Civil War Confederate Brigadier General. Born in Moulton, Alabama, he received little education, became a tailor in Moulton, served 3 years as sheriff there, then worked as a steamboat deckhand until the Civil War. In 1861 he organized the Tishomingo Rangers, a unit made up of Mississippians and Alabamans who served as excellent scouts in the Western theater, providing intelligence prior to the Shiloh campaign and, acting as General Braxton Bragg's personal escort during the Battle of Shiloh. He served under Brigadier General James R. Chalmers during the retreat to Corinth, Mississippi, was active in the Iuka and Corinth campaigns in autumn 1862, and in December won commission as Colonel of the 4th Alabama Infantry. Commanding the post at Tuscumbia, Alabama, with a force of 1,400 men in winter 1862 to 1863, he confronted the Union cavalry of Colonel Abel D. Streight in April, and under Brigadier General Nathan B. Forrest pursued the Federal raider. On August 3, 1863, he won promotion to Brigadier General and, in Brigadier General William T. Martin's division, fought through the Battle of Chickamauga and the Chattanooga Campaign as a part of Brigadier General Joseph Wheeler's cavalry. Next attached to Forrest's command, he distinguished himself in the Battle of Brice's Cross Roads and the Franklin and Nashville Campaign, and in the February 1865 reorganization of Forrest's cavalry, during which several officers were dismissed for want of appropriate commands, he was retained as a brigade leader. He fought through Forrest's last campaign in Alabama, joined in the retreat from Selma, and surrendered with his men May 1865. Throughout the war he won recognition as a raider in northern Alabama and along the line of the Tennessee River. After the war he moved to New York City and, entered the business world. Later an investor in a new pump design, he traveled to Britain to negotiate the sale of its patent and died of uremia in London. His body was returned to Tuscaloosa for burial.