John Basil Turchin, the only Russian to achieve the rank of general in the American Civil War, was born Ivan Vasilovitch Turchinoff in the Province of the Don on January 30, 1822. Graduating from the Imperial Military School in St. Petersburg in 1841, he rose to the rank of colonel of the Imperial Guard, and served on the staff of Crown Prince, later Czar, Alexander II. He married Nedezhda Lvova, the daughter of the commander of his regiment. She was to follow him on numerous campaigns with the Russian army, and would play a big role in his subsequent military career.

In 1856, at the end of the Crimean War, the Turchins immigrated to Chicago, Illinois, where he found work in the engineering department of the Illinois Central Railroad. At the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861, Turchin was made colonel of a volunteer regiment, the 19th Illinois. A strict disciplinarian, he soon had his regiment in fighting trim, and then assumed command of the 8th Brigade of the Army of the Ohio 3rd Division in November 1861. Mrs. Turchin, now known as Nadia, served unofficially as a regimental nurse and accompanied her husband on campaigns with the Army of the Ohio, just as she had done on campaigns with the Russian army a few years before. She allegedly assumed command in place of her husband when he fell ill for about 10 days, even leading his troops into battle.

Colonel Turchin, who was accustomed to the European tradition of "to the victor belong the spoils", soon found himself in trouble with the authorities for allowing, even encouraging, his men to plunder and pillage in occupied areas. His commander, General Don Carlos Buell, who resented the presence of Nadia on his army's campaigns in violation of his orders, finally had enough of Turchin's harsh treatment of civilians, and after a particularly flagrant incident in Athens, Alabama in May 1862, had him court-martialed. As a result of the court martial, he was relieved of command and recommended for dismissal from the service. At this point, Nadia intervened, and personally prevailed upon President Lincoln to set the verdict aside. Lincoln not only restored Turchin to command, but promoted him to brigadier general, effective in August 1862.

General Turchin proved himself worthy of Lincoln's trust, and by early 1863 was leading a brigade of cavalry in the Army of the Cumberland. Nadia was once again by his side in fighting around Tullahoma, Tennessee. Turchin distinguished himself at the Battle of Chickamauga, earning the sobriquet, "The Russian Thunderbolt". In November 1863, one of his regiments claimed to be the first to enter the enemy's works at Missionary Ridge. He participated in Sherman's March through Georgia in 1864 with the 14th Corps of the Army of the Cumberland, but ill health forced him to relinquish command in July. He resigned from the service in October 1864.

After the Civil War, he became a solicitor of patents in Chicago, and in 1873 helped to establish a Polish colony at Radom, Illinois. He became mentally deranged late in life, and died at the Southern Hospital for the Insane in Anna, Illinois in 1901. He is buried at the National Cemetery in Mound City.