Charles James Faulkner
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives
In office March 4, 1875 – March 3, 1877
Preceded by	John Hagans
Succeeded by	Benjamin F. Martin
Constituency	West Virginia 2nd
In office March 4, 1851 – March 3, 1859
Preceded by	Richard Parker
Succeeded by	Alexander Boteler
Constituency	Virginia 10th (1851–1853) Virginia 8th (1853–1859)
20thUnited States Minister to France
In office March 4, 1860 – May 12, 1861
Appointed by	James Buchanan
Preceded by	John Y. Mason
Succeeded by	William L. Dayton
Chairman of theCommittee on Military Affairs
In office March 4, 1857 – March 3, 1859
Preceded by	John B. Weller
Succeeded by	Benjamin Stanton
Member of theVirginia House of Delegates fromBerkeley County
In office December 4, 1848 – December 2, 1849 Serving with William Boak
Preceded by	James E. Stewart
Succeeded by	Allen C. Hammond
Member of theVirginia Senate from Berkeley,Morgan andHampshire Counties
In office January 1, 1838 – 1842
Preceded by	William Donaldson
Succeeded by	Thomas Sloan
In office December 5, 1831 – December, 1833
Preceded by	Thomas Davis
Succeeded by	Edmund P. Hunter
In office December 7, 1829 – December 5, 1830
Preceded by	Joel Ward
Succeeded by	Levi Henshaw
Personal details
Born	(1806-07-06)July 6, 1806 Martinsburg, Virginia, U.S.
Died	November 1, 1884(1884-11-01) (aged 78) Martinsburg, West Virginia, U.S.
Party	Democratic
Other political affiliations	Whig
Spouse	Mary Wagner Boyd
Children	5, includingCharles James Faulkner &Virginia Faulkner McSherry
Relatives	Harry F. Byrd (great-grandson)
Profession	Politician lawyer
Military service
Allegiance	Confederate States of America
Branch/service	Confederate States Army
Rank	Lieutenant Colonel
Battles/wars	American Civil War

Charles James Faulkner (July 6, 1806 – November 1, 1884) was a politician,planter, and lawyer fromBerkeley County, Virginia (since 1863,West Virginia) who served in both houses of theVirginia General Assembly and as a U.S. Congressman.^[1][2][3]

Faulkner was born inMartinsburg, Berkeley County, Virginia (now West Virginia) in 1806. His father, James Faulkner, had emigrated from Ireland,^[4] and served as an artillery commander defending Norfolk during the War of 1812, alongsideElisha Boyd, whose daughter would marry this Faulkner.^[5] Although both his parents died when he was still a child, C. J. Faulkner graduated fromGeorgetown University in Washington, D.C. in 1822, studied law and was admitted to the Virginia bar in 1829. He married Mary Wagner Boyd, the daughter ofElisha Boyd, and received "Boydville" as part of his dowry. They had three daughters and two sons,Charles James Faulkner (1847-1929) andE. Boyd Faulkner (1841-1917). Both of his sons became Confederate officers and later politicians, diplomats and judges.^[6][7]

Faulkner practiced law, farmed using enslaved labor, and sought to develop Berkeley County. A ferventWhig and friend of U.S. SenatorHenry Clay (who would visit the district many times), Faulkner advocated internal improvements (including theNational Road andChesapeake and Ohio Canal which passed through Martinsburg). He also owned slaves and was a member of theAmerican Colonization Society. In the 1860 census, he owned $100,000 in real estate and $150,000 in personal property, including 13 slaves in Berkeley County.^[8]

Berkeley County voters first elected Faulkner one of their representatives in theVirginia House of Delegates in 1829 and he would win election (and also lose several elections) in the ensuing decades.^[9] In his initial speech, he advocatedgradual emancipation.^[10] Faulkner was also soon appointed a commissioner concerning the boundary dispute between Virginia and Maryland.^[11]

In 1838, voters in Berkeley, Morgan and Hampshire Counties elected Faulkner to theVirginia State Senate and he won re-election in 1841.^[12] In 1848 Faulkner again won election to the House of Delegates.^[13] There, he introduced a law which became a model for theFugitive Slave Act of 1850.^[14]

In 1850, Faulkner was elected to theVirginia Constitutional Convention of 1850, as one of four delegates elected from the northern Valley delegate district made up of Berkeley County and neighboring Jefferson and Clarke Counties. He served withWilliam Lucas, Dennis Murphy andAndrew Hunter,^[15] and was especially vocal in extending suffrage and advocating more equitable tax adjustment, since taxing slaveowners less than their slaves' worth (and adding nonvoting slaves when proportioning the legislative seats) naturally meant more of the tax burden was placed on non-slaveowners and people in the western counties.^[16]

Faulkner was also elected to theUnited States House of Representatives in 1850, and he won re-election several times, serving from 1851 to 1859. He entered Congress as aWhig, but with the demise of that party, he was re-elected as aDemocrat, which he remained for the rest of his Congressional career. There, Faulkner served as chairman of theCommittee on Military Affairs from 1857 to 1859.^[17]

PresidentJames Buchanan appointed FaulknerMinister to France in 1860. He served until the onset of theAmerican Civil War, newly elected PresidentAbraham Lincoln having replaced him withWilliam L. Dayton. When Faulkner returned across the Atlantic Ocean to settle matters in Washington D.C., he was arrested in August 1861 on charges of negotiating sales of arms for theConfederacy while inParis, France. Initially imprisoned in Washington, a prisoner exchange was contemplated of Faulkner forHenry S. McGraw, formerly Pennsylvania's state treasurer and imprisoned in Richmond while seeking to recover the corpse of Col. Cameron,^[18] but McGraw was released and Faulkner instead transferred toFort Warren in Boston Harbor. An exchange was then contemplated forAlfred Ely, a New York congressman who captured at theFirst Battle of Bull Run, but Confederate PresidentJefferson Davis wanted to make Faulkner's arrest an example before the civilized world. Union forces allowed Faulkner a 30-day parole to plead his case in Richmond, whereby Davis reluctantly consented and Faulkner was formally released in December and allowed to return to Martinsburg.^[19][20]

Days after his release, Faulkner enlisted in theConfederate Army and was appointedlieutenant colonel and assistantadjutant general on the staff of GeneralThomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson.^[21][22] Some of the troops in the Stonewall Brigade were from Berkeley County; Martinsburg changed control ten times during the conflict (30 months under Union governance and 16 months under Confederate governance). His two sons had already become Confederate States Army officers, leaving his wife and daughters to run Boydville. In July 1864, his wife stood up to a Union officer charged with burning Boydville as Faulkner's property, as Union troops had with fellow rebel Andrew Hunter's home in Charles Town and A.R. Butler home's in Shepherdstown. She protested that it was her property, and constructed by her father, a hero of the War of 1812, and her Union-allied nephewsEdmund B. Pendleton andE. Boyd Pendleton backed her up. Thus, the house was spared.^[23]

Faulkner returned but refused to take an oath of allegiance to the United States after the war, and only regained his law license after considerable difficulty. Railroads became his clients, since the railroads through Martinsburg needed rebuilding, and various railroad lines reorganized. Faulkner also successfully argued on behalf of West Virginia before theU.S. Supreme Court inVirginia v. West Virginia, which was decided in 1871 and led to Berkeley and Jefferson counties remaining in West Virginia. However, other litigation (concerning allocating the cost and lost subsidies of canal, bridge and railroad improvements in western Virginia devastated by the war) would extend decades after Faulkner's death.

Berkeley County voters elected Faulkner as a member of theWest Virginia Constitutional Convention in 1872, and he served as the temporary chairman. Berkeley County voters would reject the final result, but the constitution was adopted by West Virginia as a whole; one matter of particular concern was organization within counties—under an elected Sheriff, Circuit Judges or Commissioners (the Ohio system)--which some condemned as a hodgepodge.^[24] The U.S. Congress removed his political disabilities by special legislation. He proved a voice of restraint in that convention, as some ex-Confederates tried to undo the 1863 Constitution (modeled on Ohio's) as too "Northern".^[25]

In 1877, Faulkner commanded the state militia in an attempt to quell a rail worker protest over pay cuts inMartinsburg, West Virginia, under the direction of GovernorHenry M. Mathews. A skirmish ensued, resulting in shots fired on both sides and one death. The governor ultimately called for federal troops to restore order. However, by this time the protests had spread to become theGreat Railroad Strike of 1877.^[26][27]

Faulkner won election back to the U.S. House of Representatives as a Democrat from West Virginia in 1874, serving from 1875 to 1877. However, he lost his attempt to become a U.S. Senator from the new state in 1876. He was also mentioned as a gubernatorial candidate in 1880. Afterward, Faulkner resumed practicing law until his death.^[28]

Charles J. Faulkner died at the family estate, "Boydville" nearMartinsburg on November 1, 1884.^[29] He was interred in Old Norborne Cemetery in Martinsburg WV.

His sonCharles James Faulkner lived at Boydville and became one of West Virginia's U.S. Senators in 1887. His great-grandson,Harry F. Byrd, would control Virginia politics for decades in the 20th century. The West Virginia State Archive holds the Faulkner family papers.^[30]

• Krick, Robert E. L. (2003).Staff Officers in Gray: A Biographical Register of the Staff Officers in the Army of Northern Virginia. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press. p. 125.ISBN 978-0-8078-2788-8.
• Pulliam, David Loyd (1901).The Constitutional Conventions of Virginia from the foundation of the Commonwealth to the present time. John T. West, Richmond.ISBN 978-1-2879-2059-5.{{cite book}}:ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)

• Media related toCharles J. Faulkner at Wikimedia Commons

 This article incorporatespublic domain material fromBiographical Directory of the United States Congress.Federal government of the United States.

• 1806 births
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• Members of the Virginia House of Delegates
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