Early Years and the Civil War
Field was born in Culpeper County on February 24, 1826. He was the son of Lewis Y. Field and Maria Duncan Field. He attended a classical academy for a time, worked in a local store, and taught school until about 1848, when he went to California as the pay clerk of an army officer. Field worked as an assistant to the secretary of the California constitutional convention in September and October 1849. He had returned to Virginia by the autumn of 1850. After studying law with his uncle, Richard H. Field, then a member of the Virginia Special Court of Appeals, he was admitted to the bar in Culpeper County on April 19, 1852. Field married Frances E. Cowherd on June 20, 1854, in Albemarle County. They lived in Culpeper and had three sons and three daughters, two of whom died in childhood. His wife died in April 1877.
Political Career
The governor appointed Field a major general of the reorganized volunteer militia in January 1872, but Field may not have taken office before another reorganization occurred later that year. Nevertheless, he was usually referred to thereafter as General Field. An active Baptist layman, Field served as moderator of the Shiloh Baptist Association from 1871 to 1874 and again in 1879 and 1880. After several one-year terms during the 1870s and 1880s as vice president of the Baptist General Association of Virginia, Field won election as president in 1880 and again in 1881. In addition to continuing a prosperous legal practice, he also participated in several business ventures and an attempt to build a railroad in Culpeper County. During the spring of 1877 state officials hired Field and other attorneys to recover money the government believed it was owed as a bondholder and guarantor of loans made to the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Company.
During Field's term as attorney general, the new Readjuster Party, pledging to reduce and refinance the state's antebellum public debt, won control of the General Assembly. Field was on friendly terms with the leader of the Readjusters, William Mahone, and probably favored some measure of debt readjustment. When the Conservative Democratic State Convention met in August 1881, Philip W. McKinney, a future governor, defeated Field for the nomination for attorney general. On February 2, 1882, one month after Field left office, he married Elizabeth R. Logwood in Lynchburg. They resided on a plantation that he owned in Albemarle County and had three sons. Field continued to be active in the renamed Democratic Party. He withdrew from campaigns for nomination to the Senate of Virginia in 1885 and 1886.
At a mid-July speech in Gordonsville, in Orange County, he compared the revolutionary impulse of Populism with the American Revolution of 1776 and advised his audience to "Read your Bibles Sunday and the Omaha platform every day in the week." Weaver and Field received more than a million votes, about 8.5 percent of the total, and won twenty-two electoral college votes in six western states. In Virginia the Populists fared poorly except in the economically depressed south-central counties of the state. Field received very few votes in his native Culpeper County.
Later Years
Field died at his Albemarle County home on May 18, 1902, and was buried in Citizen's Cemetery (later Fairview Cemetery), in Culpeper County.
Time Line
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February 24, 1826 - James Gaven Field is born in Culpeper County.
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1848 - James Gaven Field leaves Virginia for California, where he works as the pay clerk of an army officer.
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September–October 1849 - James Gaven Field works as an assistant to the secretary of the California constitutional convention.
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Autumn 1850 - By this time James Gaven Field has returned to Virginia from California.
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April 19, 1852 - James Gaven Field is admitted to the bar in Culpeper County.
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June 20, 1854 - James Gaven Field and Frances E. Cowherd are married in Albemarle County.
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September 1860 - James Gaven Field becomes the commonwealth's attorney of Culpeper County.
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April 1861 - James Gaven Field enlists in a Virginia volunteer company.
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March 23, 1861 - James Gaven Field is promoted to major in the Confederate army effective this date.
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August 9, 1862 - James Gaven Field, a Confederate officer, is severely wounded at the Battle of Cedar Mountain.
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September 1863 - James Gaven Field becomes the chief quartermaster of the Third Corps of the Army of Northern Virginia.
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1871–1874 - James Gaven Field serves as moderator of the Shiloh Baptist Association.
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January 1872 - James Gaven Field is appointed a major general of the reorganized volunteer Virginia militia.
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Spring 1877 - State officials hire James Gaven Field and other attorneys to recover money the government believes it is owed as a bondholder and guarantor of loans made to the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Company.
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April 1877 - Frances Cowherd Field, the wife of James Gaven Field, dies.
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August 28, 1877 - James Gaven Field receives the Conservative Party nomination for attorney general after the death of the incumbent, Raleigh T. Daniel.
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August 29, 1877 - The governor appoints James Gaven Field interim attorney general after the death of Raleigh T. Daniel.
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1879–1880 - James Gaven Field serves as moderator of the Shiloh Baptist Association.
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1880 - James Gaven Field wins election as president of the Baptist General Association of Virginia.
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March 1, 1880 - In Ex Parte Virginia, the U.S. Supreme Court rules constitutional a provision in the Civil Rights Act of 1875 that prevents anyone from being disqualified from jury service by reason of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.
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1881 - James Gaven Field wins election as president of the Baptist General Association of Virginia.
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August 1881 - Philip W. McKinney defeats James Gaven Field for the Conservative Party nomination for attorney general.
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February 2, 1882 - James Gaven Field and Elizabeth R. Logwood marry in Lynchburg.
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1885 - James Gaven Field withdraws from a campaign for the Democratic nomination to the Senate of Virginia.
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1886 - James Gaven Field withdraws from a campaign for the Democratic nomination to the Senate of Virginia.
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June 1892 - James Gaven Field presides over a meeting of the new People's Party of Virginia, or populists.
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July 5, 1892 - The Populist party, meeting in Omaha, Nebraska, nominates James Gaven Field to run for vice president.
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November 8, 1892 - Grover Cleveland, a Democrat, defeats the Republican Benjamin Harrison and the Populist James B. Weaver for president.
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1893 - James Gaven Field advocates the impeachment of President Grover Cleveland.
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1895 - James Gaven Field and other Populist leaders create a coalition with Republicans. In the next two years they will do the same with Democrats.
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1900 - James Gaven Field supports William Jennings Bryan, a Democrat, for president.
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1901 - James Gaven Field runs as an Independent for one of Albemarle County's two seats in the constitutional convention but quickly withdraws.
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May 18, 1902 - James Gaven Field dies at his Albemarle County home.
References
Further Reading
External Links
Cite This Entry
- APA Citation:
Tarter, B., & the Dictionary of Virginia Biography. James Gaven Field (1826–1902). (2016, July 19). In Encyclopedia Virginia. Retrieved from http://www.EncyclopediaVirginia.org/Field_James_G_1826-1902.
- MLA Citation:
Tarter, Brent and the Dictionary of Virginia Biography. "James Gaven Field (1826–1902)." Encyclopedia Virginia. Virginia Humanities, 19 Jul. 2016. Web. READ_DATE.
First published: January 11, 2016 | Last modified: July 19, 2016
Contributed by Brent Tarter and the Dictionary of Virginia Biography. Brent Tarter is founding editor of the Dictionary of Virginia Biography.