John Gordon Coltart (January 27, 1826 – April 16, 1868) was a Confederate States Army officer who held regiment, brigade and division command during the American Civil War.

However, his troops refused to enlist under him due to his reputation for strict discipline and instead Coltart was placed in command of the new 26th Alabama Infantry Regiment just before the Battle of Shiloh.

[2] Coltart became wealthy through his businesses, and in 1855 organized and captained the local volunteer militia company, the socially prestigious Madison Rifles.

[3] The 7th Alabama spent most of 1861 building fortifications and other routine duties at Pensacola, a relatively quiet part of the war, and suffered more deaths from disease than enemy action.

Due to the frequent absence of the regiment's colonel, S. A. M. Wood, Coltart was often left in command of the unit, and became unpopular for his insistence on strict military discipline.

Private John W. James of the regiment recalled that Coltart, though a "good military man," was "wanting in that something which inspires the confidence of men."

Wood delegated command of the regiment to Coltart in its attempted dispersion of a guerrilla camp up the Tennessee River from Chattanooga and the subsequent roundup of suspected Unionists.

When Confederate forces in the Western theater of the war united at Corinth in March, the service terms of the companies of the 7th Alabama began to expire.

[9] Just before the Battle of Shiloh began, Coltart became colonel of the newly formed 26th Alabama, taking command of the regiment while it camped at Monterey on the night of April 3.

[11] In the movement to the battle on the morning of April 6, Gladden's brigade became disorganized while crossing a creek, with the 1st Louisiana Regulars forcing the 26th Alabama out of alignment.

Shifting right after twenty minutes in this situation, the 26th Alabama advanced into an open field, where Coltart was severely wounded in the foot and the regiment suffered heavy losses.

During the withdrawal from the city at the end of the Siege of Corinth, Brigadier General Joseph Wheeler took over command of the brigade, which formed the Confederate rear guard, mounting a series of skirmishes and burning bridges to delay the pursuing Union troops.

Coltart's and White's Brigades were forced to retreat by the attack, losing 48 captured, but the Union troops abandoned their gains an hour later, allowing the Confederates to reoccupy their old positions.

Fearing Union reinforcements and with the rising Stones River threatening to split his army, Bragg decided to retreat and Withers' Division began moving out from the battlefield on the morning of January.4.

[2] Reporting to bureau chief Brigadier General Gideon Pillow at Huntsville, Coltart oversaw the officers in charge of conscription in East Tennessee and Western North Carolina.

[25][26] Thomas C. Hindman arrived to take command of Withers' old Division on August 13, with Deas and Coltart returning to their previous positions.

After the Union diversionary shelling of Chattanooga began on August 21, Hindman responded by detailing Coltart's 50th Alabama to guard the Brown's Ferry crossing on the Tennessee River, which he saw as the most important location.

In the opening skirmishing on September 18, the 50th Alabama supported Dent's Battery in an attempt to divert Union attention on Chickamauga Creek away from fighting at Jay's Mill.

At 11:00 a.m. on September 20, Longstreet ordered Hindman into action against Davis' Division, so reduced by the previous day's fighting that Deas' brigade alone outnumbered it.

Reaching the brow of the ridge, the Alabamians were faced by the devastating fire of Battery M, 1st Illinois Light Artillery and Mitchell's Brigade.

Coltart and the other regimental commanders continued the assault with piecemeal charges but were similarly unsuccessful, failing to reach the Union lines.

[37][40] In the subsequent Chattanooga campaign, Hindman's Division, commanded by Patton Anderson, was in the Confederate center during the Battle of Missionary Ridge.

The outnumbered and poorly positioned Confederates were routed by the Union attack on November 25,[41] with Coltart's regiment losing 45 men, mostly captured.

[42] The army spent the winter of 1863–1864 encamped at Dalton,[42] a period marked by the replacement of Bragg with Joseph E. Johnston and the shifting of Hindman's Division to John Bell Hood's Corps.

[43] Coltart led the regiment during the early stages of the Atlanta campaign, and by June 30 was back in command of the brigade due to Deas' illness.

[42] Coltart's regiment fought in the Battle of Nashville in which Deas' and Manigault's brigades "fled, after making but feeble resistance" in the face of the Union attack on December 15.

[59] With Hoke driven back, Hill could not attack the reinforced Union troops in his sector and the Confederates withdrew from the field that night.

The Confederate line was re-established when Cogswell was repulsed by Loring's reserve troops, but Hill's Corps would not see significant action for the rest of the battle, which ended in another retreat.

[63] With the beginning of military rule of the former Confederate states under the Reconstruction Acts in 1867, Coltart was removed as sheriff and replaced by a Unionist due to his status as an ex-Confederate.

[64] Coltart was taken at his own request to the state lunatic asylum in Tuscaloosa in early 1868, where he died on April 16 of that year and was buried at Maple Hill Cemetery in Huntsville.