Background
WINDER, John Henry was born on February 21, 1800 in Somerset County, Maryland, United States, United States. Son of General William H. Winder and his wife Gertrude (Polk). His father had fought in the War of 1812.
WINDER, John Henry was born on February 21, 1800 in Somerset County, Maryland, United States, United States. Son of General William H. Winder and his wife Gertrude (Polk). His father had fought in the War of 1812.
Graduated from the United States Military Academy, 1820.
After graduating eleventh in a class of thirty from the U.S. Military Academy in 1820, he served at Fort McHenry and on the Florida frontier before resigning his army commission in 1823. He was married to Elizabeth Shepherd in 1823, and after her death, to Mrs. Catherine A. Cox. Winder returned to the army in 1827 as a second lieutenant of artillery.
Promoted to first lieutenant in 1833, he served in the Seminole War and rose to captain in 1842. During the Mexican War, he was breveted twice for gallantry. He was an instructor at West Point during Jefferson Davis’s student days, and he retained Davis’s respect despite severe criticism of Winder’s later policies.
In November 1860, he was promoted to major of artillery in the U.S. Army, but he resigned to enter the Confederate Army. On June 21, 1861, he was commissioned brigadier general in command of Libby and Belle Isle military prisons in Richmond. By 1864, he commanded all prisons in Alabama and Georgia as well, and in November of that year, he was named commissary general of all prisons east of the Mississippi River.
As provost marshal general of Richmond, Winder was also responsible for maintaining order in the city, for the arrest and return of deserters, and, for a time, for fixing commodity prices in the city. He was much criticized for alleged cruelty to prisoners and for the poor conditions of most Confederate prisons.
"Peculiar institution" of slavery was not only expedient but also ordained by God and upheld in Holy Scripture.
Stands for preserving slavery, states' rights, and political liberty for whites. Every individual state is sovereign, even to the point of secession.
Married Elizabeth Shepard, 1823. Married second, Mistress.