James M. Gee (1813–1869)

James M. Gee, a farmer from Camden (Ouachita County), served the Confederacy during the Civil War as a regimental commander in the Fifteenth Arkansas Infantry until August 1862, when he resigned due to health issues, later serving in the Trans-Mississippi Department. The reorganized regiment eventually came to be known as the Fifteenth (Johnson’s) Arkansas Infantry.

James Madison Gee was born on March 5, 1813, in South Carolina; no information exists about his childhood and early years. He married Louise M. Standifer in 1837, and had moved to Marshall County, Alabama, by 1840. The couple had two children, with his wife dying after giving birth to the second.

During the Mexican War (1846–1848), Gee commanded Gee’s Independent Company of Alabama Mounted Volunteers, which mustered into service in June 1847 for the duration of the war, serving under General Winfield Scott. Gee’s company saw action in Mexico on the Rio Grande at Vera Cruz, Alvarado, Tampico, and Jalapa (also known as Cerro Gordo) before returning to Marshall County in 1848.

By 1850, Gee had married Angelina Weatherly in Alabama, and they had two children. Around 1852, the Gee family relocated to Ouachita County in Arkansas and established a farm near Camden.

Prior to the secession of Arkansas, Gee served as a captain commanding Company H, Third Arkansas Cavalry, Arkansas Militia. After secession, the unit became a Confederate unit, Company H, Third Arkansas Cavalry, with Gee elected lieutenant colonel, but he resigned in September 1861 for health issues. On January 2, 1862, Gee was elected colonel of the recently organized infantry regiment raised by Captain John L. Logan and designated as the Fifteenth Arkansas Infantry. [Due to the existence of another Fifteenth Arkansas Infantry, Gee’s regiment was known at that time as the Fifteenth (Gee’s) Arkansas Infantry; it would later become the Fifteenth (Johnson’s) Arkansas Infantry.] The regiment was ordered to Western Tennessee, initially manning Fort Heiman on the Kentucky shore of the Tennessee River. Upon the advance of the Union army under Ulysses S. Grant, Gee and his troops relocated to Fort Henry on the Tennessee River but were soon forced to abandon that location as well, retreating to Fort Donelson on the Cumberland River. Here, along with most Confederate forces, Gee and the Fifteenth Arkansas surrendered on February 16, 1862, and were sent north as prisoners of war. Gee was sent to Camp Chase, Ohio, in March and eventually to Fort Warren in Boston Harbor. On July 31, 1862, Gee was released for exchange but did not stand for reelection upon the reorganization of the Fifteenth Arkansas due to health problems and returned home to Arkansas.

Gee served in some unknown capacity in Arkansas until the end of the war, returning to his farming endeavors at its end. He died on October 22, 1869, and is interred in Greenwood Cemetery in Camden.

For additional information:
“Died.” Arkansas Gazette, October 30, 1869, p. 2.

Downs, Bobby N. Arkansas Fifteenth, Gee-Johnson, Regiment Infantry, 1861–1865. Arkadelphia, AR: Clark County Historical Society, 1998.

“LTC James Madison Gee.” Find a Grave. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/260676290/james_madison-gee (accessed May 6, 2026).

Willis, James. Arkansas Confederates in the Western Theater. Dayton, OH: Morningside Press, 1998.

Anthony Rushing
Benton, Arkansas