James Barbour

James Barbour (February 26, 1828 – October 29, 1895) was a Virginia lawyer, planter, politician and Confederate officer. He represented Culpeper County, Virginia, in the Virginia General Assembly, as well as in the Virginia Constitutional Convention of 1850 and the Virginia secession convention of 1861. Barbour also served among Virginia's delegates to the 1860 Democratic National Convention, and as a major in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War.

In the decade before the American Civil War, Culpeper county's voters elected James Barbour to the Virginia House of Delegates for the 1852–1853 session (where he succeeded his brother John S. Barbour, Jr. to the part-time position). However, voters selected Perry J. Eggborn in the next two elections. Barbour resumed the seat during the 1857–58 session, and was re-elected to the 1859–60 and 1861 (January) sessions. By the 1860 census, James Barbour owned 13 slaves and also hired two older slaves to assist with his plantation while he practiced law.

Barbour was among the delegates representing Virginia at the 1860 Democratic National Convention in Baltimore, Maryland.

Marriage and children Barbour married Fanny Thomas Beckham, daughter of Coleman Coals Beckham and his wife Mary C. Beckham, on September 1, 1857. However, John H. Rixey succeeded him for the session which began on September 7, 1863.

After Virginia's secession, Barbour volunteered to serve in the Confederate States Army and was commissioned as a major on the staff of General Richard S. Ewell, where he served as an assistant adjutant general. After a dispute with General Jubal Anderson Early, Barbour resigned on January 30, 1863. Other sources cite ill health as Barbour's reason for resigning.

In 1877, Barbour returned to the Virginia House of Delegates, succeeding his relative Thomas B. Nalle for one term, after which fellow Confederate veterans Jonathan C. Gibson or Jacob S. Eggborn held the seat. In 1885, Culpeper's delegate Daniel A. Grimsley resigned and Barbour returned to the remainder of the session (March 1887) and then won election again for 1887/1888 session.

Death Barbour died of pneumonia at Clover Hill near Jeffersonton in Culpeper County, Virginia on October 29, 1895.