Atkins, John D. C
soldier, lawyer, congressman, was born June 4, 1825, in Henry county, Tenn. He graduated at the East Tennessee university in 1846; studied law; and was elected a member of the legislature in 1849 and in 1851. He was elected to the state senate in 1855; chosen a presidential elector in 1856; elected a representative in congress in 1857; and was a presidential elector in 1860. He was lieutenant-colonel of the fifth Tennessee regiment in the confederate army in 1861; was elected to the confederate provisional congress in August, 1861, and re-elected in 1863. He was elected a representative from Tennessee to the forty-third, forty-fourth, fortyfifth, forty-sixth, and forty-seventh congresses; and in 1885 was appointed commissioner of Indian affairs.