Home › C › Chalmers, James Ronald

Chalmers, James Ronald

soldier, lawyer, legislator, was born June 11, 1831, in Halifax county, Va., is the son of Joseph W. Chalmers, a noted United States senator from Mississippi. He removed to Mississippi; attended school at Holly Springs, and graduated at the South Carolina college in 1851; studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1853; was elected district attorney of the seventh judicial district of Mississippi in 1858; was a member of the secession convention of Mississippi in 1861; was promoted brigadier-general in 1862; and was transferred to the cavalry service in 1863. He surrendered in May, 1865, in command of the first division of Forrest's cavalry army corps, composed of Armstrong's, Adams' and Stark's brigades. General Chalmers was a member of the state senate of Mississippi in 1876 and 1877; was elected to the forty-fifth congress, and was re-elected to the fortysixth congress as a democrat, and reelected to the forty-seventh and fortyeighth congresses as a democrat. He died in 1898.