Jackson, Charles W. (unknown–1841)

Charles W. Jackson, organizer of the Regulators, a native of Kentucky, was a steamboat captain on the Mississippi and Red rivers and owner of a store at Shreveport, Louisiana, before he became a fugitive from justice and established residence in Shelby County, Texas. When he was defeated as a candidate for the Texas Congress, he blamed persons whom he accused of counterfeiting headright certificates to engage in land fraud; he also stated an intention to expose corruption in the General Land Office. When Jackson was brought to trial late in 1840 for the murder of Joseph G. Goodbread, the courtroom was so filled with armed spectators that Judge John M. Hansford refused to sit. After he was acquitted, Jackson organized his followers into the Regulators, and the resulting feud with their opposition on the land-title question was known as the Regulator-Moderator War. In 1841 Jackson himself was waylaid and killed, an act that increased the hostilities and sustained the war.