John McIntosh Kell, born near Darien, Georgia, in 1823, entered the U.S. Navy in September 1841 at age 17 as a midshipman and over the next two decades served on several ships, was active in California during the war with Mexico, and took part in Commodore Matthew C. Perry's expedition to Japan. After Georgia seceded in early 1861, he resigned from the United States' Navy, briefly commanded the Georgia state gunboat Savannah in April 1861, then received a Confederate States Navy commission as First Lieutenant the following month and went to New Orleans, where he helped Raphael Semmes fit out the cruiser CSS Sumter and served as Executive Officer during her commerce raiding cruise in 1861-62. Kell later became Rear Admiral Semmes' Executive Officer on CSS Alabama, which took more than sixty prizes, fought and sank a Union warship, and was itself sunk in June 1864 in an encounter with USS Kearsarge off the coast of France; rescued by the British yacht Deerhound and taken to England, Kell was promoted to Commander that month and in 1865 commanded the ironclad CSS Richmond in the James River Squadron. After the War Between the States, he returned to Sunnyside, Georgia, became a farmer, entertained the Georgia poet Sydney Lanier there, and during a visit in 1874 Lanier wrote the poem "Corn." In later years Kell served as Adjutant General of Georgia from 1887 until his death in 1900, wrote Recollections of a Naval Life including the Cruises of the Confederate States Steamers "Sumter" and "Alabama," and was buried in Oak Hill Cemetery in Griffin, Georgia.