Two Georgia Governors

In Alta Vista Cemetery are buried two Georgia governors who also served as officers in the Confederate Army. James Milton Smith (1823-1890), a lawyer, entered the Civil War as Captain of the 13th Ga. Inf. and rose to Colonel. After resigning from the army in Dec., 1863, he became a Georgia delegate to the Confederate Congress in 1864-65, served as Speaker of the Ga. House of Representatives in 1871, was elected Governor in 1872 to fulfill Gov. Bullock's unexpired term, was reelected and served until 1877, and later became Judge of the Superior Court, Chattahoochee Circuit. Allen Daniel Candler (1834-1910), a graduate of Mercer University, taught school before entering the war as a Private and rising to Lieutenant Colonel in the 4th Ga. Reserves. He served in both houses of the Ga. Legislature, in the U.S. Congress, as Ga. Secretary of State, and as Governor of Ga. from 1898-1902, and later compiled the Colonial, Revolutionary, and Confederate Records of Ga. by authority of the Legislature.

Gainesville, Georgia · United States