• Born November 19, 1831 in Orange County Ohio (Western Reserve, about 20 miles south of Cleveland, OH, near Zanesville); in log cabin of parents, Abram and Eliza Boynton Garfield.

• His father died in 1833 from smoke damage suffered while fighting a large forest fire near their home.
• Both parents had been baptized into the Christian/Disciples-of-Christ/Church-of-Christ before Jim’s birth – probably about 1820-1825 by Walter Scott or his fellow evangelists in NE Ohio.
• His uncle, Amos Boynton, established a local congregation of Disciples in the local schoolhouse and served as minister there.
• Jim’s mother gave following explanation of the Restoration church in America – " Some years before your father and I were married, there came to America a young man named Alexander Campbell. He was only nineteen years old when he and his family moved from Ireland. They came in search of religious freedom. You see, some people in Ireland had been hurt and some had been killed because of their religion. The Campbell family belonged to the Presbyterian Church. Thomas Campbell and his son believed that men had written too many church laws and creeds. The more creeds they had the more trouble there was. Alexander and his father wanted to return to the Bible for their only creed. Many people believed as the Campbell family did, so they formed a church and called themselves "Disciples of Christ/Church of Christ".

• Attended school at Geauga Seminary for three years, Chester, Cuyahoga Co. Ohio; worked for board and lodging.
• The red-headed lad worked in August, 1848 for about a month towing barges with a pair of mules along the Erie Canal for summer wages. He nearly drowned three times and contracted malaria before returning home.
• Wore ragged, thin clothes as he was very poor, self supporting; sent any extra earnings to his mother.
• A visiting preacher was holding meetings in a neighborhood school house, and on March 4, 1850, Garfield wrote that in the Chagrin River, he "was buried with Christ in baptism, and arose to walk in newness of life."
• Taught grade school at age 18 during the winter term in Muskingum County, Ohio, while still attending Geuga Seminary (Baptist).
• In 1851 enrolled in Western Reserve Eclectic Institute (a Church of Christ school), Hiram, Ohio; he studied there for three years, and was a student-teacher, leading classes in Greek, grammar, arithmetic and penmanship.
• In February 1852 he taught school in Warrensville, Ohio.
• During 1853, he often served as pulpit minister at Hiram and at other churches in the county.

• The Principal at Hiram advised him to attend an Eastern school, so he chose to attend Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts. He enrolled July 1854 at age 22. He tested well and was entered as a Junior classman. He graduated with high honors in the Class of 1856.
• After graduation from Williams College, Jim returns in 1857 as an instructor at Hiram (Western Reserve Institute). After a year of teaching, he was made President of the school.
• Here’s an excerpt from his counsel to a farmer to let his boy continue in school to get an education – the father took the position that his son didn’t need more school but was needed instead on the farm.

The farmer said – "He’s got eddication enough for a farmer already; and I notice that when they git too much, they sorter git lazy. Henry’s got so far ‘long now that he’d rather hev his head in a book than be workin’. Everybody else in this world ‘pends on the farmer, and I think that we’ve got too many eddicated fellers settin’ round now for the farmers to support".

Jim stroked his chin thoughtfully. "I’m sorry to hear you talk so," he said, "for I consider Henry one of my brightest students. I’ve taken a very deep interest in him. If he is permitted to complete the next fall term, he will be far enough advanced so that he can teach school in the winter and begin to help himself and you along. He can earn very little on the farm in the winter, and he can get very good wages teaching." As you might expect, Henry continued with his schoolwork and indeed became a teacher.

• Was set to preach in 1856 at the Congregational Church in Newbury, OH, but some church leaders padlocked the door as they were concerned about his liberal views on science and religion. So he spoke to a number who gathered around in the church-yard. As a result of this event, a local man named Anson Mathews donated land and other pitched in to build Newbury Chapel of Free Speech devoted to "freedom of speech and religion". Later, many noted people also spoke in this Chapel including Susan B. Anthony, Louisa M. Alcott and John B. Gough (three times candidate for President on the Prohibition ticket).
• Debated a Professor Denton who advocated that the Bible was a collection of "fairy-tales"; Jim studied the books Denton was quoting, got some views from others and "tore Denton’s arguments to shreds", giving page number and chapter of Denton’s books, other sources, etc. Denton was so flustered, he couldn’t give a coherent closing speech and just sat down.
• Preached at Churches of Christ (Disciples) in Ohio, Pennsylvania and New York.
• In 1859, he began an apprenticeship in law under Messrs. Williamson and Riddle of Cleveland.
• Later in October, 1859, Jim was elected as a State Senator to the Ohio Legislature.
• In 1860, James A. Garfield was admitted to practice law into the Ohio Bar.

• After the firing upon Ft. Sumpter, President Abraham Lincoln called for an initial 75,000 volunteers for military duty. Jim was one of the volunteers, so on August 14, 1861 the governor of Ohio offered Jim the commission of Lt. Colonel of the Forty-Second Ohio Regiment. He was sent to Camp Chase to begin military training.

• Several months later, Jim was sent to recruit soldiers and he held a meeting at Hiram Institute. On that day, his persuasive speaking resulted in raising a whole company of recruits, with sixty of them being Hiram students. His recruitment meetings were similar to revival meetings; by November of 1861, he had raised a regiment of 1009 men and was promoted to full rank of Colonel.
• Serving under Major General D.C. Buell, Jim developed a plan to rid eastern Kentucky of the Confederates through an expedition into Big Sandy Valley on December 14, 1861. The excursion was successful with CSA General Marshall withdrawing from Kentucky. Later, Jim reflected upon how foolhardy his plan was; even so, luck was with Jim. Abraham Lincoln was impressed, as gave Jim a promotion to Brigadier General; he was thus the youngest General in the Union Army.

• On April 5, 1862 the battle of Shiloh began. At the end of a very bloody day, men of both blue and gray lay end-to-end in every direction as far as one could see over nearly 30 square miles of battlefield.

• Following Shiloh, Garfield’s brigade was assigned to rebuilding the Memphis & Chattanooga railroad from Corinth into Huntsville, Alabama. His brigade laid down the musket to handle the sledgehammer, cross-ties and rails.

• After contracting malaria while headquartered in Huntsville, Alabama (said at the time to be the most beautiful town in America), Jim was elected by his home district to the US House of Representatives at age 31. Jim left for Washington and served but was discouraged by indecision and lack of authority. He soon returned to the army.
• Even though General Rosecrans was sceptical of having a Campbellite preacher on his staff, Jim was appointed in February, 1863, by Major General Rosecrans to be his Chief-of-Staff of the Army of the Cumberland. This army was headquartered in 1863 at Murfreesboro, Tennessee (the former Chief having been killed by having his head severed by a cannonball at the battle of Stones River). It was from here that General Jim would visit Mooresville, Alabama Union encampment and hospital and accepted the invitation to preach one or two Sundays at the small Mooresville Church of Christ.
• Garfield organized a force of army police and spies. It was said that no commander during the war had more exact and detailed information of the enemy than did Garfield. His police furnished him with the political status of every family in that section of the state.



• Rosecrans and Garfield planned the battle of Chickamauga, or Chattanooga and the general advance was ordered on August 16, 1863 for the army of 80,000 men. Garfield took personal responsibility of a tricky Tennessee River crossing for the entire force that was accomplished at Bridgeport, Alabama. Later, he would place himself in great danger as the Army of the Cumberland squared off against a similar size force led by General Bragg. The battle situated on top of Lookout Mountain, raged back and forth and Jim thought a Union victory was near. Rosecrans instead decided upon retreat. After a stand-off, Rosecrans took the Army headquarters over to Chattanooga as Garfield was responsible for bringing the Union troops safely, with dangerous personal exposure, back across the Tennessee River into a more defensible position at Chattanooga.
• In the report of the Battle of Chickamauga to the War Department, General Rosecrans wrote, "To Brigadier General James A. Garfield, chief of staff, I am especially indebted for the clear and ready manner in which he seized the points of action and movement, and expressed in orders the ideas of the general commanding."
• In October of 1863, Jim was ordered to Washington D.C. and had several interviews with President Lincoln concerning the military situation at Chattanooga. Lincoln promoted Jim to Major General, saying, "I wish to commend you for your clear thinking and wise action during battle"; the citation read, "For gallant and meritorious services in the battle of Chickamauga". [It was Generals Grant and Sherman who would finally win the battle at Chattanooga by taking Missionary Ridge and scaling the heights of Lookout Mountain; it was Phil Sheridan who captured much of the Confederate artillery and then turned those guns upon the CSA army.]
• President Lincoln urged Jim to remain in Washington and take his seat in Congress.

• Jim was under pressure for the 1864 election to Congress. Many Ohioans now opposed him because he had voted for the Thirteenth Amendment, abolishing slavery. And he had been in favor of equal pay for Negro soldiers. He was also accused of criticizing Lincoln’s War Policies. He told his constituents that he must go to Congress a free man and if they were unwilling to grant him freedom on opinion then they should vote against him. He was re-elected. Jim served in Congress for 17 years.
• General Robert E. Lee surrendered him Armies on April 10, 1865. The war was won !
• On April 15, 1865, his friend, President Abraham Lincoln, was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth.
• Jim was a fiscal conservative, and led the fight to have the money of the USA backed by gold.
• Jim was an advocate for improving education in the USA. He told the National Teachers Association that "you build palatial school houses with domes and towers; supply them with everything beautiful ... then put puny men inside. The important thing is not the building or what is taught but the teacher."
• Jim visited the Indian tribes in the American West and made many fast friends among the Indian chiefs because he kept his word.



• He was accused of taking a bribe of stock from the Union Pacific Railroad (organized and run by General Buell), but the charges proved untrue and he was fully cleared.
• In the year 1880, Jim was elected to the US Senate by the Legislature of Ohio. He was also to go to the National Republican Convention. After resistance to President Grant running for another term became widespread, Jim was finally nominated to be President on the 36^th ballot. Final voting by the convention was: Garfield 399; Grant 306; Blaine 42; Washburne 5; Sherman 3. Garfield had not wanted his name placed before the convention and said "I feel like a traitor" by displacing Sherman who he went to the convention to support.



• James Abram Garfield was elected President of the United States in the November, 1880 elections.
• He instituted the American Red Cross under Clara Barton.

• Throughout the years, the Garfields remained loyal to the Disciples of Christ and every Sunday they attended services in their modest chapel in Washington – much to the chagrin of the White House coachman. It embarrassed him to leave the presidential coach in front of such a small, insignificant church. In fact, after the family went inside, the coachman drove on up the street and waited outside a more elegant church.

• He continued to the end as an active member of the Board of Trustees of Hiram College, aka Western Reserve Eclectic Institute (a Church of Christ/Disciples college).

General Jim, by Hazel H. Davis, The Bethany Press, 1958

The Wild Life of the Army, Civil War Letters of James Abram Garfield; edited by F.D. Williams, 1964

Works of James Abram Garfield, by Bruce A. Hinsdale

Politics and Patronage in the Guilded Age; the Correspondence of James A. Garfield & Charles E. Henry

Life and Work of James A. Garfield, by John Clark Ridpath, 1881

James A. Garfield, by Edwin P. Hoyt, 1964

James A. Garfield, His Life and Times, by Richard L. McElroy, 1986

Garfield of Ohio, The Available Man, by John M. Taylor

Garfield Orbit, by Margaret Leech

President Garfield and Education, Hiram College, by B. Hinsdale

James A. Garfield, Party Chieftain, by Robt. Granville Caldwell, 1965