John Dunovant was a brigadier general with temporary rank in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War. Dunovant was a native of South Carolina who had been a Mexican–American War veteran and captain in the U.S. Army from March 3, 1855, to December 29, 1860. During the Civil War, he was commander of the 1st South Carolina Regulars and later the 5th South Carolina Cavalry Regiment. He was in command of a cavalry brigade in the later part of the Overland Campaign and the early part of the Siege of Petersburg. He was killed at the Battle of Vaughan Road on October 1, 1864, during the Siege of Petersburg. Early life John Dunovant was born in Chester, South Carolina, in 1825. He was the son of John Dunovant and Margaret Sloan Quay. He was the brother of Richard Dunovant, a South Carolina militia brigadier general, colonel of the 12th South Carolina Infantry Regiment from September 1, 1861 to April 2, 1862, a South Carolina legislator and planter. John Dunovant was a sergeant in the Palmetto Regiment of South Carolina volunteers in the Mexican–American War. He was wounded at the Battle of Chapultepec. Dunovant was mustered out of the volunteers on December 7, 1847. Dunovant was commissioned directly into the regular U. S. Army as a captain of the 10th Infantry Regiment on March 3, 1855 when that unit was organized as a new regiment. He resigned from the U.S. Army on December 29, 1860, a few days after South Carolina seceded from the Union and offered his services to his state's militia. American Civil War service Dunovant held the rank of major of infantry in the South Carolina militia during the initial Confederate operations at Fort Sumter. During the bombardment of Fort Sumter, he was present and active at Fort Moultrie. On July 22, 1861, he became colonel of the 1st South Carolina Regulars and was stationed for some time on Sullivan's Island and at Fort Moultrie. Dunovant was cashiered and dismissed from the service for drunkenness on November 8, 1862 but on July 28, 1863 he was given another chance to command the 5th South Carolina Cavalry Regiment. He served the State in this capacity, until ordered to Virginia on May 18, 1864. There he and his regiment were under the brigade command of Brigadier General Matthew C. Butler, in Major General Wade Hampton's division of Major