William Giles Harding Collection
1827 - 1872
Biography/History
William Giles Harding [1808-1886] was born near Nashville and attended the University of Nashville; the American Literary, Scientific,
and Military Academy in Middletown, Connecticut; and, studied law in Litchfield, Connecticut.
William Giles Harding married Elizabeth Irwin McGavock in 1840 after the death of his first wife. He lived first at Stone's River Farm,
where his son John later lived, and then at the 3500-acre Belle Meade Plantation, where he raised cashmere goats and racehorses. He
transformed the Federal style house his father built into the Greek Revival mansion that stands today.
At the beginning of the American Civil War he served as a General in the Tennessee militia. In 1862 he was imprisoned for six months
by federal troops as a political prisoner, for supporting the Confederate rebellion, and sent to Detroit and Fort Mackinaw, Michigan.
During his absence, his wife was left to manage Belle Meade Plantation. During the war, his plantation was used as a headquarters for
the Union Army.
After the war, Belle Meade became one of the best thoroughbred breeding farms in the country.
Mrs. M. G. Buckner donated the original letters to Special Collections. Ridley Wills deposited some typed transcripts of the letters
with genealogical footnotes in 1985.
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