John Doby Kennedy

John Doby Kennedy (January 5, 1840 – April 14, 1896) was a general in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War, as well as a post-war planter, attorney, politician, and the 57th lieutenant governor of South Carolina serving under Governor Johnson Hagood.

Early life and career Kennedy was born in Camden, South Carolina. His father was an immigrant from Scotland who had settled in Kershaw County about 1830 and married a local woman. Kennedy served as a lieutenant in a Camden pre-war militia unit. He studied at South Carolina College from 1855 to 1857. On October 28, 1857, he married Elizabeth Cunningham, and they eventually had 7 children. Kennedy read law under William Zachariah Leitner and was admitted to the bar in January 1861. However, South Carolina's secession and the subsequent outbreak of the Civil War delayed his plans to establish a law practice.

Civil War Enlisting in the Confederate Army in April 1861, Kennedy became captain of Company E, 2nd South Carolina Infantry Regiment, under fellow Camden resident Col. Joseph Brevard Kershaw.