Referred to in newspapers as “Red” Jackson, he was most likely born in Shepherdstown, Virginia (now West Virginia). He served in the military during the Civil War, company and regiment unknown. At some point after his service, he married and lived with his wife and two stepsons in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. He worked for a Dr. S. B.
William Henry Harrison Smith went by Harrison Smith for most of his life. He was born in Shepherdstown, Virginia (now West Virginia), and enlisted on February 17, 1864, in Hartford, Connecticut, as a private, with Company B of the 31st Connecticut Colored Infantry. He stood at five feet and five inches tall, with dark hair, eyes, and complexion, and was twenty-one years old at the time. He was sent to a division hospital on July 30th, 1864, during a charge near Petersburg, Virginia, when he suffered a gunshot wound through his left shoulder and jaw.