After the war he taught in various schools and helped organize Loyal Leagues to defend blacks from attacks by the Ku Klux Klan.

His father, Andrew, had been granted his freedom by his master before Elijah was born, but his mother was still a slave,[1] and with her sons was owned by a man named Jesse Robinson.

Charles Wells[1] and received basic education studying at night under Ham Graves, a black man, and later at Sunday schools.

[9] With the permission of his captain, Marrs and another soldier, Swift Johnson, led prayer meetings in the barracks while the regiment was stationed in Bowling Green.

[10] His enlistment lasted into 1866, however, while home on furlough in 1864 he was attacked by a mob of Confederate sympathizers in the streets of Shelbyville, Kentucky while walking with his mother [1].

He had managed to disperse his assailants,[1] first holding off attackers with a stick, and later when Marrs got home, with his pistol.

[9] On August 3, 1871, he married Julia Gray of Shelbyville, Kentucky, outside of the Shelby County Baptist Church.

[1] After the war, Elijah and Henry formed a partnership consisting of a drayage business and a farm.

[16] When he wasn't stopping present physical attacks, he was working to halt racist bills from reaching ratification in his community, such as the 'whipping post bill", which would have seen the return of a whipping post as a punishment for African Americans.

In his autobiography, Marrs states that he "slept with a pistol under my head, an Enfield rifle at my side, and a corn knife at the door".

[1] He was a member of the Republican party and attended the convention which nominated John Marshal Harlan for governor in 1871.

[1] He was a member of the executive board and treasurer of the General Association of Colored Baptists for six years.