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JOHN WILKINS WHITFIELD
1818 – 1879
Born March 11, 1818, in Franklin, Tennessee, John Wilkins Whitfield was educated in local schools. During the Mexican War he served as captin of the 1st and then lieutenant colonel of the 2nd Tennessee Infantry. About 1835 he moved to Independence, Missouri, and was an Indian agent in Missouri and Arkansas for the next few years. Upon the establishment of Kansas Territory, he was elected its delegate to Congress serving until 1857. He was register for the land office at Doniphan, Kansas, until 1861.
Whitfield entered the Confederate Army as major of the 4th Battalion Texas Cavalry. He later became colonel of the 27th regiment and fought at Pea Ridge (Elkhorn) in 1862, and at the battle of Iuka under Gen Sterling Price where he was painfully wounded. He was commissioned brigadier general on May 9, 1863, while attached to the command of Gen. Earl Van Dorn. He was under Gen. Joseph E Johnston in the Vicksburg campaign of that year and later commanded a brigade composed of his Texas Legion, 3rd, 6th, and 9th Texas Cavalry under Gen. W. H. Jackson in Mississippi. Apparently without a command at the end of the war, Gen. Whitfield was paroled at Columbus, Texas, June 29, 1865.
Thereafter Whitfield made his home in Lavaca County, Texas, where was a representative in the legislature. He died near Hallettsville, Texas, October 29, 1879, and is buried there.
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