Civil War Confederate Brigadier General. Within a year of his birth near Laurel Hill, Richmond County, North Carolina, he moved with his family to settle in Wayne County, Mississippi. As an adult, he carved out a living as a mercantile businessman in Jackson, Mississippi. It was from Jackson, where he would be recruited into Company E, 1st Mississippi Rifles in 1846. He and his fellow Mississippians who filled out this unit would be led to fight in the Mexican War by then Lieutenant Colonel Jefferson Davis. Rising to the rank of orderly sergeant, he and his regiment contributed to the American victory at the Battle of Buena Vista. As a veteran of the Mexican War, he returned to Jackson and resumed his life as a merchant. He was residing in Arkansas when the American Civil War broke out in 1861. He offered his services to the new Confederacy and joined the 4th Arkansas Infantry on August 17, 1861 with the rank of Captain. On October 29, 1861 he would become the commander of the 4th Arkansas Infantry and would lead it with courage and distinction during the Battles of Pea Ridge and Corinth. At Richmond, Kentucky the “excellent management of his brigade in this battle, as well as for the gallant manner in which his troops broke the line” of Union General Mahlon Manson's infantrymen earned him a promotion to Brigadier General on November 4, 1862. Due to illness, he saw limited action at the Battle of Murfreesboro. On September 20, 1863 at the Battle of Chickamauga, he received a wound to the thigh that kept him out of action until his participation in General’s Sterling Price 1864 “Missouri Raid”. With the Union’s eventual victory, he received an official pardon for his part on December 12, 1865. He returned to Arkansas and due to post-war economics of the South, he and his family was forced to close their once profitable mercantile business. After a brief relocation to New Orleans, he settled in Magnolia, Mississippi, where he once again went into business for himself. He died in Hattiesburg, Mississippi at the home of his son-in-law surrounded by family. He is buried next his wife, Hannah, who preceded him in death in 1878.