Son of Elam Farmer¹⁾ and Hepzibah “Hepsie” Harrison²⁾, James “Jim” Monroe Farmer was born on Nov. 14, 1833 in Franklin County, Georgia.³⁾

On January 15, 1857, James M. Farmer (at age 23) married Elizabeth “Bettie” Harrison, age 19 (May 15, 1837 - Feb. 14, 1901)⁴⁾ in Franklin County, Georgia.⁵⁾

They had the following children:

1. Thomas W. Farmer (1860 - April 20, 1946)⁶⁾
2. William Farmer (1862 - )
3. Ruth Ella Farmer (June 24, 1863 - )
4. Hepsa Emma Farmer (1866 - )
5. Susan Elizabeth Farmer
6. James Terrell Farmer (March 5, 1871 - March 20, 1930)⁷⁾
7. Henry L. Farmer (1872/73 - )
8. Mary Catherine Farmer-Aderhold (Aug. 22, 1875 - June 23, 1949)⁸⁾
9. Nancy Luanna Farmer-Sewell (Aug. 17, 1877 - May 31, 1944)⁹⁾

[]

[]

On January 19, 1861, 293 delegates to the Georgia Secession Convention at the statehouse in Milledgeville, Georgia, met to vote on the “Ordinance of Secession” (to announce Georgia's formal secession from the United States of America). The vote was 208 yeas 89 nays on January 19, 1861 to ratify the “Ordinance of Secession”. The “Ordinance of Secession” was signed on January 21, 1861 and enacted on January 22, 1861.¹⁰⁾ This was followed by the “Georgia Declaration of Secession” listing the causes leading to the secession.

[]

The term “War of Northern Aggression” is used here because that is likely what the war was called by our Southern ancestors (or “War for Southern Independence”). While the term “Civil War” was used by Abraham Lincoln during multiple occasions – and the U.S. Supreme Court (The Brig Amy Warwick, et al., 67 U.S. 635, 636, 673 (1862)) during the war, it is entirely incorrect.

Officially, the U.S. Congress used the term “The War between the States” in a report to the Senate on joint resolution No. 41, printed in the Congressional Record of March 2, 1928, on page 4061. However, the National Park Service, the government organization entrusted by the United States Congress to preserve the battlefields of the war, uses the term “Civil War”.

Shortly after passage of “The Conscription Act”, James Morris Farmer (then age 29) volunteered to serve in the Confederate 34th Infantry Regiment, Co. G on May 12, 1862 in Carnsville, GA (Franklin County).¹¹⁾

This was the same day that Anderson Smith Randal and his Brother-in-law, Elisha (Eli) W. Mitchell (sometimes appearing as Mitchael) joined the same unit.

James Morris Farmer entered with the rank of 2nd Sergeant.

[]

[] Organized in May, 1862, at Camp McDonald, near Marietta, Georgia, the 34th Infantry Regiment recruited its members in the counties of Bartow, Cherokee, Floyd, Franklin, Polk, Cobb, Paulding, Carroll, Haralson, and Jackson. The unit was sent to Tennessee, then Mississippi where it was assigned to T.H. Taylor's Brigade, Department of Mississippi and East Louisiana. It participated in the battle at Champion's Hill (which the Confederates referred to as “The Battle of Baker's Creek”) and was captured at Vicksburg on July 4, 1863. Exchanged and reorganized, the 34th Infantry Regiment was placed in General Cummings' Brigade, Army of Tennessee. The 34th was active in many engagements from Chattanooga to Nashville, and ended the war in North Carolina. It reported 34 casualties at Chattanooga, contained 369 men and 266 arms in December, 1863, and had 219 fit for duty in January, 1865. Very few surrendered in April. The field commanders were Colonel J.A.W. Johnson, Lieutenant Colonel J.W. Bradley, and Majors Thomas T. Dorough and John M. Jackson.
Muster Roll of Company G, 34th Regiment, Georgia Volunteer Infantry.

Campaign: Grant's Operations Against Vicksburg
Date(s): March-July 1863
Principal Commanders:
Lieutenant General Ulysses Grant [US]
Lieutenant General John Pemberton [CS]
Following the Union occupation of Jackson, Mississippi, both Confederate and Federal forces made plans for future operations. Gen. Joseph E. Johnston (CSA) retreated, with most of his army, up the Canton Road, but he ordered Lt. Gen. John C. Pemberton (CSA), commanding about 23,000 men, to leave Edwards Station and attack the Federals at Clinton.

Pemberton and his generals felt that Johnston's plan was dangerous and decided instead to attack the Union supply trains moving from Grand Gulf to Raymond. On May 16, though, Pemberton received another order from Johnston repeating his former directions. Pemberton had already started after the supply trains and was on the Raymond-Edwards Road with his rear at the crossroads one-third mile south of the crest of Champion Hill. Thus, when he ordered a countermarch, his rear, including his many supply wagons, became the advance of his force.

On May 16, 1863, about 7:00 am, the Union forces engaged the Confederates and the “Battle of Champion Hill” (Union) / “Bakers Creek” (CSA) began. Pemberton's force drew up into a defensive line along a crest of a ridge overlooking Jackson Creek. Pemberton was unaware that one Union column was moving along the Jackson Road against his unprotected left flank. For protection, Pemberton posted Brig. Gen. Stephen D. Lee's men atop Champion Hill where they could watch for the reported Union column moving to the crossroads. Lee spotted the Union troops and they soon saw him. If this force was not stopped, it would cut the Confederate forces off from their Vicksburg base. Pemberton received warning of the Union movement and sent troops to his left flank. Union forces at the Champion House moved into action and emplaced artillery to begin firing. When Grant arrived at Champion Hill, around 10:00 am, he ordered the attack to begin. By 11:30 am, Union forces had reached the Confederate main line – and about 1:00 pm, they took the crest while the Confederate forces retired in disorder. The Federals advanced, capturing the crossroads and closing the Jackson Road escape route.

One of Pemberton's divisions (Bowen's) then counterattacked, pushing the Federals back beyond the Champion Hill crest before their surge came to a halt. Grant then counter-attacked, committing forces that had just arrived from Clinton by way of Bolton. Pemberton's men could not stand up to this assault, so he ordered his men from the field to the one escape route still open: the Raymond Road crossing of Bakers Creek. CSA Brig. Gen. Lloyd Tilghman's brigade formed the rearguard, and they held at all costs, including the loss of Tilghman. In the late afternoon, Union troops seized the Bakers Creek Bridge, and by midnight, they occupied Edwards. The Confederate forces were forced to retreat towards Vicksburg.

Anderson Smith Randal was among those captured on May 16, 1863 by Union forces. Georgia Casualties At Champion Hill (Baker’s Creek).pdf

Results: Union Victory / Confederate Defeat
Estimated Casualties: 6,281 total (US 2,441; CS 3,840)

Campaign: Grant's Operations Against Vicksburg (Union)
Date(s): March-July 1863
Principal Commanders:
Lieutenant General Ulysses Grant [US]
Lieutenant General John Pemberton [CS]
In May and June of 1863, Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant's armies converged on Vicksburg, investing the city and entrapping a Confederate army under Lt. Gen. John Pemberton. On July 4, Vicksburg surrendered after prolonged siege operations. With the loss of Pemberton's army and this vital stronghold on the Mississippi, the Confederacy was effectively split in half. Grant's successes in the West boosted his reputation, leading ultimately to his appointment as General-in-Chief of the Union armies.

Results: Union Victory / Significant Confederate Defeat
Estimated Casualties: 37,532 total (US 4,835; CS 32,697)

Campaign: Chickamauga Campaign (Union)
Date(s): August-September 1863
Principal Commanders:
Colonel John Wilder [US]
Colonel Daniel Hill [CS]
On August 16, 1863, Maj. Gen. William S. Rosecrans, commander of the Army of the Cumberland (Union), launched a campaign to take Chattanooga. Col. John T. Wilder's brigade of the Union 4th Division, XIV Army Corps marched to a location northeast of Chattanooga where the Confederates could see them, reinforcing Gen. Braxton Bragg's expectations of a Union attack on the town from that direction.

On August 21, Wilder reached the Tennessee River opposite Chattanooga and ordered the 18th Indiana Light Artillery to begin shelling the town. The shells caught many soldiers and civilians in town in church observing a day of prayer and fasting. The bombardment sank two steamers docked at the landing and created a great deal of consternation amongst the Confederates. Continued periodically over the next two weeks, the shelling helped keep Bragg's attention to the northeast while the bulk of Rosecrans's Union army crossed the Tennessee River well west and south of Chattanooga. When Bragg learned on September 8 that the Union army was in force southwest of the city, he abandoned Chattanooga.

Results: Union Victory

Campaign: Savannah Campaign
Date(s): September-December 1864
Principal Commanders:
Major General George Thomas [US]
General John Hood [CS]
In a last desperate attempt to force Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman's army out of Georgia, Gen. John Bell Hood (CSA) led the Army of Tennessee north toward Nashville in November 1864. Although he suffered terrible losses at Franklin on November 30, he continued toward Nashville. By the next day, the various elements of Maj. Gen. George H. Thomas's army (Union) had reached Nashville. Hood reached the outskirts of Nashville on December 2, occupied positions on a line of hills parallel to those of the Union and began erecting fieldworks.

Union Army Engineer, Brig. Gen. James St. Clair Morton, had overseen the construction of sophisticated fortifications at Nashville in 1862-63, strengthened by others, which would soon see use. From the 1st through the 14th, Thomas (Union) made preparations for the Battle of Nashville in which he intended to destroy Hood's army. On the night of December 14, Thomas informed Maj. Gen. Henry W. Halleck, acting as Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant's chief of staff, that he would attack the next day. Thomas planned to strike both of Hood's flanks.

Before daylight on the 15th, the first of the Union troops, led by Maj. Gen. James Steedman, set out to hit the Confederate right. The attack was made and the Union forces held down one Confederate corps there for the rest of the day. Attack on the Confederate left did not begin until after noon when a charge commenced on Montgomery Hill. With this charge's success, attacks on other parts of the Confederate left commenced, all eventually successful. By this time it was dark and fighting stopped for the day. Although battered and with a much smaller battle line, Gen. Hood (CSA) was still confident. He established a main line of resistance along the base of a ridge about two miles south of the former location, throwing up new works and fortifying Shy's and Overton's hills on their flanks. The IV Army Corps (Union) marched out to within 250 yards, in some places, of the Confederate's new line and began constructing fieldworks. During the rest of the morning, other Union troops moved out toward the new Confederate line and took up positions opposite it. The Union attack began against Hood's strong right flank on Overton's Hill. The same brigade that had taken Montgomery Hill the day before received the nod for the charge up Overton's Hill. This charge failed, but other troops (Maj. Gen. A.J. Smith's “Israelites”) successfully assaulted Shy's Hill in their fronts. Seeing the success along the line, other Union troops charged up Overton's Hill and took it. Hood's army retreated, but the Union army pursued. For ten days, the pursuit continued until the beaten and battered Army of Tennessee recrossed the Tennessee River. Hood's army was stalled at Columbia, beaten at Franklin, and routed at Nashville. Hood retreated to Tupelo and resigned his command.

Results: Union Victory
Estimated Casualties: 9,561 total (US 3,061; CS 6,500)

Following the strategic defeat the Army of Tennessee had suffered at Bentonville, North Carolina, 21 March, 1865 the army retired before Major General William T. Sherman's forces, about twice their numbers. At Goldsborough on 24 March, 1865 the Federal army swelled to 80,000 men when Major General John M. Schofield's force joined with that of Sherman. When Sherman resumed his march northwards on 10 April, 1865 Johnston followed him having no illusions about being able to stop him on his march through North Carolina. While en route Johnston learned of the evacuation of Petersburg and Richmond, Virginia, and of the Army of Northern Virginia's surrender at Appomattox, Virginia. This brought to an end the hope of joining the two Confederate armies together to defeat first one then the other of their opponents.

Upon arriving near Raleigh, North Carolina, Johnston first attempted to have North Carolina Governor Zebulon Baird Vance broach surrender terms to Sherman. A task that he refused. On 12 April he went to Greensborough to meet with Confederate States President Jefferson Finis Davis from whom he obtained permission to open a peace initiative. Sherman was immediately receptive to peace negotiations and so on 17 April, 1865 he met with Johnston near Durham Station, North Carolina. During the two day conference, at the home of James Bennett, terms were agreed that were acceptable to both Generals. But after submitting them to Washington for approval they were quickly rejected.

Johnston was informed that unless more widely acceptable terms were reached a four day Armistice would end on 26 April 1865. So once again the two army Commanders met at the James Bennett home and thrashed out an agreement that gave the same terms that the Army of Northern Virginia had accepted. This was acceptable to the Washington government and on 3 May, 1865 the Army of Tennessee, with 29,924 troops, laid down its arms.

This included the Confederate 34th Infantry Regiment, Co. G, in Anderson, S.C., of which Anderson Smith Randal was attached.

Under the Reconstruction Act of 1867, Confederate veterans were required to take an oath of allegiance to the United States of America.

[]

[]

[]

As indicated by the U.S. Census, during 1880, James M. Farmer's family lived next door to a son of Anderson Smith Randal, Elisha Burrell Randall. Seven years later, his brother, Thomas Watson Randall, would marry James M. Farmer's daughter, Rutha Ella Farmer.

[]

[]

James M. Farmer died on June 10, 1915. He was buried at “Clarks Creek Baptist Church Cemetery” in Martin (Franklin County), Georgia.¹²⁾

[]