Alfred J. Vaughan

Born in Dinwiddie County, Virginia, in 1830, Alfred Jefferson Vaughan Jr. attended the Virginia Military Institute and later served as a Confederate officer during the American Civil War. He fought in major campaigns in the Western Theater and was promoted to brigadier general before the war ended.

Vaughan is remembered by readers mainly for his memoir, Personal Record of the Thirteenth Tennessee Regiment, from December 1861 to April 1865. Drawing on his wartime experience, the book offers a detailed soldier's-eye view of camp life, marches, and battle. That firsthand perspective has made it a useful and enduring source for people interested in Civil War history.

After the war, he lived for many years beyond the conflict he had described, dying in 1899. While he is better known as a military figure than as a literary author, his memoir remains the work that connects him most directly to modern readers.