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James S. Wheat

James Sanders Wheat
Unionist Attorney General of Virginia
In office
1861–1863
Preceded by John Randolph Tucker (contested)
Succeeded by Thomas Russell Bowden
Member of the Virginia House of Delegates
from the Ohio County district
In office
December 3, 1849 – December 1, 1850
Preceded by William Pitts
Succeeded by Charles Wells Russell
Personal details
Born (1810-05-08)May 8, 1810
Prince George's County, Maryland
Died September 24, 1874(1874-09-24) (aged 60)
Wheeling, West Virginia
Political party Republican
Spouse(s) Elizabeth Johnson Dorsey
Children James Cheatham Wheat, Eli Dorsey Wheat, Julia Wheat, William Wheat, Stanley Hulliken Wheat
Occupation lawyer

James Sanders Wheat (May 9, 1810 - September 24, 1874) was the Attorney General of Virginia in Union held territory from 1861 to 1863.

James Wheat was born on May 10, 1810, the fourth son of merchant Thomas Wheat and his wife Mary Chatham, at Cool Spring Plantation, Prince George's County, Maryland. Although his father lived in Washington, D.C. during the War of 1812 and had some connection with the Washington Navy Yard, James lived most of his adult life in Wheeling, Ohio County in what became West Virginia during the American Civil War. His father and uncle Benoni Wheat were West Indies traders with a dock and warehouses in Alexandria, Virginia. His elder brothers were John Thomas Wheat (1801-1888), Samuel Wheat who moved to St. Louis, Missouri and Henry; his sisters were Mary E. and Josephine.

He married Elizabeth Johnson Dorsey (b. 1820) and by the 1850 census lived in Wheeling (then still in Virginia) and supported his parents and sister and her child, as well as his children James Cheatham Wheat (1840-1915), Julia Wheat (b.1843), Stanley Hulliken Wheat (1842-1932) and Eli D. Wheat (b. 1849).

James Sanders Wheat was admitted to the Virginia bar and practiced law in Wheeling. Ohio County voters elected him to represent them in the Virginia House of Delegates in 1849, and he served in that single session which began on December 3, succeeding William Pitts and was succeeded by Charles W. Russell in the legislative session that began on December 2, 1850.

When Virginia seceded from the Union in early April 1861, West Virginians disagreed, and many met in Clarksburg on April 22, 1861 and called for a convention to decide their status. The first Wheeling Convention (with representatives from 24 Unionist counties including Frederick County which chose not to join them), met beginning on May 13, 1861, but could not decide whether to secede from the Commonwealth of Virginia. Wheat was a member of the moderate faction which believed that open resistance to Virginia authorities so soon after their secession vote would invite disturbance and bloodshed. Other members of that faction included fellow attorney Francis H. Pierpont of Fairmont (with whom Wheat disagreed on other matters), John J. Jackson Sr. of Parkersburg, and Waitman T. Willey of Morgantown.


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