John Dunovant was a brigadier general with temporary rank in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War. Dunovant was a native of South Carolina who had been a Mexican-American War veteran and captain in the U.S. Army from March 3, 1855 to December 29, 1860. During the Civil War, he was commander of the 1st South Carolina Infantry Regiment and later the 5th South Carolina Cavalry Regiment. He was in command of a cavalry brigade in the later part of the Overland Campaign and the early part of the Siege of Petersburg. He was killed at the Battle of Vaughan Road on October 1, 1864 during the Siege of Petersburg.