Harper's Encyclopedia of United States History
Benson Lossing, Ed.

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Winston, John Anthony 1812-1871

Legislator; born in Madison county, Ala., Sept. 4. 1812; educated at La Grange College, Ala., and Nashville University, Tenn.; became a cotton planter and commission merchant; was elected to the State House of Representatives in 1840 and 1842, and to the Senate in 1845, and served as president of the latter for many years; raised two companies of troops for the Mexican War in 1846, and was made colonel of the 1st Alabama Volunteers, but the regiment was not accepted. He was elected governor of Alabama in 1853 and 1855; served in the Confederate army as colonel of the 8th Alabama Regiment; [413] commanded a brigade in the Peninsular campaign; and soon afterwards resigned his commission. He was a delegate to the State constitutional convention of 1866; refused to take a seat in the United States Senate; declined to be a candidate for governor, and lived in retirement, devoting himself to aiding the poor and destitute. He died in Mobile, Ala., Dec. 21, 1871.