Gartrell was a lawyer, judge, and Georgia congressman, serving in the US House of Representatives from 1857-Jan. 1861 before he enlisted as Colonel of the 7th Georgia Infantry on May 31, 1861, a unit he organized. Gartrell led the unit at Manassas/ (Bull Run), where his 16 year old son, Henry C. Gartrell, was wounded, dying a week later. Gartrell resigned his commission on January 3, 1862 to take his elected seat in the Confederate Congress. On August 22, 1864, he accepted a commission as Brigadier-General of the 2nd Brigade of the Georgia Reserves. He was wounded on January 15, 1865, leading his brigade at Coosawhatchie, South Carolina while trying to halt Sherman's army on its March to the Sea. This wound disabled him and he spent the rest of the war at home in Augusta, Georgia.
After the war, he moved to Atlanta and resumed his legal and political careers. He died April 8, 1891 and is buried in Atlanta's Oakwood Cemetery.
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