FEATHERSTON, Winfield Scott, soldier, born in Rutherford County, Tennessee, 8 August 1821. He was educated at various academies, and in 1836, while at school in Georgia, served for three months as a volunteer against the Creek Indians. He then studied law, and was admitted to the bar in 1840. He was afterward elected to congress as a Democrat, and served in 1847'51, but was defeated for a third term by the Union candidate. He was a presidential elector on the Democratic ticket in 1852, and was sent by his state to Kentucky in December 1860, to confer with the authorities on the subject of secession. In May 1861, he became colonel of the 17th Mississippi regiment. He served in Virginia in 1861'2, and on 4 March of the latter year was promoted to brigadier general for gallantry at Bali's Bluff. He was wounded on the fifth day of the battles around Richmond, and in January 1863, was transferred to Vicksburg at his own request. He commanded an expedition sent to meet Porter's gunboats, ascending Deer Creek, joined Johnston in Georgia in May 1864, and continued with that army till the surrender in 1865, commanding a division much of the time. After the war he returned to the practice of law, and was a member of the Mississippi legislature in 1876'8 and 1880'2. In 1881 he became judge of the 2d judicial circuit of the state.