Cadmus Marcellus Wilcox was a West Point graduate who served in the Seminole and Mexican Indian Wars, taught infantry tactics at West Point, became a major general in the Confederate Army, and later headed the Railroad Division of the General Land Office under President Grover Cleveland. Born in Waynesboro, North Carolina in 1824, he settled in Tipton County in 1826 and lived in Covington until 1842. He died in Washington, D.C., in 1890 and was buried there in Oak Hill Cemetery.