Our History: Featured Alumni/ae: Cabell, George C., 1857

Congressman from Virginia

Born in Danville, Virginia, Cabell attended Danville Academy and later the Law Department of the University of Virginia in 1857. After being admitted to the bar, he began practicing in Danville in 1858. He was editor of the Republican and later Democratic Appeal in Danville and was elected Commonwealth's Attorney for Danville in 1858, serving until 1861. At the outbreak of the Civil War, Cabell enlisted in the Confederate Army as a private in 1861, promoted to Major later that year and was assigned to the 18th Regiment, Virginia Infantry. He was later promoted to Colonel, a position he held until the end of the war. He then resumed practicing law. Cabell was elected a Democrat to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1874, serving from 1875 to 1887. There, he was Chairman of the Committee on Railways and Canals from 1877 to 1881. After an unsuccessful bid for reelection in 1886, he resumed practicing law in Danville, Virginia until his death in Baltimore, Maryland on June 23, 1906. Cabell was buried in Green Hill Cemetery in Danville.