| James Thomas Elliott | |
| Birth Date: | 22 April 1823 |
| Birth Place: | Columbus, Georgia, USA |
| Death Place: | Camden, Ouachita County Arkansas |
| Resting Place: | Oakland Cemetery in Camden, Arkansas |
| Occupation: | Attorney |
| State: | Arkansas |
| District: | 2nd |
| Term Start: | January 13, 1869 |
| Term End: | March 3, 1869 |
| Successor: | Anthony A. C. Rogers |
| Office2: | Judge of the Arkansas 9th Judicial District Court |
| Term Start2: | 1872 |
| Term End2: | 1874 |
| Residence: | Camden, Arkansas |
| Spouse: | Guglielma Sells Elliott |
| Children: | Four children |
James Thomas Elliott (April 22, 1823 - July 28, 1875) was a United States Representative for the state of Arkansas. He held the position for forty-nine days in 1869.
Born in 1823 A native of Columbus, Georgia, Elliott attended the public schools and studied law. In 1854, he was admitted to the bar and commenced his practice in Camden in Ouachita County, Arkansas. In 1858, he became the president of the Mississippi, Ouachita & Red River Railroad.
On April 4, 1844, he married the former Gugielma Sells, and the couple had four children.
in 1857, Elliott constructed his Elliott House on West Washington Street in Camden. The Union Army General Frederick Salomon occupied the structure in 1864 during his stay in Camden. The family lived upstairs during the occupation. Their son, Milton Arteles Elliott, was a 13-year-old private in the Confederate States of America Army. Mathew Brady photographed their younger son, William Sells Elliott, on the front porch of the house.
Later, the Elliott House was an archaeological study of the relics of the time that the house was used as a Union hospital. This was during the time prior to the Battle of Poison Springs. Numerous shell casings were found as well as old pottery from hospital usage. The battle was the last significant fight won by the Confederacy. It occurred on April 18, 1864, during the Arkansas phase of the Red River Campaign.
Elliott was briefly a circuit judge of the Sixth Judicial District of Arkansas from October 2, 1865, to September 15, 1866. He established and edited the South Arkansas Journal in 1867. In this time period, the family lost two daughters, Belle and Emmaline Elliott to yellow fever on the same day.
During Reconstruction, the U.S. Representative James M. Hinds was assassinated on October 22, 1868, by George A. Clark, a member of the Ku Klux Klan and the secretary of the Democratic Committee of Monroe County, Arkansas.
Elliott was elected as a Republican to the Fortieth Congress to fill the vacancy. He served only from January 13 to March 3, 1869. He died in Arkansas at age 52
United States Representative James Thomas Elliott
His daughter-in-law, Sattie Buskin Elliott, the wife of Milton Elliott, edited, and with the assistance of the ladies in the Arkansas Historical Society of Ouachita County published a book, Garden of Memories, held in the Library of Congress.