Lemuel Jackson Bowden

Lemuel Jackson Bowden (born January 16, 1815) was a Unionist politician who represented the state of Virginia in the United States Senate during the Civil War era. A member of the Unionist Party, he served a single term as a senator for Virginia from December 7, 1863, to March 3, 1865. His tenure placed him in the uniquely challenging context of representing a Southern state aligned with the Union during a period of national conflict and reconstruction efforts in their earliest stages.

During his time in office, Bowden served as a senator at large rather than from a specific congressional district, reflecting the political and administrative disruptions of the war years in Virginia. He is recorded as a historical member of Congress and is identified in congressional records under the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress with the bioguide ID B000678. Bowden left the Senate at the conclusion of his term in 1865 and is regarded as a former senator whose service marked Virginia’s complex political alignment in the closing years of the Civil War.