Govan Daniel Chevilette was a Confederate soldier. He took part in the campaigns in Kentucky, Tennessee (Shiloh), Mississippi, around Chattanooga, and Atlanta, rising to the rank of brigadier-general.
Background
Daniel Chevilette Govan was born on July 4, 1829, in Northampton County, North Carolina. He was the son of Andrew Robison and Mary Pugh (Jones) Govan. The family fled to America from Govan, Scotland, after the Jacobite uprising of 1745.
Daniel’s father was a congressman from South Carolina in 1822-27. Soon after leaving Congress he moved to North Carolina, then to Somerville, Tennessee, about 1830, and later, on the removal of the Chickasaw Indians (1832), he settled in Marshall County, Mississippi.
Education
Young Daniel was prepared for college by a private tutor and was a member of the senior class at the University of South Carolina in 1848, although he apparently did not graduate.
Career
In 1849, with a kinsman, Ben McCulloch, Govan joined the gold rush, traveling overland to California by the Southern route.
In 1850, when McCulloch was elected sheriff of Sacramento, Govan served as his deputy. Two years later he returned to Mississippi and became a planter.
He moved to Arkansas and settled in that part of Phillips County which is now included in Lee County. Here he engaged in planting until the beginning of the Civil War, when he at once raised a company which became a part of the 2nd Arkansas Regiment, of which he was made lieutenant-colonel.
He took part in the campaigns in Kentucky, Tennessee (Shiloh), Mississippi, around Chattanooga, and Atlanta, rising to the rank of brigadier-general. In the last-named campaign, he captured the 16th Iowa Regiment with its colors.
Nearly twenty years later, September 26-27, 1883, he was invited to attend a reunion of the regiment and returned the flag. Before the fall of Atlanta, Govan and his regiment were captured, but he was soon exchanged.
He followed Hood back to the west and advised against the attack at Franklin, where his division commander, P. R. Cleburne, was killed. After the battle of Nashville, the remnant of the army joined Gen. Joseph E. Johnston in North Carolina and there Govan surrendered to Sherman.
He then returned to his plantation and continued there until 1894, when he accepted from President Cleveland an appointment as Indian agent at a post in the state of Washington.
In 1878, at the request of a friend, he wrote a brief “History of Cleburne’s Division, ” printed in the first volume of Fay Hempstead’s Historical Review of Arkansas (1911).
Achievements
Daniel Govan is known as the Confederate general during the American Civil War.
As a brigade commander, Govan fought at the Battle of Chickamauga, the Battle of Missionary Ridge, and played a prominent role at the Battle of Ringgold Gap.
His brigade participated in the Atlanta Campaign and received particular mention for his conduct at the Battle of Pickett's Mill. General Govan was captured after a fierce battle at the Battle of Jonesboro but was soon exchanged by Union forces.
Religion
Govan was a member of the Episcopal Church.
Personality
Quotes from others about the person
“I regard Daniel as one of the best soldiers it was my good fortune to know - a true Christian gentleman, a noble patriot, a loyal and uncompromising friend. ” - Capt. Irving A. Buck, Cleburne’s adjutant-general
“Four better officers are not in the service of the Confederacy. ” - the division commander, P. R. Cleburne
Connections
In December 1853, Govan married Mary F. Otey, daughter of Bishop J. H. Otey. In 1896, Mrs. Govan died and two years later Govan returned to Tennessee. He lived in that state and in Mississippi, with one or another of his fourteen children, until his death.
