Lucius Jeremiah Gartrell


Lucius Jeremiah Gartrell was an American politician and lawyer, as well as general in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War.

Early life and education

Gartrell was born near Washington, Georgia to Joseph Gartrell, Jr. and Eliza Boswell Gartrell. He attended Randolph-Macon College, and Franklin College, the founding school of the University of Georgia in Athens. Gartrell passed the state bar in 1842 and began the practice of law in Washington.

Public office

Gartrell served as the solicitor general of the northern judicial circuit from 1843 until 1847 when he was elected to the Georgia House of Representatives. He was subsequently elected to the first of two consecutive terms in U.S. House of Representatives in 1856.

Confederate service

He resigned from his second term in 1861 to form the Seventh Regiment of the Georgia Volunteer Infantry in the Confederate army during the Civil War. In 1862, Gartrell was elected to the Confederate Congress and served in that capacity until 1864. In 1864, he was appointed as a brigadier general in the Confederate forces.

Personal life

Gartrell married twice. First to Olivia Gideon. The couple had one son Joseph Erasmus Gartrell. After the death of his first wife, Gartrell married Antoinette Phoebe Burke. They had three children, Vannie Gartrell Phinizy, Lucius J. Gartrell, and Lucius Jeremiah Gartrell.

Later years

After the war, Gartrell served as a member of the State constitutional convention in 1877. He also ran for governor in 1882 but lost to Alexander Stephens. Gartrell died in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1891 and was buried in that city's Oakland Cemetery.