Morrison, lived until 1915. When Virginia seceded from the Union in May 1861 after the attack on Fort Sumter, Jackson joined the Confederate Army, he distinguished himself commanding a brigade at the First Battle of Bull Run the following month, providing crucial reinforcements and beating back a fierce Union assault.

In this context Barnard Elliott Bee Jr. compared him to a "stone wall", hence his enduring nickname. Jackson performed well in the campaigns in the Shenandoah Valley during 1862. Despite an initial defeat due to faulty intelligence, through swift and careful maneuvers Jackson was able to defeat three separate Union armies and prevent any of them from reinforcing General George B. McClellan's Army of the Potomac in its campaign against Richmond. Jackson quickly moved his three divisions to reinforce General Lee's Army of Northern Virginia in defense of Richmond, his performance in the subsequent Seven Days Battles against George B. McClellan's Army of the Potomac was poor, but did not inhibit Confederate victory in the battles. During the Northern Virginia Campaign that summer, Jackson's troops captured and destroyed an important supply depot for General John Pope's Army of Virginia, withstood repeated assaults from Pope's troops at the Second Battle of Bull Run in August 1862. Jackson's troops played a prominent role in September's Maryland Campaign, capturing the town of Harpers Ferry, a strategic location, providing a defense of the Confederate Army's left at Antietam on September 17, 1862.

At Fredericksburg in December, Jackson's corps buckled but beat back an assault by the Union Army under Major General Ambrose Burnside. In late April and early May 1863, faced with a larger Union army now commanded by Joseph Hooker at Chancellorsville, Lee divided his force three ways. On May 2, Jackson took his 30,000 troops and launched a surprise attack against the Union right flank, driving the opposing troops back about two miles; that evening he was accidentally shot by Confederate pickets. The general survived but lost his left arm to amputation. Military historians regard Jackson as one of the most gifted tactical commanders in U. S. history. His tactics are studied today, his death proved a severe setback for the Confederacy, affecting not only its military prospects, but the morale of its army and the general public. After Jackson's death, his military exploits developed a legendary quality, becoming an important element of the ideology of the "Lost Cause". Thomas Jonathan Jackson was the great-grandson of John Jackson and Elizabeth Cummins.

John Jackson was an Irish Protestant from Coleraine, County Londonderry, Ireland. While living in London, England, he was convicted of the capital crime of larceny for stealing £170. Elizabeth, a strong, blonde woman over 6 feet tall, born in London, was convicted of felony larceny in an unrelated case for stealing 19 pieces of silver and fine lace, received a similar sentence, they both were transported on the merchant ship Litchfield, which departed London in May 1749 with 150 convicts. John and Elizabeth met on board and were in love by the time the ship arrived at Annapolis, Maryland. Although they were sent to different locations in Maryland for their bond service, the couple married in July 1755; the family migrated west across the Blue Ridge Mountains to settle near Moorefield, Virginia in 1758. In 1770, they moved farther west to the Tygart Valley, they began to acquire large parcels of virgin farming land near the present-day town of Buckhannon, including 3,000 acres in Elizabeth's name.

John and his two teenage sons, were early recruits for the American Revolutionary War, fighting in the Battle of Kings Mountain on October 7, 1780. While the men were in the Army, Elizabeth converted their home to a haven, "Jackson's Fort", for refugees from Indian attacks. John and Elizabeth had eight children, their second son was Edward Jackson, Edward's third son was Jonathan Jackson, Thomas's father. Jonathan's mother died on April 17, 1796. Three years on October 13, 1799, his father married Elizabeth Wetherholt, they had nine more children. Thomas Jackson was born in the town of Clarksburg, Virginia, on January 21, 1824, he was the third child of Julia Beckwith Jackson and Jonathan Jackson, an attorney. Both of Jackson's parents were natives of Virginia; the family had two young children and were living in Clarksburg, in what is now West Virginia, when Thomas was born. He was named for his maternal grandfather

Arcadia is one of the regional units of Greece. It is part of the administrative region of Peloponnese, it is situated in the eastern part of the Peloponnese peninsula. It takes its name from the mythological figure Arcas. In Greek mythology, it was the home of the god Pan. In European Renaissance arts, Arcadia was celebrated as an harmonious wilderness. Arcadia is a rural and mountainous "regional unit". Today's capital is Tripoli, it covers about 18% of the Peloponnese peninsula, making it the largest regional unit on the peninsula. Arcadia is grassland with a bit farmland and three wooded mountain ranges, but large areas are covered only by degenerated shrubland. Forests in altitudes higher than 1000 m, remained in the central north, in winter a ski resort, in the central south and in the Arcadian part of the mountain range Parnon. In the southwest, "Mount Lykaion" is well known for myths; the climate consists of hot summers and mild winters in the eastern part, the southern part, the low-lying areas and the central area at altitudes lower than 1,000 m.

The area receives rain during fall and winter months in the rest of Arcadia. Winter snow occurs in the mountainous areas for much of the west and the northern part, the Taygetus area, the Mainalon. Arcadia is totally mountainous and part of the “carbonate platform” of the Peloponnese; the whole peninsula was formed by intense tectonics. In Arcadia’s central part around the Tripoli region developed a special form of topography, a geologically fascinating phenomenon: There are several plains and “intra mountainous basins” “closed basins”: The 30 km long “Tripoli-Plateau”, “Argon Pedion”, Basin of Levidi, Basin of Vlacherna Arcadia/Hotoussa/Kandila); the peculiarity of the plains and basins is a result of intensive karstification: Water seeps into the underground, rather than eroding and draining the topography by surface waterways. All drainage runs through subterranean waterways; the additional problem for rural activities in the basins: When winter rains are heavy, the ground is flooded or temporary lakes arise today, as drainage through katavothres is too slow to start cultivation in due time.

All cultivation is delayed! After the collapse of the Roman power in the west, Arcadia remained as part of the Greek-speaking Byzantine Empire. Arcadia remained a beautiful, secluded area, its inhabitants became proverbial as herdsmen leading simple pastoral unsophisticated yet happy lives, to the point that Arcadia may refer to some imaginary idyllic paradise, immortalized by Virgil's Eclogues, by Jacopo Sannazaro in his pastoral masterpiece, Arcadia. After the Fourth Crusade, the area became a part of the Principality of Achaea, but was progressively recovered by the Byzantine Greeks of the Despotate of the Morea from the 1260s on, a process, completed in 1320; the region fell into the hands of the Ottoman Turks in 1460. With the exception of a period of Venetian rule in 1687–1715, the region remained under Turkish control until 1821; the Latin phrase Et in Arcadia ego, interpreted to mean "Even in Arcadia there am I", is an example of memento mori, a cautionary reminder of the transitory nature of life and the inevitability of death.

The phrase is most associated with a 1647 painting by Nicolas Poussin known as "The Arcadian Shepherds". In the painting the phrase appears as an inscription on a tomb discovered by youthful figures in classical garb. Arcadia was one of the centres of the Greek War of Independence which saw victories in their battles including one in Tripoli. After a victorious revolutionary war, Arcadia was incorporated into the newly created Greek state. Arcadia saw small emigration. In the 20th century, Arcadia experienced extensive population loss through emigration to the Americas. Many Arcadian villages lost half their inhabitants, fears arose that they would turn into ghost towns. Arcadia now has a smaller population than Corinthia. Demographers expected that its population would halve between the early 21st century; the population has fallen to 87,000 in 2011. An earthquake measuring 5.9 on the Richter magnitude scale shook Megalopoli and the surrounding area in 1965. Large numbers of buildings were destroyed.

Within a couple of years, the buildings were rebuilt anti-seismically. This earthquake revealed an underground source of lignite in the area, in 1967 construction began on the Megalopoli Power Plant, which began operating in 1970; the mining area south of the plant is the largest mining area in the peninsula and continues to the present day with one settlement moved. In July and August 2007 forest fires caused damage in Arcadia, notably in the mountains. In 2008, a theory proposed by classicist Christos Mergoupis suggested that the mummified remains of Alexander the Great, may in fact be located in Gortynia-Arkadia, in the Peloponnese of Greece. Since 2008, this research is ongoing and being conducted in Greece; the research was first mentioned on CNN International in May 2008. When, during the Greek Dark Ages, Doric Greek was introduced to the Peloponnese, the older Arcadocypriot Greek language survived in Arcadia. Arcadocypriot never became a literary dialect. Tsan is a letter of the Greek alphabet occurring only in Arcadia, shaped like Cyrillic И.

Annaghmore Lough is a freshwater lake in the west of Ireland. It is located in County Roscommon in the catchment of the upper River Shannon. Annaghmore Lough is located about 5 km northwest of Strokestown, it lies at the centre of a group of small glacial lakes. Fish species in Annaghmore Lough include perch, rudd, tench, three-spined stickleback and the critically endangered European eel; the fen on the lake's north shore is home to a snail species rare in Vertigo geyeri. Annaghmore Lough is an important bird sanctuary. Threatened species present here include golden plover. Other species include teal, wigeon, pochard, goldeneye and curlew; the lake and surrounding fens form the Annaghmore Lough Special Area of Conservation. List of loughs in Ireland