2.2 John Basil Lamar

Scope and content:

This subseries includes correspondence, financial, and business documents regarding John B. Lamar and his family. The correspondence is both to and from John B. Lamar; however, correspondence with Howell Cobb are found in series 1 and correspondence with Mary Ann Lamar Cobb is found in series 3.5.There are many letters between John B. Lamar, his brother Andrew Jackson Lamar, and the children of Howell and Mary Ann Cobb. Included are letters and financial documents regarding plantation administration, including Hurricane Plantation, and agriculture.

Biographical / historical:

John Basil Lamar, brother of Mary Ann Lamar Cobb and brother-in-law of Governor Howell Cobb, was born in 1812, the son of Col. Zachariah Lamar and Mary Ann Robinson of Milledgeville, Georgia. He attended Dr. Beman's school at Mount Zion, GA and Franklin College (now University of Georgia) at Athens in 1827, and moved to a plantation near Macon, Bibb County, GA in 1830. John Basil Lamar became a member of the Georgia Legislature in 1837 and 1838 and was elected to 28th Congress as a Democrat, but resigned in July 1843. He then resumed the management of his plantations which extended throughout central and southwest Georgia and into Florida. He became a Trustee of University of Georgia, 1855-1858. He became a member of Georgia Secession Convention in 1861 and a Colonel in the Confederate States Army on the staff of his brother-in-law, General Howell Cobb. John Basil Lamar was mortally wounded at the battle of Cramptons Gap, Maryland on 15 September 1862.

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