John Russell Kelso (March 23, 1831 – January 26, 1891) was a nineteenth-century American politician, author, lecturer and school principal from Missouri.

After the Civil War broke out in April, he publicly declared his pro-Union sympathies and joined the Home Guard regiment of Dallas County, Missouri, where he became a major.

His superior officers decided that Kelso could be employed as a spy, and in August 1861 he was sent on a secret mission to Springfield, Missouri.

In February 1862, he rejoined his regiment to take part in the Curtis' campaign against Confederate forces led by Gen. Sterling Price.

His service started with a humiliating defeat on May 31, 1862 during the Skirmish at Neosho, where the 14th fled after facing the 6th Regiment of the Missouri Confederate Cavalry and the Second Cherokee Mounted Rifles.

[3] In August Kelso's company was victorious in repulsing the Colonel Robert R. Lawther's Confederate raiders, and in September took part in a scouting expedition that routed the bushwhacking Medlock brothers operating from Arkansas.

Kelso developed a reputation of a skillful and fearless soldier, who successfully completed solo and group reconnaissance missions.

Kelso was elected as an Independent Republican to the United States House of Representatives in 1864, serving from 1865 to 1867, not being a candidate for renomination in 1866.

[5]Christopher Grasso, Teacher, Preacher, Soldier, Spy: The Civil Wars of John R. Kelso (New York: Oxford University Press, 2021)