CACrown ArchivesThe cinema collection
Menu
Research dossier · General Reference

John P. McCown

Confederate general (1815-1879)

Cross-disciplinary reference desk with index cards, atlas, dictionary and catalogue
General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 6, 2026
Entity authorityQ6251651 ↗
Source-derived summary

John Porter McCown (August 19, 1815 – January 22, 1879) was a Confederate general during the American Civil War and a career U.S. Army officer who saw fighting in the Mexican–American War and in the Seminole Wars.

Early life and career

John Porter McCown was born near the town of Sevierville, located in Sevier County, Tennessee. In September 1835 he entered the United States Military Academy at West Point, and graduated in July 1840 standing tenth out of 42 cadets. McCown was commissioned a second lieutenant and assigned to the 4th U.S. Artillery. He was promoted to first lieutenant on September 30, 1843. McCown then participated in the U.S. Army's military occupation of Texas in 1845 and 1846.

McCown fought during the Mexican–American War and participated in the Battle of Cerro Gordo near Xalapa, Veracruz. He was brevetted to captain on April 18, 1847, for his conduct in that battle. He served as the 4th Artillery's Regimental Quartermaster from March 29, 1847 to January 12, 1849.

After the war McCown served along the Rio Grande on frontier duty, and he was promoted to captain on January 9, 1851.

Editorial summary

“John P. McCown” enters the record as confederate general (1815-1879). Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what John, McCown and Confederate can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewA concise reference frame for defining the subject, testing terminology and identifying the institution closest to the evidence. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1815, 1879, 1835, 1840—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1815-08-19. Its strongest next move is a source search built around John, McCown and Confederate.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“John P. McCown” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, John, McCown and Confederate provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 6, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q6251651. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1815, 1879, 1835 and 1840.

Critical limits

A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

Best used for
  • Subject orientation
  • Search vocabulary
  • Locating named sources
Verify next

The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “John P. McCown”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow John P. McCown primary sources, John P. McCown archive and John research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “John P. McCown”?
  2. Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
  3. Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
Subject index

Search terms from this dossier

Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “John P. McCown” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.