John Baker Tapscott was son of Baker Tapscott and Eleanor Morrow Tapscott of Shepherdstown, Va. Before the outbreak of the Civil War, he worked as a surveyor. On Mar. 13, 1862 he was appointed 1st Lieutenant of the Corps of Engineer of Provisional Army of the Confederate States of America and served under Alfred L. Rives in Virginia and North Carolina. He was among the Confederate troops who surrendered at Appomattox Court House and was paroled on Apr. 10, 1865. He then moved to Tennessee, and in October 1865 became partner in a newly establishing firm of Cobb & Tapscott, which specialized in civil, topographical, and architectural engineering and surveying. He married first Mary Aurelia Cobb and in 1872 Katharine Andrews Pegram, daughter of Capt. George H. Pegram, a civil engineer of St. Louis, Mo. Tapscott was a known as an amateur scientist, historian, and genealogist, and frequently contributed to local newspapers. He was one of the first members of the American Society of Civil Engineers. John B. Tapscott died in Clarksville ca. 1907.
From the description of Papers of John Baker Tapscott, 1843-1943, (bulk 1861-1904). (Huntington Library, Art Collections & Botanical Gardens). WorldCat record id: 122510350
