This articleneeds additional citations forverification. Please helpimprove this article byadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "John B. Floyd" – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(October 2013) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

John B. Floyd
Floyd, 1855–1865
24thUnited States Secretary of War
In office March 6, 1857 – December 29, 1860
President	James Buchanan
Preceded by	Jefferson Davis
Succeeded by	Joseph Holt
31stGovernor of Virginia
In office January 1, 1849 – January 16, 1852
Preceded by	William Smith
Succeeded by	Joseph Johnson
Member of theVirginia House of Delegates
In office December 6, 1847 – December 31, 1848
Preceded by	Samuel Goodson
Succeeded by	Samuel Goodson
In office December 3, 1855 – December 6, 1857
Preceded by	Isaac Dunn
Succeeded by	Robert Grant
Personal details
Born	John Buchanan Floyd (1806-06-01)June 1, 1806 Blacksburg, Virginia, U.S.
Died	August 26, 1863(1863-08-26) (aged 57) Abingdon, Virginia, C.S.
Party	Democratic
Spouse	Sally Buchanan Preston
Education	University of South Carolina, Columbia(BA)
Signature
Military service
Allegiance	Confederate States
Branch/service	Provisional Army of Virginia  Confederate States Army
Years of service	1861–1863
Rank	Brigadier General
Battles/wars	American Civil War  • Battle of Kessler's Cross Lanes  • Battle of Carnifex Ferry  • Battle of Fort Donelson

John Buchanan Floyd (June 1, 1806 – August 26, 1863) was an American politician who served as the31st Governor of Virginia. Under presidentJames Buchanan, he also served as theU.S. Secretary of War from 1857 to 1860. Floyd is also known as theConfederate general in theAmerican Civil War who lost the crucialBattle of Fort Donelson.

John Buchanan Floyd was born on June 1, 1806, on theSmithfield plantation nearBlacksburg, Virginia. He was the eldest son of Laetitia Preston and her husband, GovernorJohn Floyd (1783–1837). His brother,Benjamin Rush Floyd (1812–1860), served in both houses of the Virginia General Assembly but failed to win the election to the U.S. Congress. His sister Nicketti (1819–1908) married U.S. SenatorJohn Warfield Johnston; his sisters Letitia Preston Floyd Lewis (1814–1886) and Eliza Lavallette Floyd Holmes (1816–1887) also survived their brothers.^[1] The elder Floyd served as a member of theUnited States House of Representatives from 1817 to 1829 and asgovernor of Virginia from 1830 to 1834.

Young Floyd, who was of English, Welsh, Scottish, and Irish heritage, graduated fromSouth Carolina College in 1826 (by some accounts 1829), where he was a member of theEuphradian Society.

He married his cousin, Sarah (Sally) Buchanan Preston (1802–1879), daughter ofFrancis Preston, on June 1, 1830. They had no children.^[2] Some claimed Floyd had a daughter, Josephine, who marriedRobert James Harlan in 1852. Kentucky politicianJames Harlan enslaved Harlan, who may have been James' son. In the 1850s, Robert Harlan lived free in Cincinnati, Ohio.^[3]

Admitted to the Virginia bar in 1828, Floyd practiced law in his native state and atHelena, Arkansas, where he lost a large fortune and his health in a cotton-planting venture.

In 1839, Floyd returned to Virginia and settled inWashington County. Voters elected him to the Abingdon town council in 1843 and theVirginia House of Delegates in 1847, and he won re-election once, then resigned in 1849 upon being elected governor ofVirginia.^[4] As governor, Floyd commissioned themonument to PresidentGeorge Washington in Virginia Capitol Square, and laid the cornerstone in the presence of PresidentZachary Taylor on February 22, 1850.^[5] The second Governor Floyd also recommended the Virginia General Assembly pass a law taxing imports from states that refused to surrender fugitives from Virginian enslavers, which would have violated theInterstate Commerce Clause.^[6]

When he left statewide office in 1852, Washington County voters again elected him to the Virginia House of Delegates.^[7] Floyd also bought theAbington Democrat from Leonidas Baugh when the paper's founder won appointment as postmaster, and he had J.M.H. Brunet of Petersburg publish it, but Brunet died, and the paper was sold at auction to pay the debts incurred by its next printer, Stephen Pendleton, in 1857.^[8]

Active in Democratic Party politics, the former governor was a presidential elector forJames Buchanan after thepresidential election of 1856.

In March 1857, Floyd becameSecretary of War in Buchanan's cabinet, where his lack of administrative ability was soon apparent,^[9] including the poor execution of theUtah Expedition. In 1859, Floyd was warned about plans byJohn Brown to raid Harpers Ferry by David J. Gue ofSpringdale, Iowa, where Brown had spent time. Gue was aQuaker who believed that Brown and his men would be killed. Gue decided to warn the government "to protect Brown from the consequences of his own rashness". He sent an anonymous letter toSecretary of War Floyd:

Cincinnati, Aug. 20, 1859. SIR: I have lately received information of a movement of so great importance that I feel it to be my duty to impart it to you without delay.

I have discovered the existence of a secret association, having for its object the liberation of the slaves of the South, by a general insurrection. The leader of the movement is"Old John Brown", late of Kansas. He has been in Canada during the winter, drilling the negroes there, and they are only waiting his word to start for the South to assist the slaves. They have one of their leading men (a white man) in an armory in Maryland; where it is situated I am not enabled to learn.

As soon as everything is ready, those of their number who are in the Northern States and Canada are to come in small companies to their rendezvous, which is in the mountains of Virginia. They will pass down through Pennsylvania and Maryland, and enter Virginia at Harper's Ferry. Brown left the North about three or four weeks ago, and will arm the negroes and strike a blow in a few weeks, so that whatever is done must be done at once. They have a large quantity of arms at their rendezvous, and are probably distributing them already. I am not fully in their confidence. This is all the information I can give you.

I dare not sign my name to this, but trust that you will not disregard this warning on that account.^[10]

He was hoping that Floyd would send soldiers to Harpers Ferry and that the extra security would motivate Brown to call off his plans.^{[11]: 284–285 [12]}

Even thoughPresident Buchanan offered a $250 reward for Brown, Floyd decided that the letter writer was a crackpot, and disregarded it. He later said that "a scheme of such wickedness and outrage could not be entertained by any citizen of the United States."^[11]: 285

In late 1860, Floyd was implicated in the scandal of the "Abstracted Indian Bonds." His wife's nephew, Godard Bailey, who worked in the Interior Department and removed bonds from the Indian Agency safe during 1860, was also implicated.^[13] Among the recipients of the money was Russell, Majors, & Waddell, a government contractor that held, among its contracts, thePony Express.^[14] In December 1860, on ascertaining that Floyd had honored heavy drafts made by government contractors in anticipation of their earnings, the president requested his resignation. Several days later, Floyd was indicted for malversation in office, although the indictment was overruled in 1861 on technical grounds. No proof was found that he profited from these irregular transactions; in fact, he left office financially embarrassed.^[9]

Although he had openly opposedsecession before the election ofAbraham Lincoln, his conduct after the election, especially after his breach with Buchanan, fell under suspicion. Despite the fact that he had been ordered to reinforce Southern forts by Buchanan, the press accused him of sending large stores of government arms to federal arsenals in the Southern United States in anticipation of the Civil War.^[9]

Ulysses Grant, in his postwarPersonal Memoirs, wrote:

Floyd, the Secretary of War, scattered the army so that much of it could be captured when hostilities should commence, and distributed the cannon and small arms from Northern arsenals throughout the South so as to be on hand when treason wanted them.

After his resignation, a congressional commission in the summer and fall of 1861 investigated Floyd's actions as Secretary of War. His records of orders and arms shipments from 1859 to 1860 were examined. In response toJohn Brown's raid on Harper's Ferry, he bolstered the federal arsenals in some Southern states by over 115,000 muskets and rifles in late 1859. He also ordered heavy ordnance to be shipped to the federal forts in Galveston Harbor, Texas, and the new fort onShip Island off the coast of Mississippi.^[15]

He intended to send these heavy guns in the last days of his term, but the President revoked his orders.

His resignation as secretary of war on December 29, 1860, was precipitated by the refusal of Buchanan to orderMajor Robert Anderson to abandonFort Sumter. On January 27, 1861, he was indicted by theDistrict of Columbiagrand jury for conspiracy and fraud. Floyd appeared in criminal court in Washington, DC, on March 7, 1861, to answer the charges against him. The indictments were thrown out.^[16][17]

THE INDICTMENTS AGAINST FLOYD QUASHED. The indictments against Ex-Secretary Floyd have been quashed in the Court at Washington on the ground—first, that there was no evidence of fraud on his part; and second, that the charge of malfeasance in the matter of the Indian bonds was precluded from trial by the act of 1857, which forbids a prosecution when the party implicated has testified before a Committee of Congress touching the matter.

After the secession of Virginia, Floyd was commissioned amajor general in the Provisional Army of Virginia, but on May 23, 1861, he was appointed abrigadier general in theConfederate States Army (CSA). He was first employed in some unsuccessful operations in theKanawha Valley of western Virginia underRobert E. Lee, where he was both defeated and wounded in the arm at theBattle of Carnifex Ferry on September 10.

General Floyd blamed Brigadier GeneralHenry A. Wise for the Confederate loss at the Battle of Carnifex Ferry, stating that Wise refused to come to his aid.^[18]Virginia DelegateMason Mathews, whose sonAlexander F. Mathews was Wise'saide-de-camp, spent several days in the camps of both Wise and Floyd to seek resolution to an escalating feud between the two generals. Afterward, he wrote toPresidentJefferson Davis urging that both men be removed, stating, "I am fully satisfied that each of them would be highly gratified to see the other annihilated."^[19][20] Davis subsequently removed Wise from his command of the western Virginia region, leaving Floyd as the region's unquestioned superior officer.^[18]

In January 1862, he was dispatched to theWestern Theater to report to GeneralAlbert Sidney Johnston and was given command of a division. Johnston sent Floyd to reinforceFort Donelson and assume command of the post there. Floyd took command of Fort Donelson on February 13, just two days after the U.S. Army had arrived, becoming the third post commander within a week. Fort Donelson protected the crucialCumberland River, and indirectly, the manufacturing city ofNashville and Confederate control ofMiddle Tennessee. It was the companion toFort Henry on the nearbyTennessee River, which, on February 6, 1862, was captured byUnited States Army Brigadier General Ulysses S. Grant and river gunboats. Floyd was not an appropriate choice to defend such a vital point, having political influence but virtually no military experience. General Johnston had other experienced, more senior generals (P. G. T. Beauregard andWilliam J. Hardee) available and made a severe error in selecting Floyd. Floyd had little military influence on theBattle of Fort Donelson itself, deferring to his more experienced subordinates, Brigadier GeneralsGideon Johnson Pillow andSimon Bolivar Buckner. As the U.S. forces surrounded the fort and the town ofDover, the Confederates launched an assault on February 15 to open an escape route. Although successful initially, indecision on General Pillow's part left the Confederates in their trenches, facing growing reinforcements for Grant.

General Floyd, the commanding officer, who was a man of talent enough for any civil position, was no soldier, and possibly, did not possess the elements of one. He was further unfitted for command for the reason that his conscience must have troubled him and made him afraid. As Secretary of War, he had taken a solemn oath to maintain the Constitution of the United States and uphold the same against all enemies. He had betrayed that trust.

Early in the morning of February 16, at acouncil of war, the generals and field officers decided to surrender their army. Floyd, concerned that he would be arrested for treason if captured by the U.S. Army, turned his command over to Pillow, who immediately turned it over to Buckner. ColonelNathan Bedford Forrest and his entire Tennessee cavalry regiment escaped while Pillow escaped on a small boat across the Cumberland. The next morning, Floyd fled by steamboat with the36th Virginia and51st Virginia Infantry regiments, two artillery batteries, and elements of the other units from his old command. He safely reached Nashville, escaping just before Buckner surrendered to Grant in one of the most significant strategic defeats of the Civil War.

A short time before daylight the two steamboats arrived. Without loss of time the general (Floyd) hastened to the river, embarked with his Virginians, and at an early hour cast loose from the shore, and in good time, and safely, he reached Nashville. He never satisfactorily explained upon what principles he appropriated all the transportation on to the use of his particular command.^[21]

Floyd was relieved of his command by Confederate President Davis, without a court of inquiry, on March 11, 1862. He resumed his commission as a major general of the Virginia Militia. However, his health soon failed, and he died a year later atAbingdon, Virginia, where he was buried in Sinking Spring Cemetery.

Floyd County in northwest Georgia, home to the cities of Rome and Cave Spring, is named for his relative,United States CongressmanJohn Floyd.

Camp Floyd, a U.S. Army post nearFairfield, Utah from July 1858 to July 1861, was initially named after Floyd.

• List of American Civil War generals (Confederate)

• Eicher, John H., andDavid J. Eicher,Civil War High Commands. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2001.ISBN 978-0-8047-3641-1.
• Gott, Kendall D.Where the South Lost the War: An Analysis of the Fort Henry – Fort Donelson Campaign, February 1862. Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole Books, 2003.ISBN 0-8117-0049-6.
• Sifakis, Stewart.Who Was Who in the Civil War. New York: Facts On File, 1988.ISBN 978-0-8160-1055-4.
• U.S. War Department.The War of the RebellionArchived September 13, 2009, at theWayback Machine:A Compilation of theOfficial Records of the Union and Confederate Armies. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1880–1901.
• Warner, Ezra J.Generals in Gray: Lives of the Confederate Commanders. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1959.ISBN 978-0-8071-0823-9.

Journal of the Civil War, Muster: How the Past informs the Present, Khal Schneider, The Case of the Abstracted Indian Bonds, June 26, 2022.[1]

Wikimedia Commons has media related toJohn Buchanan Floyd.

• John B. Floyd inEncyclopedia Virginia
• A Guide to the Executive Papers of Governor John Buchanan Floyd, 1849–1851 atThe Library of Virginia
• John B. Floyd atFind a Grave

• 1806 births
• 1863 deaths
• People from Blacksburg, Virginia
• American people of English descent
• American people of Irish descent
• Confederate States Army generals
• Democratic Party members of the Virginia House of Delegates
• Democratic Party governors of Virginia
• United States secretaries of war
• People of Virginia in the American Civil War
• Politicians from Abingdon, Virginia
• People of the Utah War
• Buchanan administration cabinet members
• University of South Carolina alumni
• Arkansas lawyers
• Virginia lawyers
• Preston family (Virginia)
• 19th-century members of the Virginia General Assembly

• Pages with reference errors
• Pages with missing ISBNs
• Wikipedia articles incorporating a citation from the 1911 Encyclopaedia Britannica with Wikisource reference
• Wikipedia articles incorporating text from the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica
• Pages with broken reference names
• CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list
• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Articles needing additional references from October 2013
• All articles needing additional references
• Use American English from January 2026
• All Wikipedia articles written in American English
• Use mdy dates from March 2022
• Webarchive template wayback links
• Commons category link from Wikidata