VAN DORN, Earl

Confederate

Born: September 17 1820, nr Port Gibson MS

Died: May 7 1863, Spring Hill TN

Pre-War Profession: Graduated West Point 1842, Mexican War, fought Indians in Texas, resigned January 1861.

War Service: March 1861 Col. in Confederate army cavalry, June 1861 Brig. Gen., assigned to Texas, September 1861 Maj. Gen. in command of Trans Mississippi Dept., Elkhorn Tavern, Corinth, given a cavalry command, destroyed the Union supply base at Holly Springs.

Post War: Van Dorn's womanizing, rather than a military battle, led to his death. Ever the ladies' man, he attracted the attention of Jesse Helen Kissack Peters, the wife of a prominent local physician and state legislator, Dr. George B. Peters. Peters walked into Van Dorn's office, where the general was writing at his desk, pulled out a pistol, and shot him in the back of the head.