[4] Jackson led a group of sailors into the rigging where they spread their coats to increase the sail area, at significant hazard to their lives.

[5] On returning to the Naval Academy, Jackson passed his final examinations but fell just below the grade cutoff and was second on the list of cadets denied a commission and honorably discharged.

[6] In the hopes of becoming a naval surgeon, he and several of his Academy classmates studied medicine at the University of Virginia, where Jackson was a member of Beta Theta Pi and graduated fourth in the medical class of 1890.

[7] Meanwhile, word of Jackson's heroics at Apia had reached Congress, which was spurred to act by testimonials from Trenton's commanding officer, Captain Norman von Heldreich Farquhar, and Secretary of the Navy Benjamin F.

[8] On September 26, 1890, Congress passed special legislation authorizing the President to appoint one additional ensign in the United States Navy.

The final statute noted that Jackson had behaved "with conspicuous gallantry by leading the men into the mizzen rigging to form a sail, when this position in the rigging was one of great danger, as the mast was liable to be carried away and fall overboard when the ship struck, and did thereby contribute largely to the success of the maneuver which the captain of the Trenton, in his official report to the admiral, says saved the lives of four hundred men from certain destruction.

In 1897, he married the daughter of Rear Admiral William T. Sampson, who would achieve fame a year later at the Battle of Santiago Bay.

In 1903 he returned to the Naval Academy as an instructor in the Department of English and Law, concluding his tour in 1905 by commanding the protected cruiser Atlanta during midshipman training missions.

Naval Forces in Bermuda, he commanded the Azores detachment of the Atlantic Fleet that stood guard for the Navy flying boat NC-4 on its historic first trans-Atlantic crossing by an aircraft.

He died of cardiac failure while being treated for a hip fracture at Balboa Naval Hospital in San Diego, California at the age of 105.

[20] He won the top prize in 1900 with the topic of "Torpedo Craft, Types and Employment", earning a gold medal, life membership in the Naval Institute, and $100 in cash.