William Giles Harding William Giles Harding ( 1808 – 1886 ) was an American heir , Southern planter , horse breeder and Confederate Brigadier General . Biography . Early life . He was born in 1808 near Nashville , Tennessee to John Harding ( 1777 - 1865 ) , a Virginian , who one year earlier ( 1807 ) purchased near Richland Creek known as " McSpadden ' s Bend " . He was educated at the old University of Nashville , the Partridge ' s American Literary , Scientific and Military Academy in Middletown , Connecticut , and he studied Law in Litchfield , Connecticut . Career . He first moved to his father ' s Pennington bend property , River Farm , between the Stones and Cumberland rivers in Nashville . He inherited the Belle Meade Plantation at the age of thirty - one , in 1839 . At the age of forty - five , he began construction of a larger ' Greek revival style ' mansion in 1853 - 54 on the Belle Meade Plantation which would become the now famous Belle Meade Mansion , listed in the National Registry of Historical Places ( NRHP # 69000177 , inducted 30 December 1969 ) . Beyond breeding thoroughbreds and cashmere goat s , he also engaged in horseracing . I 1856 , he was President of the Nashville Jockey Club . He owned over 100 slaves . He was a staunch proponent of the Confederate States of America and donated US $ 500 , 000 to the Confederate States Army to support the cause . Prior to the American Civil War of 1861 - 1865 , he attained the rank of Brigadier General in the Tennessee State Militia . At the benning of the war , he headed the Military and Financial Board of Tennessee at the beginning of the Civil War , until his arrest by Union authorities in 1862 . He was imprisoned by Federal authorities in Fort Mackinac on Mackinac Island in Michigan for six months . After the Civil War , his son - in - law William Hicks Jackson and his daughter Selene moved to Belle Meade Plantation to co - manage the farm with him . They expanded the horse farm to an estimated . The Harding - Jackson families became world renowned thoroughbred horse breeders , later purchasing a top stallion named Iroquois ( 1878 – 1899 ) , the first American horse to win the prestigious English Epsom Derby in 1881 . Personal life . He married Mary Selena McNairy , and they had a son , John Harding II . She died in 1837 . He remarried to Elizabeth Irwin McGavock , daughter of Randal McGavock ( 1766 - 1843 ) , who had served as Mayor of Nashville , Tennessee from 1824 to 1825 and owned the Carnton plantation in Franklin , Tennessee . They had two daughters , Selene and Mary Elizabeth . After the Civil War , daughter Selene Harding married Confederate States Army General William Hicks Jackson , commonly known as General " Red " Jackson , the son of Dr . Alexander Jackson and Mary W . Hurt Jackson . His brother was Howell Edmunds Jackson , who served as United States Senator from 1881 to 1886 and was appointed a Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1893 to 1895 . After the death of Howell ' s first wife Sophia Malloy in 1873 , he married General Harding ' s youngest daughter , Mary Elizabeth Harding . He died in 1886 . His obituary in the " Chattanooga Times Free Press " called him ' a monarch in his own domain ' . He is buried in the family tomb at the Belle Meade Plantation . Heirs to the estate . General Harding died in 1886 leaving the Belle Meade Estate in equal shares to :