General John Milton Brannan (July 1, 1819-December 16, 1892) was born in Washington, D.C. He worked as a messenger in the U.S. House of Representatives, and received an appointment to the U.S. Military Academy (West Point) from Ratliff Boon (Indiana) in 1837. Brannan graduated from West Point in 1841 and was assigned to the 1st US Artillery Regiment, participating in the border dispute between the U.S. and Canada.

Brannan served in the Mexican War (1846-1848) and was promoted to captain. He was wounded in the Battle of Mexico City. In 1862, he commanded the Department of Key West and led infantry troops in the Battle of St. John's Bluff for control of Jacksonville, Florida, after which he rose to the rank of lieutenant colonel. Brannan fought at the Battle of Chickamauga (1863) and was appointed to colonel for meritorious service. He and commanded the Department of Cumberland (1863-1865) defending Chattanooga, Tennessee, and taking part in the Atlanta Campaign.

Following the Civil War, Brannan returned to the regular army with the rank of major in the 1st U.S. Artillery Regiment. He retired from the army in 1892 and moved to New York City, New York. He died in New York and was buried at Woodlawn Cemetery but reinterred at West Point Cemetery. Battery Brannan at Fort Worden in Jefferson County,Washington, is named after him.

Charles Jones Jenkins (January 6, 1805- June 14,1883) was born in Beaufort, South Carolina, and moved to Georgia with his family in 1816. He attended Franklin College (later the University of Georgia) for two years but graduated from Union College in Schenectady, New York, in 1824. He practiced law in Sandersville, Georgia, and Augusta, Georgia. Jenkins married Sarah Seaborn Jones (August 14, 1806-August 29, 1849) in 1832 and they had three children. After Sarah's death, he married Emily Gertrude Barnes (1817-1882) of Pennsylvania.

Jenkins was elected to the Georgia State Legislature in 1830. He served concurrently as the solicitor general of Georgia’s Middle Judicial Circuit and as state attorney general (1831-1834). Jenkins wrote the Georgia Platform, a proclamation that endorsed the Compromise of 1850. He was nominated to be the vice presidential candidate in 1852 on the Union Party ticket with Daniel Webster but they received no electoral votes. Governor Joseph E. Brown appointed Jenkins as a justice on the Supreme Court of Georgia in 1860 and he retained that position until 1865.

After the Civil War ended, Jenkins ran unopposed in the gubernatorial election of 1865. He is the last govenor to live in the Governor’s Mansion in Milledgeville, Georgia. After refusing to comply with a Federal regulation, he was replaced by military governor Thomas H. Ruger in 1868. Jenkins fled the state with official documents and did not return to Augusta, Georgia, until 1870.

Jenkins died in Augusta and is buried at Summerville Cemetary in the same city. Jenkins County, Georgia, was established in his honor in 1905.