James Lusk Alcorn (November 4, 1816December 19, 1894) was a prominent American political figure in
Mississippi during the 19th century. He was a leading southern white Republican during
Reconstruction in Mississippi, where he served as governor and U.S. Senator. A moderate Republican, he had a bitter rivalry with Radical Republican "
carpetbagger"
Adelbert Ames, who defeated him in the 1873 Mississippi gubernatorial race. He briefly served as a brigadier general of Mississippi state troops at times in
Confederate army service during the early part of the
American Civil War. Among the Confederate generals who joined the post-Civil War Republican Party, only
James Longstreet had been of higher rank.