James Alexander Seddon (13 July 1815 – 19 August 1880), born in Falmouth, Stafford County, Virginia, was an American lawyer and politician who was appointed as Secretary of War for the Confederate States of America by Jefferson Davis in the American Civil War. Before the Civil War, he served two terms in the U.S. Congress as a member of the Democratic party. {Descendened from the William Alexander "Earl of Stirling"}.

Seddon attended the peace convention held in Washington in 1861, which attempted to devise a means of preventing the American Civil War, and in the same year, he attended the Provisional Confederate Congress.

Along with other famous Confederates such as Robert E. Lee, Seddon was charged with "conspiring to injure the health and destroy the lives of United States soldiers held as prisoners by the Confederate States."

External links

• Article from Spartacus Educational
• Biography from "Famous Americans"

1815 births | 1880 deaths | Confederate States Cabinet members | Members of the United States House of Representatives from Virginia

James Alexander Seddon