Born in Fayette County, Kentucky, Jackson pursued classical studies at Centre College, Danville, Kentucky. He graduated from Jefferson College, Canonsburg, Pennsylvania, in 1844, and the following year from the law department of Transylvania University, Lexington, Kentucky. He was admitted to the bar and began practicing law in Greenupsburg, Kentucky.
During the Mexican–American War, Jackson enlisted on June 9, 1846, as a private in the 1st Kentucky Cavalry; he was elected a third lieutenant one month later. Jackson participated in a duel with Captain Thomas Francis Marshall; fearing a court martial, he resigned from the Army on October 10, 1846.
In 1859, he moved to Hopkinsville from Greenupsburg.[1] He was elected as a Unionist to the Thirty-seventh Congress and served from March 4 to December 13, 1861, when he resigned to enter the Union Army.
Jackson raised a cavalry company and was elected colonel of the 3rd Kentucky Cavalry when it was formed on December 13, 1861. He was promoted to brigadier general of volunteers on July 16, 1862.
Jackson was placed in command of the 10th Division in the Army of the Ohio. He was killed in action on October 8, 1862, during the Battle of Perryville. He was buried at Cave Hill Cemetery in Louisville, but was reinterred on March 24, 1863 at Riverside Cemetery in Hopkinsville.