Jackson (Jack) Richardson was born around 1820 in Albemarle County, Virginia. During the antebellum era, Richardson was a enslaved farmer owned by John Richardson of Pulaski County, Kentucky. Richardson lived in Pulaski for 5 years prior to enlistment. He had gotten married sometime before 1864, but no information about his first wife has been found. 

Richardson enlisted in the Union army on June 26, 1864, in Somerset, Kentucky, and mustered in on June 30 in London. His service record describes him as 5 feet, 11 inches tall, with black hair, black eyes, and a black complexion. He served as a private in Company F of the 116th USCT Infantry Regiment. Richardson was frequently sick during his military service, suffering from chronic enlargement of the liver beginning in the fall of 1864. The 116th USCT was present for the capture of Petersburg and the surrender of Confederate General Robert E. Lee at Appomattox in the spring of 1865. Richardson was discharged for disability due to "dropsy of the bowels" on January 22, 1866, at the general hospital in Baltimore, Maryland.

Following the war, Richardson returned to Pulaski County and worked as a farmer. He married Lucy Ann Gilmore on January 3, 1896, in Pulaski County. He suffered from "disease of rectum, rheumatism, and senile debility" and began receiving a pension of $2 per month in 1881. The government increased this to $12 per month in the early 1890s. He died in April 1896.