John Calvin Brown (January 6, 1827 – August 17, 1889) was a Confederate Army officer and an American politician and businessman.

Although he originally opposed secession, Brown fought for the Confederacy during the American Civil War, eventually rising to the rank of major general.

[3] He studied law with his uncle, Hugh Brown, in Spring Hill, and was admitted to the bar in 1848.

[4] During the presidential election of 1860, he served as an elector for the Constitution Union Party candidate John Bell, who opposed secession, and took a neutral stance on the issue of slavery.

In the weeks following the Battle of Fort Sumter in April 1861, however, secessionist sentiment swept across Middle Tennessee, and Brown, along with his brother and, eventually, John Bell, switched sides and supported the burgeoning Confederacy.

[1] Soon afterwards, he was promoted to brigadier-general and assigned command of a new and larger brigade composed of troops from Florida and Mississippi.

[1] This convention overhauled the state's 1834 constitution, essentially updating it to meet post-Civil War demands.

The document most notably guaranteed the right to vote to all males of at least 21 years of age, regardless of race, but also instituted a poll tax.

In previous decades, Tennessee had accumulated $43 million in bonded debt, mostly to pay for internal improvements, such as turnpike construction and loans to railroads.

The following year, he became president of the Tennessee Coal, Iron and Railroad Company, which was one of the largest industrial firms in the South.

[4] Her paternal aunt was First Lady Sarah Childress Polk, and her father resided at the Childress-Ray House.