William Hicks Jackson

William Hicks "Red" Jackson (October 1, 1835 – March 30, 1903) was a career United States Army officer who graduated from West Point. After serving briefly in the Southwest and resigning when the American Civil War broke out, he served in the Confederate Army, gaining the rank of brigadier general by the end of the war. Afterward he became a major planter and horse breeder in Middle Tennessee. As a widower he married Selene Harding, daughter of the owner of the 5300-acre Belle Meade Plantation near Nashville. Jackson co-managed the operations with his father-in-law William Giles Harding. They expanded the raising of purebred horses, cattle, sheep, and goats. Jackson and his wife inherited an interest in the plantation, and Belle Meade was known for the quality of horses he bred. He shared some decisions with his brother Howell Edmunds Jackson, who as a widower had married Selene's sister Mary Harding in 1873; they also inherited an interest in Belle Meade. 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 became an attorney, politician and later served as a US 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.