John T. Hughes was born in 1817, near Versailles, Kentucky; his family moved to Missouri in 1820. He graduated from Bonne Femme College and taught school in the Clay County, Missouri, area until the start of the Mexican-American War. He then enlisted in the 1st Regiment Missouri Mounted Volunteers and became the regiment’s historian, authoring the best-selling work, Doniphan’s Expedition, published in 1847.

With the start of the Civil War, Hughes was commissioned a colonel in General Sterling Price’s Missouri State Guard. At Wilson’s Creek he led a reported seven charges against Federal positions on Bloody Hill. After fighting at the siege of Lexington in September 1861, Hughes led a brigade at the Battle of Pea Ridge the following March.

Sent to Missouri to recruit a brigade in late summer 1862, Hughes was killed at the Battle of Independence, Missouri, on August 11, 1862. He was buried in Independence.

Tintype by Unknown Photographer.

Image Courtesy Wilson’s Creek National Battlefield; WICR 30121