City: Pulaski
BALLENTINE, John Goff, retired lawyer-banker; born Pulaski, Giles County, Tenn., May 20, 1825; son of Andrew Mitchell and Mary Tuttle (Goff) BALLENTINE; Scotch-Irish descent; graduated from Wurtemburg Academy, 1841; University of Nashville 1845, and Harvard 1848; married Mary Elizabeth LAIRD, November 14, 1854; member I. O. O. F.; early business, lawyer; belonged to Livingston’s Law School of New York; a delegate at different times to Jackson, Miss., to assist in the rehabiliment of the State; was elected to Congress in 1882; never asked for office, either civil, military or ecclesiastical; in 1861 he enlisted as a private in Shelby County, Tenn.; afterward was made Captain and afterward underwent the different grades of promotion from Captain to Colonel of regiment, and frequently commanded the brigade; was wounded in 1864 in front of Sherman in Georgia campaign, at the time serving under General Joe Johnston, and was in hospital until General Hood’s advance into Tennessee; was with Hood during his entire Tennessee campaign; when Hood went out of Tennessee orders were given for him to remain and police the Tennessee river; just before the collapse of the Confederacy, he was notified that he had been made a Brigadier General at the last conference, and to hurry to Selma and report to General Dick Taylor, who would give him his commission; when he reached Selma there was great confusion, and General Taylor had packed up everything and left; was a lawyer and planter in Mississippi; lawyer, banker and farmer in Tennessee.
Source: Who’s Who in Tennessee: A Biographical Reference Book of Notable Tennesseans of To-Day. Memphis: Paul & Douglas Co, 1911.
