Thomas Nelson Jr. was a Founding Father of the United States, general in the Revolutionary War, member of the Continental Congress, and a Virginia planter. In addition to serving many terms in the Virginia General Assembly, he twice represented Virginia in the Congress, where he signed the Declaration of Independence in 1776. Fellow Virginia legislators elected him to serve as the commonwealth's governor in 1781, the same year he fought as a brigadier general in the siege of Yorktown, the final battle of the war.
Robert Mercer Taliaferro Hunter was an American lawyer, politician and planter. He was a U.S. representative, speaker of the House (1839–1841), and U.S. senator (1847–1861). During the American Civil War, Hunter became the Confederate States Secretary of State (1861–1862) and then a Confederate senator (1862–1865) and critic of President Jefferson Davis. After the war, Hunter failed to win re-election to the U.S. Senate, but did serve as the treasurer of Virginia (1874–1880) before retiring to his farm. After fellow Democrat Grover Cleveland was elected President of the United States in 1884, Hunter became the customs collector for the port of Tappahannock until his death.
John Goode Jr. was a Virginia attorney and Democratic politician. He served in both the United States Congress and the Confederate Congress, and was a colonel in the Confederate Army. He was Solicitor General of the United States during the presidency of Grover Cleveland. He was known as "the grand old man of Virginia".
George Washington Parke Custis was an American antiquarian, author, playwright, and plantation owner. He was a veteran of the War of 1812. His father, John Parke Custis served in the American Revolution with then-General George Washington. John Parke Custis died after the Battle of Yorktown that ended the American Revolution.
William Cabell Rives was an American lawyer, planter, politician and diplomat from Virginia. Initially a Jackson Democrat as well as member of the First Families of Virginia, Rives served in the Virginia House of Delegates representing first Nelson County, then Albemarle County, Virginia, before service in both the U.S. House and Senate. Rives also served two separate terms as U.S. Minister to France. During the Andrew Jackson administration, Rives negotiated a treaty whereby the French agreed to pay the U.S. for spoliation claims from the Napoleonic Wars. During the American Civil War, Rives became a Delegate to the Provisional Confederate Congress and the Confederate House of Representatives.
John Francis Lewis was an American planter and politician from Rockingham County, Virginia. He represented Rockingham County as a Whig during the Virginia Secession Convention of 1861 and refused to sign the final document, and twice served as Lieutenant Governor of Virginia following the American Civil War and represented Virginia as a Republican in the United States Senate during the Reconstruction period after the Civil War.
John Warwick Daniel was an American lawyer, author, and Democratic politician from Lynchburg, Virginia. Daniel served in both houses of the Virginia General Assembly and both houses of the United States Congress. He represented Virginia the U.S. House from 1885 to 1887, and in the U.S. Senate from 1887 until his death in 1910.
Thomas Salem Bocock was a Confederate politician and lawyer from Virginia. After serving as an antebellum United States Congressman, he was the speaker of the Confederate States House of Representatives during most of the American Civil War.
Armstead Milton Alexander was an American attorney and politician from Missouri who served as a member of the United States House of Representatives from 1883 to 1885.
John Parke Custis was an American planter and politician. Custis was a son of Martha Dandridge Custis and Daniel Parke Custis, and later, the stepson of George Washington.
John Thomas Harris was a nineteenth-century politician, lawyer and judge from Virginia. He was often referred to after the American Civil War as "Judge Harris", even after his election to Congress. He was the first cousin of John Hill.
Beverly Browne Douglas was a Democrat who served two terms as U.S. Representative from Virginia from 1875 to 1878. He also served as in the Virginia Senate representing King William, King and Queen and Essex Counties (1852-1865) and as a Confederate cavalry officer during the American Civil War.
Robert Garlick Hill Kean was a Virginia lawyer. A Confederate States Army officer and bureaucrat during the American Civil War, he helped promulgate the Lost Cause of the Confederacy after the war, particularly since he became one of the last surviving members of the Confederate States bureaucracy. His wartime diary, published long after his death, provides insights into the inner workings of the Confederate government.
Cyrus Griffin, a Virginia lawyer and politician, was the final President of the Congress of the Confederation and first United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of Virginia.
Bushrod Washington was an American attorney and politician who served as Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1798 to 1829. On the Supreme Court, he was a staunch ally of Chief Justice John Marshall.
John Thornton Augustine Washington was a prominent Virginia farmer who served a term in the Virginia House of Delegates. Washington was a grandnephew of George Washington, first President of the United States.
Alexander W. Monroe was a prominent American lawyer, politician, and military officer in the U.S. states of Virginia and West Virginia. Monroe served as a member of the Virginia House of Delegates and West Virginia House of Delegates representing Hampshire County. He was the Speaker of the West Virginia House of Delegates during the 1875–1877 legislative session. Monroe also represented Hampshire County in the West Virginia Constitutional Convention of 1872.
John Wesley Cromwell was a lawyer, teacher, civil servant, journalist, historian, and civil rights activist in Washington, D.C. He was among the founders of the Bethel Literary and Historical Society and the American Negro Academy, both based in the capital. He worked for decades in administration of the US Post Office.
Daniel M. Norton, later Daniel McNorton, was a doctor and state legislator in Virginia. Norton served in the Virginia Constitutional Convention of 1868. He was a member of the Virginia General Assembly, as were his brothers F. S. Norton (1869/71) and Robert Norton.
Marshall Harvey Twitchell was a teacher, officer in the Union Army, and businessman. Originally from Vermont, he became a prominent political figure in Louisiana's post-war Reconstruction, including two terms as a Republican member of the Louisiana State Senate. He was seriously wounded during the Civil War and was shot multiple times in an assassination attempt by white supremacists after the war. He returned north, served as a diplomat in Canada, and wrote a memoir.
