A Civil War Biography

John Calvin Brown

John Calvin Brown was born in Giles County, Tennessee on 6 January 1827. At the age of nineteen he graduated from Jackson College, Tennessee then was admitted to the bar at Pulaski, Tennessee in 1848. He practiced law successfully until May 1861 when he joined the 3rd Infantry regiment in the provisional army of Tennessee as a captain. On 16 May 1861 he was commissioned colonel of the regiment which became the 3rd TN in the provisional army of the Confederacy when Tennessee joined the other seceded states.

At Fort Donelson Brown commanded the 3rd Brigade in Buckner's Division. When the fort was surrendered on 16 February 1862 Brown became a prisoner of war. Shortly after being exchanged six months later, Brown was promoted to brigadier general on 30 August 1862. He commanded a brigade in Hardee's Left Wing of the Army of the Mississippi at Perryville where on 8 October 1862 he was wounded. Commanding a brigade in Buckner's Corps, Brown was wounded at Chickamauga. He commanded a brigade then a division in Hardee's Corps at Chattanooga. Brown was promoted to major general on 4 August 1864 and commanded a division at the end of the Atlanta campaign.

He accompanied Hood during the late 1864 Tennessee campaign, commanding the 3rd Davison in Cheatham's Corps at Franklin where he was seriously wounded. He returned to duty before the end of the war and was surrendered with Johnston.

Following the war Brown returned to Pulaski and his law practice. He was a member of the state constitutional convention which met at Nashville in 1870 then was elected governor of Tennessee serving two terms from 1871 until 1875. He was a delegate the Democratic National convention in 1876. He then became president of a railroad company and a coal and iron company. Brown died 17 August 1889 in Red Boiling Springs, Tennessee.

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