FIELD, James Gaven, lawyer, born in Walnut, Culpeper County, Virginia, 24 February 1826. His ancestors were identical with those of the Fields of New York. He attended for a time a classical school, and became a teacher. In 1848 he went to California, and in 1850 was elected one of the secretaries of the convention that framed the first constitution of that state. In the same year he returned to Virginia, and in 1852 was admitted to the bar. He was attorney for the commonwealth in his native County from 1860 till 1865. During the civil war he was engaged in the Confederate service, and lost a leg at the battle of Slaughter's Mountain. Since the war he has been attorney general of the state. General Field is a Baptist, being a zealous and liberal promoter of all the enterprises in which that denomination is engaged.