John Thompson Brown was born on May 4, 1840, in Virginia, to David and Margaret Brown. His father was a saddler who owned $3,000 of real estate by 1850. He grew up and attended school in Richmond, Virginia, before enrolling at Randolph-Macon College.

 

He enlisted in the Confederate army on May 25, 1861, and he mustered in as a sergeant in Company A of the 20^th Virginia Infantry. According to his service records, he was 5 feet, 8 inches tall, with dark hair and gray eyes. In the spring of 1862, he became a 1^st lieutenant in Parker’s Virginia Light Artillery Company.

 

He was wounded in the Battle of Gettysburg, but he eventually recovered and rejoined the company. Union forces captured him near Sayler’s Creek on April 6, 1865, and imprisoned him on Johnson’s Island in Ohio. He swore an oath of allegiance to the Union on June 18, 1865.  

 

He returned to Richmond after the war and earned a living as a saddler. He married Elizabeth Harrison, and they had at least five children: Edward, born around 1864; Wallace, born around 1868; Mary, born around 1869; Margaret, born around 1874; and John, born around 1876. By 1870, he owned $800 of real estate. He served in the Virginia legislature in the early 1870s. By 1880, he was working as a real estate agent. He served as commander of the Virginia Division of the United Confederate Veterans, and he helped plan the 50^th Gettysburg reunion in 1913. He died of nephritis in Richmond on April 23, 1921.

 

Image: John T. Brown (Fiftieth Anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg, Report of the Pennsylvania Commission)

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