John Watson Morton (September 19, 1842 – November 21, 1914) was an American Confederate military officer, farmer and politician. Educated at the Western Military Institute, he entered military service soon after graduation, with the outbreak of war. He served as captain of artillery under General Nathan Bedford Forrest in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War. Afterward he was the founder of the Nashville chapter of the Ku Klux Klan during the Reconstruction era.