Atkins, John DeWitt Clinton

Life Span
to
Full name
John DeWitt Atkins
Place of Birth
Burial Place
Birth Date Certainty
Exact
Death Date Certainty
Exact
Gender
Male
Race
White
Sectional choice
South
Origins
Slave State
Education
Other
Other Education
East Tennessee University
Occupation
Politician
Military
Farmer or Planter
Political Parties
Democratic
Government
Confederate government (1861-65)
US House of Representatives
State legislature
Military
Confederate Army

John DeWitt Clinton Atkins (Congressional Biographical Directory)

Reference
ATKINS, John DeWitt Clinton, a Representative from Tennessee; born near Manly’s Chapel, Henry County, Tenn., June 4, 1825; attended a private school in Paris, Tenn., and was graduated from the East Tennessee University at Knoxville in 1846; studied law; was admitted to the bar but did not practice; engaged in agricultural pursuits; member of the State house of representatives 1849-1851; served in the State senate 1855-1857; elected as a Democrat to the Thirty-fifth Congress (March 4, 1857-March 3, 1859); unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1858 to the Thirty-sixth Congress; during the Civil War served as lieutenant colonel of the Fifth Tennessee Regiment in the Confederate Army in 1861; elected to the Confederate Provisional Congress in August and November 1861 and in November 1863; elected as a Democrat to the Forty-third and to the four succeeding Congresses (March 4, 1873-March 3, 1883); chairman, Committee on Appropriations (Forty-fifth and Forty-sixth Congresses); was not a candidate for renomination in 1882; engaged in agricultural pursuits near Paris, Henry County, Tenn.; appointed United States Commissioner of Indian Affairs by President Cleveland on March 21, 1885, and served until June 13, 1888, when he resigned; was an unsuccessful candidate for the Democratic nomination for United States Senator in 1888; again engaged in agricultural pursuits; retired from active pursuits in 1898 and moved to Paris, Tenn., where he lived in retirement until his death on June 2, 1908; interment in the City Cemetery.
“Atkins, John DeWitt Clinton,” Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1774 to Present, http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=A000327.
How to Cite This Page: "Atkins, John DeWitt Clinton," House Divided: The Civil War Research Engine at Dickinson College, https://hd.housedivided.dickinson.edu/node/5009.