Given by Mississippi in 1931 U.S. Capitol Visitor Center This
statue of James Zachariah George was given to the National
Statuary Hall Collection by Mississippi in 1931. James Zachariah
George, Mississippi's "Great Commoner," was born on October 20,
1826, in Monroe County, Georgia, but moved to Mississippi when
his widowed mother remarried. He served as a private in the
Mexican War under Jefferson Davis. On his return, George studied
law and was admitted to the bar. In 1854 he became a reporter of
the Supreme Court of Mississippi, and over the next 20 years he
prepared a 10-volume digest of its cases. As a member of the
Mississippi Secession Convention, he signed the Ordinance of
Secession. A Confederate colonel during the Civil War, he was
captured twice and spent two years in prison, where he conducted
a law course for his fellow prisoners. After the war, he
returned to the practice of law. In 1879 he was appointed to the
Mississippi Supreme Court and immediately was chosen chief
justice by his colleagues.