Cabells in England   Cabells were participants in the massive outmigration of English people in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. As England launched more and more colonial ventures–In Ireland, North America, the Caribbean, and elsewhere–tens of thousands of men and women hungry for either food or adventure left the land of their nativity. In the […]

  Shown here in front of an idealized “Castle Hill,” the Albemarle County home of William C. Rives, are his three sons: Francis Robert Rives, William Cabell Rives, Jr., and Alfred Landon Rives. Oil on Canvas. George Cooke at the University of Virginia.   William C. Rives (1793-1868) married Judith Page Walker (1802-1882) in 1819. […]

The fruitful union of Margaret J. Cabell and Robert Rives produced several leading statesmen, including William C. Rives, a Virginia Whig and, for a time, the most prominent political figure in the Commonwealth. While still in his teenage years, Robert Rives had served in the Revolutionary War and was present at Yorktown. He afterwards settled […]

Cabells in the Union Army Name Available Branch of Service, Rank, and/or Unit Information Details Porter, Peter A. Colonel Killed Breckinridge, Charles H. Captain Breckinridge, Joseph C. Brigadier Gen. and Inspector General, USA Promoted from Major of Artillery Sloane, Samuel Captain Cabell, Samuel J. 13th Kentucky Infantry, USA Died of wounds.

Cabell Family Members Enlisted in the Armed Forces of the Confederate States of America     Major General John Cabell Breckinridge, the highest-ranking Cabell in the Confederate Army.     In 1938, Lt. Col. Julian Mayo Cabell, US Army, used confiscated Confederate records available at the War Department in Washington, D.C. to generate a list […]

A Family Tradition of Military Service   Major General James Carson Breckinridge, USMC. 1877-1942. Shown here in 1939, Maj. Gen. Breckinridge was the son of Clifton R. Breckinridge and grandson of John Cabell Breckinridge. Photo and biographical information from The New York Times, 4 March 1942.     From colonial times to the present, Cabells […]

and Authors From the Cabell Family   Cabells have been active as both the patrons and creators of art. While few obtained renown for their creative powers, James Branch Cabell being the most notable exception, many sponsored or studied the plastic or literary arts. While traveling abroad in Europe, from November 1802-May 1806, Joseph Carrington […]

United States House of Representatives or United States Senate         At least ten Cabells or near relations have served in the United States Congress: Samuel Jordan Cabell (1756-1818). Samuel Jordan Cabell came of age in time to contribute to the patriot cause. He left the College of William and Mary to enter […]

Listed here alphabetically are some of the scores of Cabells or Cabell relations who have served in the Virginia General Assembly or in its colonial forebear, the House of Burgesses. Though members of the family have filled elective offices in several states, they have left their mark most profoundly in Virginia. The terms of service […]

Cabells and Public Service   Following the example of their patriarch, who served as a justice of the peace, militia officer, coroner, and vestryman, the descendants of William Cabell established an outstanding tradition of public service. Law and custom proscribed the political involvement of women, but the Cabell men served at all levels of Virginia […]