James Laird (June 20, 1849 – August 17, 1889) was an American Republican Party politician. Laird was born in Fowlerville, New York, and moved with his parents to Hillsdale County, Michigan. He attended Adrian College and enlisted at thirteen in the Sixteenth Regiment of the Michigan Volunteer Infantry in the Army of the Potomac during the American Civil War. At Gaines' Mill, a musket ball struck him in the breast; he was taken prisoner and held for six weeks at Libby Prison before being exchanged. Later he served at Chancellorsville and Gettysburg, and, after re-enlisting in 1864, took part in the Petersburg campaign. Over three years, from 1862 to 1865, he was wounded five times, and rose to the rank of major by the time he was seventeen. His two brothers both died in the war. He graduate