John Thomas Pickett was an American lawyer and diplomat. He served as United States Consul to Vera Cruz. He also served in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War.
Background
John Thomas Pickett was born on October 9, 1820, in Maysville, Macon County, Kentucky, United States. He was the son of James Chamberlayne and Ellen Desha Pickett. His grandfather, Joseph Desha, was a governor of Kentucky and his father was a diplomat and a Democrat.
Education
John Pickett was educated as a lawyer at Transylvania University. He was appointed to the United States Military Academy in 1841.
An expansionist, John Pickett was part of the Lopez expedition to Cuba in 1850. He commanded at the Battle of Cardenas and also served at one time as a general in the Hungarian army. Pickett served as United States consul at Turk's Island and as United States envoy to Vera Cruz from 1853 to 1861.
When the Civil War began, he resigned his position and went to Richmond. In 1863, he was secretary of the Confederate peace mission to Washington. During the war, he was a Confederate commissioner in Mexico in 1861-1862 and special envoy extraordinary to Mexico in 1865.
He was also at one time General John C. Breckinridge's chief of staff. He urged that Negroes be freed to be put into the military service of the Confederacy. He returned from Mexico when the war ended and settled in Washington, D.C. In 1870, he sold the diplomatic correspondence of the Confederate States, known as the "Pickett Papers," to the United States government for $75,000.
Achievements
Connections
John was married to Catherine Keyworth. The couple had two children.