James Monroe Wells

{{Short description|American politician, soldier and author}} {{Use mdy dates|date=April 2025}} '''James Monroe Wells''' (1837–1918) was an author, Union Army officer, and politician. He wrote ''The Chisolm Massacre; A picture of "home rule" in Mississippi'' about the [[Chisolm Massacre]]. [[James Daniel Lynch]] responded with an account blaming [[Radical Republican]]s titled ''Kemper County Vindicated, And a Peep at Radical Rule in Mississippi''. Wells served as a state senator in Idaho.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tCZPhCQ7YCcC&dq=james+m.+wells+mississippi+idaho&pg=PA1177|title=Congressional Record: Containing the Proceedings and Debates of the ... Congress|date=May 4, 1892|publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office|via=Google Books}}</ref>

Lucinda D. Wells and Samuel Percival Wells were his parents.<ref name=authors/> Wells was born in [[Erie County, New York]] and moved to Michigan with his family at age two. He grew up on a farm.<ref name="lib">{{Cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=db9CAQAAMAAJ&dq=james+m.+wells+mississippi+idaho&pg=PA528|title=Campbell's Illustrated History of the World's Columbian Exposition|first=James B.|last=Campbell|date=May 4, 1894|publisher=Carothers Pub.|via=Google Books}}</ref> He studied at [[Kalamazoo College]], and became a teacher. He served in the Union Army as a cavalry officer. He was twice captured.<ref name=authors/> He and others escaped through a tunnel from [[Libby Prison]].<ref name=lib/> He married Delphene Bartholomew in 1866.<ref name="authors"/>

[[File:"With touch of elbow;" or, Death before dishonor; a thrilling narrative of adventure on land and sea (1909) (14576062438).jpg|thumb|View of [[Andersonville National Cemetery]] from his autobiography ''With Touch of Elbow'']] He came to Mississippi in 1868 for a Federal revenue position and was a Republican leader in [[Kemper County, Mississippi]].<ref name=authors/> He moved to Idaho in 1884 and served as a state senator in its first legislature.<ref name="lib"/> His autobiography titled ''With Touch of Elbow'' was published in 1909.<ref name=authors>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RfXGJBB1HvoC&q=James+Monroe+Wells&pg=PA458|title=Lives of Mississippi Authors, 1817–1967|page=458|last=Lloyd|first=James B.|publisher=University of Mississippi Press|date=1981|isbn=9781617034183 }}</ref>

==Writings== *''The Chisholm massacre : a picture of "home rule" in Mississippi.'' *''Tunneling out of Libby Prison : a Michigan lieutenant's account of his own imprisonment and daring escape'' *''With touch of elbow or, death before dishonor : a thrilling narrative of adventure on land and sea'' by James M Wells; United States. Army. Michigan Cavalry Regiment, 8th (1862–1865)

==References== {{Reflist}}

==External links== *{{findagrave|104375141}} {{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wells, James Monroe}} [[Category:Idaho state senators]] [[Category:People from Erie County, New York]] [[Category:American autobiographers]] [[Category:1837 births]] [[Category:1918 deaths]] [[Category:Kalamazoo College alumni]] [[Category:People of Michigan in the American Civil War]] [[Category:Mississippi Republicans]] [[Category:Idaho Republicans]] [[Category:Schoolteachers from Michigan]] [[Category:People from Kemper County, Mississippi]] [[Category:19th-century American educators]] [[Category:19th-century American male writers]] [[Category:Union army officers]] [[Category:20th-century American male writers]] [[Category:19th-century American biographers]] [[Category:American escapees]] [[Category:American Civil War prisoners of war]] [[Category:Escapees from Virginia detention]] [[Category:Escapees from United States military detention]]