Shackelford County
In 1858 Shackelford County was established and named after a Texas Revolution hero, Jack Shackelford. He was born in Richmond, Virginia March 20, 1790. His education was as a physician and surgeon. In 1811 he moved to South Carolina where he established his medical practice. While there he married Maria Young, the daughter of a prominent Presbyterian minister.
During the War of 1812 he served as a physician on Andrew Jackson's staff. Several years later he moved his family to Shelby County, Alabama. There, he bought a plantation and settled down. He became active in politics, serving in the Alabama State Senate for three years.
In 1829 he was appointed to head the United States Land Office in Courtland, Alabama. His priority was to sell 400,000 acres of government land to allow the building of a canal around Muscle Shoals. After this assignment, he served as treasurer for the first rail line west of the Allegheny Mountains.
When the Texas Revolution began Shackelford, then forty-five years old, recruited a company of fifty-five volunteers to go to Texas to help with the fight against Santa Anna and his Mexican forces. He appointed himself Captain of the company. He took a son and two nephews with him. As a uniform they wore red jeans and so became known as the Red Rovers.
They arrived in Texas at Matagorda in 1836. They offered their services in a number of significant battles against the Mexican army. Goliad, Coleto, San Jacinto and other noteworthy battles such as the Battle for the Alamo. His assignment there was to treat the wounded Mexicans as he was a prisoner. His son and nephews were among those executed on Santa Anna's orders. After a time he escaped from San Antonio and traveled to Goliad. It was Shackelford who oversaw the burial of the massacred Texan victims.
Shackelford became angry over the honorable treatment given Santa Anna. As a result, he obtained his discharge and returned to Alabama where he received military honors.
Shackelford again visited Texas in 1839 where he was honored in Houston. During the Mexican invasion of Texas in 1842 he again attempted to recruit volunteers for the Texas Cause.
He made another visit to Texas in 1842, traveling to Houston and Austin.
Jack Shackelford died in Courtland, Alabama on January 22, 1857.
The next year, 1858, a new Texas county was established and named after him, Shackelford County.