John T . Coffee John Trousdale Coffee ( December 14 , 1816 – May 23 , 1890 ) was a Missouri politician , elected to the State Senate and then to the House , where he was elected as Speaker of the House ( 1856 – 1858 ) . During the American Civil War , he served as a Confederate officer in Missouri . In the late war , he moved to Waco , Texas , and later lived in Georgetown , where he practiced law again . He had a total of four wives and thirteen children . Early life . Coffee was born in Smith County , Tennessee where he taught himself law and was admitted to the bar . He moved to Springfield , Missouri in 1842 following the deaths of his father and first wife . Marriage and family . Coffee married his first wife in Tennessee . After her death in 1842 , he migrated to Missouri , where he married again . His second wife died in 1845 , two weeks after childbirth . That year in September , he married for the third time . By the end of the Civil War , when they had moved to Waco , Texas , he had a total of seven children . After his wife ' s death , he moved with his family to Georgetown , Texas . There he married for the fourth time . With his young wife , he had six more children . Career . Coffee practiced law in Springfield and Bolivar , Missouri . He raised an army unit to participate in the Mexican - American War ( 1846 – 1848 ) , but the war ended while they were en route to New Orleans . Politician . Coffee returned to Missouri in 1849 , where he was elected as the circuit attorney for Dade County . He lived in Greenfield . In 1854 he was elected to the Missouri State Senate . He resigned in 1855 to accept a captain position with the First U . S . Army Cavalry Regiment at Fort Leavenworth , Kansas . After serving only four months , he resigned the captain position due to illness and returned to Greenfield . In 1856 he argued to allow " squatter sovereignty " to solve the Bleeding Kansas problem ( the argument was that Missourians should be allowed to vote deciding whether Kansas should be a slave state and they could do that by claiming land in Kansas ) . In 1857 he was a publisher of the Greenfield Southwest newspaper . In 1858 Coffee ran again for the Missouri Senate but lost in the Democratic primary to B . H . Cravens . He ran for the Missouri House of Representatives and was elected Speaker of the Missouri House of Representatives in his first term . In 1860 he lost a Democratic primary for Missouri Secretary of State and returned to law practice . Missouri militia . With the beginning of the American Civil War , Coffee raised a regiment in Dade County and was commissioned as a colonel in the Confederate Army . After Sterling Price retreated from Missouri , Coffee stayed in the state . He harassed Union troops in skirmishes around Neosho , Missouri . One of his most famous skirmishes was the Battle of Lone Jack . Coffee ' s troops were routed by Union troops on August 12 , 1863 at Pineville when 60 - 70 of his men were killed . In October 1863 Coffee ' s troops captured the Union garrison in his hometown of Greenfield and burned the courthouse . Among the destroyed records was his land deed , which caused him to lose his land claim in Missouri . After the Pineville conflict , Coffee was passed over for promotion for General Joseph O . Shelby , who was given command of Missouri forces . Coffee left for Arkansas , where he attempted unsuccessfully to recruit a new regiment . In late 1864 or early 1865 , he moved to Waco , Texas with his large family . Post - Civil War . After the surrender of the Confederates , Coffee refused a request by Shelby to continue the fight under the flag of Emperor Maximilian of Mexico . He formally surrendered to George Armstrong Custer on July 26 , 1865 in Austin , Texas . He died in Georgetown , Texas .