John Thomas Croxton (November 20, 1836 – April 16, 1874) was an attorney, a general in the United States Army during the American Civil War, and a Reconstruction era U.S. diplomat.

He was the oldest son among the twelve children of a Virginia-born wealthy planter and slave owner named Henry Croxton.

He returned to Kentucky the following year and established a profitable law practice in Paris, as well as owning a small farm outside of town.

In October 1861, as the Civil War escalated, President Abraham Lincoln appointed Croxton as the lieutenant colonel of the 4th Kentucky Mounted Infantry.

On April 4, 1865, his force of 1,500 men seized Tuscaloosa, strengthening the Union army's grip on central Alabama and eliminating one of the Confederacy's last major supply and munitions centers.