William Hicks Jackson

William Hicks Jackson
Born	October 1, 1835 Paris, Tennessee, U.S.
Died	March 30, 1903 Belle Meade, Tennessee, U.S.
Allegiance	United States of America Confederate States of America
Service/branch	United States Army Confederate States Army
Years of service	1856-1861 1861–1865
Rank	2nd Lieutenant (USA) File:Confederate States of America General.png Brigadier General (CSA)
Commands held	1st Tennessee Cavalry Regiment W.H. Jackson's Cavalry Brigade W.H. Jackson's Cavalry Division
Battles/wars	Indian Wars American Civil War
Other work	planter

William Hicks "Red" Jackson (October 1, 1835 – March 30, 1903) was a cotton planter and horse breeder, who served as a general in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War.

Early life and career

Jackson was born in Paris, Tennessee, a son of Dr. Alexander Jackson and Mary (Hurt) Jackson, the daughter of a Baptist minister; both his parents were natives of Virginia whose families had migrated to Middle Tennessee. When he was five, his family moved to Jackson, Tennessee. His older brother Howell Edmunds Jackson later served as a senator and, late in life, as a United States Supreme Court Justice. Their father was elected as a Whig to the state legislature and subsequently as Jackson's mayor.

He attended West Tennessee College (now Union University) before accepting an appointment to the United States Military Academy. Jackson graduated from West Point in 1856 and was brevetted as a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army.

He studied at the cavalry school at Carlisle Barracks before being assigned to the Regiment of Mounted Rifles. Jackson served on frontier duty at Fort Bliss in Texas in 1857, and engaged in a skirmish with Kiowa near Fort Craig in New Mexico Territory. He participated in the Comanche and Kiowa Expedition of 1860.

Civil War

When word came of Tennessee's secession, Jackson resigned from the Army on May 16, 1861, and returned to the South to enroll in the Confederate army. He was commissioned as a captain of artillery. He served as an aide-de-camp to General Gideon Pillow and at the Battle of Belmont in November. In early 1862, Jackson was appointed as colonel of the 1st Tennessee Cavalry and rose to be chief of cavalry, serving under John C. Pemberton, Earl Van Dorn, and lastly Sterling Price. On December 29, 1862, he was promoted to brigadier general.

He served with distinction in the Vicksburg Campaign in early 1863. In February 1864, he commanded the cavalry of Leonidas Polk in the campaign around Meridian, Mississippi. During the Atlanta Campaign that summer, Jackson commanded the cavalry division of the Army of Mississippi. His troopers repeatedly skirmished in August with the Union cavalry of H. Judson Kilpatrick, which was attempting to destroy railroads south of the city. Jackson won a significant victory at the Battle of Brown's Mill near Newnan, Georgia.

He continued to lead his division through the Nashville and Murfreesboro campaign before retreating to Mississippi. In February 1865, he was assigned command of all cavalry from Tennessee in the force of Nathan Bedford Forrest. He successfully isolated the Union brigade of John T. Croxton during Wilson's Raid in April.

Postbellum career

Following the war, Jackson returned to Tennessee and managed his father's cotton plantation. His first wife Elizabeth died in 1867 and in 1868, he married Selene Harding. With his father-in-law William Giles Harding, he co-managed the latter's Belle Meade Plantation near Nashville.

In the 1870s, Jackson became heavily involved in The Grange movement. He also belonged to the Tennessee Agricultural and Mechanical Association, and sat on the Tennessee Bureau of Agriculture.

His older brother, jurist Howell Edmunds Jackson, had married Selene's younger sister Mary Harding after the death of his first wife. In 1886 Jackson and his brother Howell took over control of Belle Meade following the death of their father-in-law William G. Harding. Jackson and his brother expanded the breeding operations and raised prize race horses. General Jackson purchased a stallion named Iroquois in 1886; the horse was the first American winner of the British Epsom Derby.

William H. Jackson died at Belle Meade in 1903 and was buried in the family's mausoleum in the plantation's cemetery. In 1906, after the plantation was sold, his remains of him and those of other members of the Harding-Jackson family were reinterred in Mount Olivet Cemetery in Nashville, Tennessee.

See also

• List of American Civil War generals (Confederate)

References

• Eicher, John H., and David J. Eicher, Civil War High Commands. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2001. ISBN 978-0-8047-3641-1.
• Sifakis, Stewart. Who Was Who in the Civil War. New York: Facts On File, 1988. ISBN 978-0-8160-1055-4.
• Tennessee State Library and Archives
• Warner, Ezra J. Generals in Gray: Lives of the Confederate Commanders. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1959. ISBN 978-0-8071-0823-9.

External links

• Jackson photo gallery at the Wayback Machine (archived February 8, 2008)
• Belle Meade Plantation
• Jackson biography
• William Hicks Jackson at Find a Grave