Brigadier-General John W. Whitfield began his military career as colonel of the Twenty-seventh Texas cavalry, in 1861. Pea Ridge was the first considerable battle in which he was engaged. Here the cavalry under McCulloch did splendid fighting, but the death of the gallant Texan and of Mcintosh threw that wing of the Confederate army into confusion. At the time of this battle Whitfield was major of a battalion designated in the reports as "Whitfield's battalion," under the command of Brig.-Gen. Albert Pike. Col. Henry Little, who commanded the First brigade of Missouri volunteers, in his report thanks Major Whitfield, with several others, for "the manner in which, with his command, he supported his (Little's) movements in the field." When General Price was about to cross the Mississippi in 1862, Colonel Whitfield was ordered to proceed to Memphis with his command and report to that officer. General Price, in his report of the battle of Iuka, Miss., fought September 19th, said that Whitfield's legion won, under its gallant leader, a reputation for dashing boldness and steady courage which placed them side by side with the bravest and the best, and noted with regret that Colonel Whitfield was painfully wounded. At the close of the year Colonel Whitfield, having recovered, was at Yazoo City with his cavalry command. He participated in the successful cavalry battle of Van Dorn near Spring Hill, on March 5, 1863, and received the thanks of General Van Dorn for the skill and valor with which he performed his part in the action. On the 9th of May, 1863, Colonel Whitfield received the commission of brigadier-general, his command consisting of his own battalion and the Third, Sixth and Ninth Texas cavalry. Operating in Mississippi, under Gen. J. E. Johnston, on July 4, 1863, the very day that Vicksburg surrendered, General Whitfield encountered a party of 500 Federals. He attacked and defeated them at Messinger's ferry. Through the whole of 1864 he commanded a brigade under Forrest, and was in Mississippi when the war closed in 1865. He then returned to Texas, where he subsequently made his home.