RESOLUTION
WHEREAS, Sunday, March 22, 2015, officially marks the 153rd Anniversary of the First Battle of Kernstown, the opening engagement of Confederate General Thomas ''Stonewall" Jackson's Shenandoah Campaign into Frederick County, Maryland and Winchester, Virginia in the early stages of the American Civil War; and
WHEREAS, Despite having suffered a broken arm as a result of an artillery blast, General James M. Shields, an Ulinoisan appointed to serve as Brigadier General in the Union Army by President Abraham Lincoln in December 1861, led his forces into battle and dealt General Jackson the only tactical defeat of his military career; and
WHEREAS, The Chicago City Council has been informed of this milestone by Alderman Edward M. Burke; and
WHEREAS, James Shields, a penniless Scots-Irish immigrant without resources arrived in the U.S. from County Tyrone, Ireland, in 1822; and
WHEREAS, James Shields moved west from Charleston, South Carolina to study law and to teach in a school for French-speaking settlers before commencing a law practice in the settlement of Kaskaskia, Illinois in 1832; and
WHEREAS, In 1836, James Shields was elected to the Illinois State Legislature as a Democrat from Randolph County, an area overwhelmingly Whig in its political sentiments; and
WHEREAS, James Shields was twice elected State Auditor of Public Accounts, serving the people of Illinois in this capacity from 1839-1843; and
WHEREAS, After James Shields relocated to Springfield, Illinois he accepted an appointment from Governor Thomas Ford to a seat on the State Supreme Court in 1845, replacing Stephen A. Douglas who had just been elected to Congress; and.
WHEREAS, President James K. Polk commissioned James Shields a General in command of the Illinois Regiment during the Mexican War; and
WHEREAS, General Shields sustained a serious chest wound in the Battle of Cerro Gordo but recuperated in time to lead the New York Irish and South Carolina Palmettos to decisive victories in major ba...
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