John Bordenave Villepigue graduated 22nd from a class of 42 from the United States Military Academy; his branch of service was the dragoons. Graduating in the West Point class of 1854 and commissioned a second lieutenant in the dragoons, he served in Missouri, Kansas, the Dakota and Nebraska territories, Utah, and Pennsylvania until resigning his commission on March 31, 1861, to accept a captaincy in the Confederate artillery.

Assigned to the Confederate defenses at Pensacola Harbor, Florida, he was promoted to lieutenant colonel in September, 1861, and commanded the 1st Georgia Battalion, a unit made up of Georgia and Mississippi troops assigned to the defense of Fort McRee at the harbor's mouth. Promoted to colonel and named Bragg's chief of engineers and artillery, he took command at Pensacola. In November, after fighting a two day artillery duel with Federal ships and the Fort Pickens batteries, he was seriously wounded.

His troops were reorganized into the 36th Georgia regiment in January, 1862 and as its colonel, he briefly served as commander of Pensacola's garrison until transferred to Mobile, Alabama. There he won promotion to brigadier general and travelled to Corinth where, in March of 1862, he won assignment to the command of Fort Pillow, Tennessee. Federal naval superiority forced General Beauregard to withdraw him from there on June 4, 1862.

Reassigned to General Earl Van Dorn's troops, commanding the 2nd brigade in General Mansfield Lovell's 1st Division, he served in the October battle of Corinth. Following Van Dorn's retreat, ill health forced his retirement to Port Hudson, Louisiana where he died of fever on November 9, 1862.

Union General Thomas Williams

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