In 1851, Vaughan graduated from the Virginia Military Institute as senior captain of cadets. Entering civil engineering, he migrated to California as a deputy U.S. surveyor, then served on the staff of an official of the fledgling Northern Pacific Railroad before settling in Marshall County, Mississippi, as a planter.

When both his native and adopted states seceded in 1861, Vaughan abandoned the Unionist views he had earlier espoused and raised a company made up of Mississippians. Finding the state unable to arm and equip his men, he led them north. They were mustered into Confederate service as part of the 13th Tennessee Infantry with Vaughan as their captain.

Vaughan had a varied and active war career. Elected lieutenant colonel in June 1861, he served as a regimental or brigade commander during almost every major contest in the western theatre, including Elmont, Shiloh, Perryville, Chickamauga and Missionary Ridge, and the first half of the Atlanta Campaign. During that period, he had no fewer than eight horses shot out from under him, winning the reputation of a "fighting officer.'' Perhaps his most dramatic service came at Shiloh, where on April 2, 1862, he led his troops in a charge against the Union right, routing an Ohio regiment and causing a nearby battery to abandon three of its guns.

For his able service in brigade command at Chickamauga, Vaughan was commissioned a brigadier as of November 18, 1863. After that, he led six Tennessee regiments in the corps of Major General John Breckenridge and later in Lieutenant General William J. Hardee's Corps, Army of Tennessee. It was under Hardee that he saw his last day of field service. On July 4, 1864, as the Confederates resisted Sherman's advancing forces at Vining's Station on the Western and Atlantic Railroad between Marietta and Atlanta, Vaughan was permanently disabled by an exploding shell that tore off his leg.

After the war, he returned to farming in Mississippi. He also became active in the Grange movement, became a merchant in Memphis, and headed the Tennessee chapter of the United Confederate Veterans. He died on October 1, 1899, at Indianapolis, Indiana.

Also:

The Not as Famous: Gen. Alfred Thomas Torbert

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