John H. Winder (1800-1865) was born in Maryland and died in Florence, South Carolina. He graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1820 and was a career United States Army officer who served with distinction during the Mexican-American War. He later served as a Confederate general during the Civil War. Winder was provost marshal of Richmond, Virginia, from 1862-1864 and commissary general of Confederate prisons from 1864-1865. He was responsible for the Castle Thunder, Belle Isle, and Libby prisons in Richmond when they became infamous in the North for their poor conditions. He was given command of all military prisons in Georgia, as well as those in Alabama, until he was put in charge of the Confederate Bureau of Prison Camps, a post which he held until his death. In 1862, Daniel Patterson, Mary Baker Eddy's second husband, was held at one of the prisons where Winder was in charge.

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