James A. Cravens

This article is about the U.S. Representative from Indiana. For his second cousin, also a U.S. Representative from Indiana, see James H. Cravens.

James Addison Cravens (November 4, 1818 – June 20, 1893) was a nineteenth-century politician from Indiana. He was the second cousin of James Harrison Cravens.

Born in Rockingham County, Virginia, Cravens moved near Hardinsburg, Indiana with his father in 1820 where he attended public schools as a child. He engaged in agricultural pursuits and livestock raising, served in the Mexican-American War as Major (United States) of the 2nd Indiana Volunteer Regiment from 1846 to 1847 and was a member of the Indiana House of Representatives in 1848 and 1849. Cravens served in the Indiana Senate from 1850 to 1853, was commissioned a brigadier general in the Indiana Militia in 1854 and was elected a Democrat to the United States House of Representatives in 1860, serving from 1861 to 1865, not being a candidate for renomination in 1864. During the lame-duck session of the 38th Congress, he voted against the Thirteenth Amendment abolishing slavery. He was a delegate to the National Union Convention in 1866 and to the Democratic National Convention in 1868. He resumed agricultural pursuits until his death in Hardinsburg, Indiana on June 20, 1893. He was interred in Hardin Cemetery in Hardinsburg.