Soldier. Dunovant was born on March 5, 1825, in Chester, the son of Dr. John Dunovant and Margaret Sloan Quay. Two of his brothers, Alexander and Robert, would be signers of the Ordinance of Secession. John Dunovant fought in the Mexican War as a sergeant in the famed Palmetto Regiment, and in 1855 he was commissioned in the regular army as captain of the Tenth U.S. Infantry. Accessible details of his army service, like details of his early life, are sketchy. Despite lacking a formal military education, Dunovant had used the Mexican War as a springboard into one of the few professions outside planting that southerners respected.<\/p>\n
Dunovant resigned his army commission in early 1861 and was appointed major in the South Carolina volunteers. During the bombardment of Fort Sumter, Dunovant earned plaudits for his handling of his command at Fort Moultrie. He was afterward commissioned colonel of the First South Carolina Regiment, which saw duty, but not much action, in and around Charleston. According to Governor Francis W. Pickens, Dunovant\u2019s unit became \u201cthe best drilled Regiment in the Service.\u201d Dunovant commanded the unit until falling from grace in the summer of 1862.<\/p>\n
The most flagrant event in Dunovant\u2019s fall was his August 1862 court-martial for drunkenness\u2013a charge that remained tied to his reputation and probably contributed to his death. Dunovant was cashiered, with Confederate president Jefferson Davis\u2019s approval. Yet both previous and subsequent events suggest something at work other than concern for military sobriety. Sometime before the court-martial, Dunovant fell out with a superior, General Roswell S. Ripley, over troop dispositions. And soon after being run out of the service, with several officers weighing in on his behalf, Dunovant was returned to duty as colonel of the Fifth South Carolina cavalry.<\/p>\n
Duty with this unit gave Dunovant a chance to redeem himself. Transferred with other South Carolina units to the Army of Northern Virginia in the spring of 1864\u2013one historian notes that Dunovant and his men \u201cwere garbed in neat, even snazzy uniforms, their officers wearing white cotton gloves\u201d\u2013the Fifth S.C. saw action in some of the grittiest fighting of the war. Dunovant earned high praise for his efforts at places such as Drewry\u2019s Bluff, Cold Harbor, and Trevilian Station, proving himself to be more capable in combat than he was in the boredom of South Carolina garrison duty. Davis, who earlier had supported Dunovant\u2019s court-martial sentence, elevated him to the temporary rank of brigadier general in August.<\/p>\n
Dunovant was killed on October 1, 1864, during a cavalry charge along the Vaughan Road near Petersburg. In previous days he had made several mistakes in both tactics and reconnaissance; those blunders and past smears on his record may have contributed to what was a desperate gamble at best and a reckless decision at worst. Yet some measure of Dunovant\u2019s effectiveness as a combat officer can be read into Union reports. Dunovant was shot by Sergeant James T. Clancy of the First New Jersey cavalry. For that shot\u2013 which occurred \u201cwithin ten yards of our line,\u201d according to one report, and which had the effect of \u201cconfusing the enemy and greatly aiding his repulse,\u201d according to another\u2013Clancy was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor. Dunovant was buried in the family cemetery near Chester, South Carolina.<\/p>\n
Longacre, Edward G. Lee\u2019s Cavalrymen: A History of the Mounted Force of the Army of Northern Virginia, 1861\u20131865. <\/em>Mechanicsburg, Pa.: Stackpole, 2002.<\/p>\n Warner, Ezra J. Generals in Gray: Lives of the Confederate Commanders. <\/em>Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1959.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Soldier. Dunovant was born on March 5, 1825, in Chester, the son of Dr. John Dunovant and Margaret Sloan Quay. Two of his brothers, Alexander and Robert, would be signers of the Ordinance of Secession. John Dunovant fought in the Mexican War as a sergeant in the famed Palmetto Regiment, and in 1855 he was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":14682,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","class_list":["post-6513","entry","type-entry","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","ecms-a-z","ecms-charleston-county","ecms-chester-county","ecms-d","ecms-encyclopedia","ecms-lowcountry","ecms-midlands","ecms-military","ecms-the-antebellum-south-1816-1860","ecms-u-s-civil-war-1861-1865"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n