Thomas Russell Bowden

Thomas Russell Bowden (20 May 1841 – 6 July 1893) served as Attorney General of the Restored government of Virginia from 1863 to 1865 and of Virginia from 1865 to 1869.

Bowden was born near Williamsburg, Virginia and attended the College of William and Mary. During the American Civil War he became a Republican. In May 1863 Bowden was the Unionist candidate for attorney general of the "Restored government of Virginia" and won election with 2,743 votes, thus becoming the youngest attorney general of Virginia up until that time at the age of twenty-two.

Bowden sought reelection in 1869 but was defeated by James Craig Taylor in the election held on 6 July 1869. Bowden resigned as attorney general effective 1 August 1869. Until Taylor took office on 19 January 1870, Charles Whittlesey was appointed in fill the vacancy. Not long after leaving office, Bowden moved to Washington, D.C., where he practiced law for more than twenty years. He was the author of "Blunders in Educated Circles Corrected" (1889). Bowden died in Washington, D.C., and was buried in Cedar Grove Cemetery in Williamsburg, Virginia.

References

* Obituary in "Washington Post", 8 July 1893.
* Biography in John T. Kneebone et al., "Dictionary of Virginia Biography" (Richmond: Library of Virginia, 1998- ), 2:132-133. ISBN 0-88490-199-8