Thomas Russell Bowden

{{Use mdy dates|date=August 2012}} '''Thomas Russell Bowden''' (May 20, 1841 – July 6, 1893) served as Attorney General of the Restored government of Virginia from 1863 to 1865 and of Virginia from 1865 to 1869.<ref>{{Cite web |title=FamilySearch.org |url=https://ancestors.familysearch.org/en/LR29-C6D/atty.-gen.-thomas-russell-bowden-1841-1893 |access-date=2025-02-24 |website=ancestors.familysearch.org}}</ref>

== Biography == Bowden, the son of Lemuel J. 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 the election with 2,743 votes, thus becoming the youngest attorney general of Virginia up until that time at the age of twenty-two.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Collection: Thomas Russell Bowden Letter {{!}} Special Collections Research Center |url=https://scrcguides.libraries.wm.edu/repositories/2/resources/4882 |access-date=2025-02-24 |website=scrcguides.libraries.wm.edu}}</ref>

Bowden sought reelection in 1869 but was defeated by James Craig Taylor in the election held on July 6, 1869. Bowden resigned as attorney general effective August 1, 1869. Until Taylor took office on January 19, 1870, Charles Whittlesey was appointed to 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.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Gunter |first1=Donald W. |title=Thomas R. Bowden (1841–1893) |url=https://encyclopediavirginia.org/entries/bowden-thomas-r-1841-1893/ |website=Encyclopedia Virginia |publisher=Virginia Humanities |access-date=16 August 2025 |date=December 7, 2020}}</ref>

==References== {{Reflist}} * Obituary in ''Washington Post'', July 8, 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}}

==External links== * [http://www.encyclopediavirginia.org/Bowden_Thomas_Russell_1841-1893 Thomas Russell Bowden] at Encyclopedia Virginia

{{s-start}} {{succession box | title=Attorney General of the Restored Government of Virginia | before=James S. Wheat | after=''None'' | years=1863 – 1865 }} {{s-bef|before=John Randolph Tucker}} {{s-ttl|title=Attorney General of Virginia|years=1865 – 1869}} {{s-aft| after=Charles Whittlesey}} {{s-end}} {{Virginia Attorneys General}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bowden, Thomas Russell}} Category:1841 births Category:1893 deaths Category:Virginia attorneys general Category:Politicians from Williamsburg, Virginia Category:College of William & Mary alumni Category:Virginia Republicans Category:19th-century Virginia politicians Category:Washington, D.C., Republicans