The Simms family of Covington, Georgia included Richard Lee Simms, Jerusha Bonner Simms and their five children: Sarah Lee, Lucy Jane (1845-1919), James Philip (1837-1887), Richard Lee Jr. (1838-1862), and Arthur Benjamin (1842-1887). All three sons served in the Confederate Army during the Civil War. James Phillip Simms was born January 1, 1837. He married Mary Lucy Bates on April 20, 1860, and had two children, Jimmie Jr. and Alice Lee. He enlisted in the 53rd Regiment of the Georgia Volunteer Infantry and achieved the position of Brigadier General before being captured by the Union Army on April 6, 1865. He was held at Fort Warren near Boston before being released on July 24, 1865. After the war he returned to his law practice. James Phillip Simms died on May 30, 1887. Richard Lee Simms, Jr. was born on July 10, 1838. He married Lucy Hyde Branch from Tampa, Florida on June 17, 1861, and had one son, Richard Lee Simms III. Before the war he was an attorney in Decatur and Dekalb, Georgia. He reached the rank of 1st Lieutenant in Wofford's Brigade, McLaws Division of Longstreet's Corps before he was killed on September 9, 1862, in Maryland during the Battle of Harper's Ferry. Arthur Benjamin Simms was born on March 15, 1842. He attended Emory College in Oxford, Georgia and later Franklin College in Athens, Georgia. He served in the Lamar Infantry of Cobb's Legion. In late 1862, he was taken prisoner and held in Johnson's Island Prison Camp at Lake Erie until he became sick and was sent home. When he returned to war he joined the regiment of his brother James. He achieved the rank of Major before mustering out on February 18, 1865. In 1886, he became a lawyer and in 1871, he established the practice Simms & Simms with his brother James. He married Sarah Shelton Terrell Jackson on January 3, 1878, and they had three children: Bonner, Arthur Benjamin Simms Jr. and Sarah Jackson. He was elected Mayor of Covington sometime in the 1870s. He died on June 6, 1887. Lucy Jane Simms was born on December 11, 1845. She graduated from Southern Masonic Female College. She married Edward Heard on November 11, 1882, and had four children, two of whom survived to adulthood, Lucy Hyde and Benjamin Simms.The Simms Family of Covington, GA., had three sons, James Philip, Richard Lee, and Arthur Benjamin, served in the Civil War.
James was a member of the 53rd Georgia Regiment; Arthur served in the Lamar Infantry of Cobb's Legion; and Richard, who was killed early in the war, also served with Cobb's Legion.
From the description of Simms family papers, 1841-1878. (Atlanta History Center). WorldCat record id: 25776998
