Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 8.djvu/373

Rh served officially as major-general, commanding the Tennessee division of United Confederate Veterans, in all the affairs of which he takes a lively interest.

Brigadier-General John C. Vaughn was born in Grayson county, Va., February 24, 1824. His family soon after moved to Tennessee and settled in Monroe county, where his youth and early manhood were passed. As soon as he was old enough to be elected to an office, he was chosen to a position of importance in his county. Although that section of the State has been noted for heated political strife, the people of Monroe county always stood by him. When the United States became involved in war with Mexico, young Vaughn entered the Fifth Tennessee volunteers as a captain and served throughout the war. At its close he returned to his home in east Tennessee and became a merchant in the little village of Sweetwater. He was frequently placed in responsible positions by his fellow citizens. He was in Charleston, S. C., at the commencement of the Confederate war, and participated in the opening of the bloodiest drama of modern times. Returning to east Tennessee, after the capture of Fort Sumter, he raised a company in Monroe county and aided in the organization of a regiment in Knoxville, of which he was elected colonel. It is said that this was really the first Tennessee regiment raised, but that the colonels of two other regiments reached Richmond first and offered their commands to the Confederate government. Thus Colonel Vaughn's regiment was numbered the Third Tennessee. The State of Tennessee having not yet seceded, Colonel Vaughn took his men to Lynchburg, Va., where they were mustered into the Confederate service on the 6th of June, and ordered to report to Gen. Joseph E. Johnston, then at Harper's Ferry. His command was stationed for a time at Romney. With a detachment of his own regiment and two companies of the Thirteenth Virginia, Colonel Vaughn dispersed