Background
GARTRELL, Lucius Jeremiah was born on January 7, 1821 in Wilkes County, Georgia, United States, United States. Son of the planter and merchant Joseph Gartrell and his wife (Boswell).
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Lucius Jeremiah GARTRELL
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Education
Private school, southern university.
Career
He attended private schools in Wilkes County and also attended Randolph-Macon College in 1841. He attended Franklin College (later the University of Georgia) from 1842 to 1843. Gartrell studied law in the office of Robert Toombs and was admitted to the Lincoln County, Georgia, bar in 1842.
He had six children by his marriage in 1841 to Louisiana O. Gideon and, after her death, five children by his marriage in 1855 to Antoinette T. Burke. After her death, he married Maud Condon in 1888. From 1843 to 1847, he served as solicitor general for the Northern Judicial Circuit.
After moving back to Wilkes County, Gartrell, an extreme states’ rights Whig, served in the House of Representatives from 1847 to 1850, where he offered a Southern rights resolution in 1850. In 1854, he moved to Atlanta and subsequently beat a Know-Nothing candidate for election to the U.S. House of Representatives, where he served as a Democrat from 1857 to 1861. He resigned when Georgia seceded from the Union.
A strong secessionist, when the war began he organized the 7th Regiment Georgia Volunteer Infantry, where he served as a colonel and distinguished himself at the battle of First Manassas. Gartrell left military service from 1862 until 1864 in order to take his seat in the Confederate House, to which he was elected from Georgia’s Eighth Congressional District. A supporter of the Davis administration, Gartrell urged price ceilings in order to curb inflation and also proposed the suspension of habeas corpus.
He served on the Committee on the Judiciary and many conference committees. He returned to the field and was commissioned brigadier general on August 22, 1864. Gartrell fought largely in South Carolina.
He made a celebrated stand against William T. Sherman at Coosawatchie, South Carolina, toward the end of 1864. He was wounded in that engagement and saw no further field service. When the war ended, he returned to his law practice and became a famous criminal lawyer.
In 1877, he was a delegate to the Georgia constitutional convention, and, in 1882, he lost a race for governor to Alexander Stephens.
Religion
"Peculiar institution" of slavery was not only expedient but also ordained by God and upheld in Holy Scripture.
Politics
Stands for preserving slavery, states' rights, and political liberty for whites. Every individual state is sovereign, even to the point of secession.
Connections
Spouse Maud Condon.
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Born
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Died
April 7, 1891 (aged 70) -
Nationality
United States