James Warren English (October 28, 1837 – February 15, 1925) was an American politician, bank president, and a staff officer during the American Civil War. He was a postbellum mayor of Atlanta, Georgia, from 1881 until 1883.[1]
English was born in Orleans Parish, Louisiana. His father died when he was 12 and his mother followed two years later. At the age of 15, he became an apprentice carriage-maker and worked at it industriously for four years while attending night school when he moved to Griffin, Georgia. He married Emily Alexander and raised a family.[2]
He enlisted in the Confederate Army on April 20, 1861, and served in Virginia, rising to the rank of captain. On the night of April 7, 1865, in the company of Colonel Heman H. Perry, assistant adjutant general of Moxley Sorrel's brigade, English received the first written communication from Grant to Lee about a surrender, which happened soon after at Appomattox Court House.
Following his parole, English arrived in Atlanta, on May 14, 1865 where he later became a banker. On December 1, 1880 he defeated developer H. I. Kimball to become mayor, taking office in January.[3] He served as president of the American Trust and Banking Company (later rechartered as the Fourth National Bank) for thirty years.[4] He also served twenty-four years on the board of directors of the Central of Georgia Railway Company.[5] He was one of the incorporators of the 1883 Fulton County Street Railroad, which would later become famous for its Nine-Mile Circle route to what is now Virginia-Highland.
From 1871 until his death, he resided on Cone Street between Walton and Poplar in the Fairlie-Poplar district. The home was torn down soon after, one of the last single-family homes in downtown Atlanta.
| Preceded by William Lowndes Calhoun |
Mayor of Atlanta January,1881 – January, 1883 |
Succeeded by John B. Goodwin |
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