Gen. Alexander W. Campbell, attorney at law, is the son of John W. and Jane E. (Porter) Campbell, and was born in Nashville June 4, 1828. His father was a native of Kentucky, and his mother of Tennessee, and in 1833 came to Jackson, Tenn., where Alexander W. was reared and educated. In the winter of 1847-48 he began the study of law under Judge A. W. O. Totten, and later attended the law school at Lebanon, from which institution he graduated in 1851, and the following year opened a law office in Jackson, and continued the practice until the war, when he was appointed, by Gov. Harris, assistant inspector-general of the provisional army of Tennessee, and as such mustered into the service the greater portion of the West Tennessee troops. Upon the transfer of the provisional army to the service of the Confederate Government, Gen. Campbell became colonel of the Twenty-third Regiment, under Gen. B. F. Cheatham, and in 1865 was promoted to a brigadier-general and placed in the command of Gen. Forrest in charge of the brigade which bore his name, retaining said command until the surrender.

After the war Gen. Campbell resumed the practice of law in Jackson, and has thus been occupied until the present, having met with more than ordinary success. For the past quarter of a century he has been one of the foremost Democrats and leading practitioners of this portion of the State. January 12, 1852, his marriage with Miss Anne D., daughter of the distinguished lawyer, Dixon Allen, of Nashville, was solemnized, and to this union six children have been born, four of whom are now living: Mrs. Anne A. McIntosh, of Memphis; John W.; Katie F. and Alexander W. Gen. Campbell is a Knight Templar in Masonry, a member of the K. of P. and A. O. U. W. fraternities, and himself and wife are Episcopalians in religious belief.

Source: Goodspeed