Hiram Parks Bell

Colonel, CSA & Confederate Congressman, Georgia, 1864-1865

Born: January 19, 1827, near Jefferson, Jackson County, Georgia.

• Attended the public schools at Cumming, Forsyth County, Georgia.
  
• Taught school for two years, during which time he studied law.
  
• Admitted to the bar in 1849, and commenced practice in Cumming, Georgia.
  
• Member of the Secession Convention in 1861, opposing the Secession Ordinance.
  
• Commissioner from Georgia to solicit the cooperation of Tennessee in the formation of a Southern Confederacy.
  
• Member of the Georgia State Senate, 1861, but resigned to enter the Confederate Army.
  
• During the Civil War was commissioned Captain, later promoted to Lieutenant Colonel and Colonel of the Forty-third Georgia Regiment.
  
• Member of the Second Confederate Congress, 1864-1865.
  
• Presidential elector from Georgia on the Democratic ticket of Seymour and Blair, 1868.
  
• Member of the Georgia Democratic State Executive Committee, 1868-1871.
  
• Elected from Georgia as a Democrat to the Forty-third U. S. Congress, March 4, 1873 - March 3, 1875.
  
• Delegate from Georgia to the Democratic National Convention at St. Louis, Missouri, 1876.
  
• Was chosen at large as a member of the Democratic National Committee from Georgia.
  
• Elected to the Forty-fifth U. S. Congress to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Benjamin H. Hill, serving from March 13, 1877 - March 3, 1879.
  
• Unsuccessful candidate for renomination, 1878.
  
• Member of the Georgia State House of Representatives, 1898-1899.
  
• Served in the Georgia State Senate, 1900-1901.

Died: August 17, 1907, Atlanta, Georgia.
Buried: Cumming Cemetery, Cumming, Georgia.

(Source: U.S. Congress. House. Biographical Directory Of The American Congress 1774-1949, 85th Cong., 2nd sess., H. Doc. 607 (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1950), pp. 759-2057.)