John Basil Lamar
Col. John Basil Lamer, aide-de-camp of General Howell Cobb, his brother-in-law and close friend, was mortally wounded on September 14, 1862 while vainly trying to rally Cobb´s Brigade it Crampton´s Gap, Maryland. After temporary burial in Charles Town, Virginia, he was later reinterred here at Rose Hill.
His adult life was identified with Macon were he settled in 1830. He resided on Walnut Street in the Abner house, known as "The Bears Den". He was master of the great cotton planting empire in 14 counties in Georgia and Florida, a practical and intelligent agriculturalist, trustee of the University of Georgia, vestryman at Christ Episcopal Church, cousin of U.S. Supreme Court Justice L. Q. C. Lamar and Texas President Mirabeau Lamar, devoted brother of Mary Ann Lamar Cobb, and manager of Howell Cobb´s business affairs while Cobb pursued a political career,
He has found a lasting reputation today as a writer. His popular humorous sketches have been considered on a par with the Augustus Baldwin Longstreet´s George´s Scenes. He was, like Longstreet, a founder and practitioner of both the schools of Realism in America and genre of Southern Humor.
He is remembered as a loyal son of the South, which he defended with sword, voice and pen.
Erected by the Athens Historical Society, 1994
Plaque courtesy Lat34North.com.
Original page, with additional info, here.
Photo credit: David Seibert.