John Daniel Imboden (/ɪmˈboʊdɛn/; February 16, 1823 – August 15, 1895) was an American lawyer, Virginia state legislator, and Confederate army general. During the American Civil War, he commanded an irregular cavalry force. After the war, he resumed practicing law, became a writer, and was active in land development founding the town of Damascus, Virginia.

Imboden was born near Staunton, Virginia, in the Shenandoah Valley to farmer George William Imboden and Isabella Wunderlich who bore eleven children. His father fought in the War of 1812. Imboden received a private education locally at the Staunton Academy, then in 1841–1842 he attended Washington College. By 1850, John and his brother Frank no longer lived on the family farm, which his father worked with the help of his younger brothers George, James, Jacob, and a white hired hand named Robert Walkey; his sisters Eliza and Frances helped their mother at the home.

He took a job teaching at the Virginia School for the Deaf and the Blind in Staunton. Imboden also read law, was admitted to the Virginia bar, and entered into partnership with William Frazier to create a law firm. In December 1844, Imboden became a member of the Staunton Masonic lodge, Number 13, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons (A.F. & A.M.) In the 1850 Federal census, Imboden owned four slaves, a 16-year-old mulatto male, a 23-year-old black female and 12- and three-year-old girls. His slaveholdings increased to 7 in 1860, the mulatto male becoming 26 years old, and working alongside two 20-year-old black women, a 24-year-old black woman and black boys aged 6 and 14 as well as a 14-year-old black girl.

Augusta County voters elected Imboden as one of their two (part-time) delegates in the House of Delegates in 1850, alongside veteran John Marshall McCue. As a result of greater representation accorded western Virginia counties and the 1850 census, Augusta county was allocated a third delegate in 1852, so as the third-highest vote-getter that year, Imboden was re-elected, this time serving alongside James Walker and John A. Tate. However, Augusta County voters selected three other men in 1853, although Imboden again was the third highest vote-getter and returned to the legislature in 1855, this time alongside Boliver Christian and Adam McChesney. Imboden again failed to win re-election in 1857. In response to John Brown's Raid at Harper's Ferry, Imboden helped found the Staunton Light Artillery, partially funding it as his own expense. His younger brother George W. Imboden had followed his path into the law and also joined the artillery militia. Despite his lack of formal military training, J.D. Imboden was commissioned as captain in the Staunton Artillery of the Virginia State Militia on November 28, 1859.

As the Virginia Secession Convention of 1861 appeared ready to pass the ordinance of secession, ex-Governor Henry Wise called a meeting of several militia commanders, Capt. A.M. Barbour (former civil superintendent of the Harper's Ferry Arsenal) and Richmond Enquirer editor Nat Tyler, to plan to capture the U.S. Army arsenal at Harpers Ferry. Imboden attended, as did Capt. John A. Harman of Staunton's infantry militia, as well as cavalry militia captains Turner and Richard Ashby of Fauquier County and Oliver R. Funsten of Clarke County. Imboden telegraphed Staunton's militia companies to meet in Staunton at 4p.m. on April 17 for orders. The group arranged railroad transportation to Charles Town about 8 miles from the Harpers Ferry arsenal. However, Governor John Letcher refused to authorized the action until the secession ordinance passed. As soon as it did, A.M. Barbour went to Harpers Ferry and publicly informed the workmen. Then, the evening after the secession ordinance passed, 360 men started out to capture the arsenal, defended by U.S. Army Lt. Roger Jones with 50 soldiers and about 15 volunteers. Vastly outnumbered, they attempted to set fire to the buildings and equipment as they retreated north to Carlisle, Pennsylvania. Imboden's artillery had set up on the heights above the arsenal, but did not see further action, although Imboden later bragged about converting some of the captured horse carts to caissons. Virginia militia Major General Kenton Harper (of Staunton) then secured the towns, and on April 27, Major Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson arrived to organize the militia into regiments.

On July 1, 1861, the Staunton Light Artillery, with its four bronze, 6-pounder guns and 107 officers and men, was formally mustered in the Confederate States Army. While commanding his artillery battery at the First Battle of Bull Run, Imboden perforated his left eardrum firing an artillery piece, causing subsequent deafness in that ear. He fought with Major general Jackson in the Valley Campaign at Cross Keys and Port Republic. On September 9, 1862, Imboden left the artillery to recruit a battalion of partisan rangers and was promoted to colonel of the 62nd Virginia Mounted Infantry (1st Partisan Rangers). He was promoted to brigadier general on January 28, 1863.

Upset by the independence movement in West Virginia, the voters of which petitioned to separate from Virginia, Imboden with Brig. Gen. William E. "Grumble" Jones led 3,400 partisan rangers into northwestern Virginia. The Jones-Imboden Raid destroyed rail track and bridges of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, as well as captured thousands of horses and heads of cattle and ruined petroleum fields in the Kanawha Valley. The raiders covered 400 miles (640 km) in 37 days but failed to stop West Virginia's statehood.

In the Gettysburg campaign, Imboden's brigade served under Maj. Gen. J.E.B. Stuart guarding the left flank for Gen. Robert E. Lee's movement north through the Shenandoah Valley. (His brigade did not participate in Stuart's foray away from Lee's army, but instead raided the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad between Martinsburg, West Virginia, and Cumberland, Maryland.) During the Battle of Gettysburg, Imboden's men stayed in the rear and guarded ammunition and supply trains in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania. During the Confederate retreat, Imboden escorted the wagon trains with thousands of wounded soldiers back to Virginia. On July 6, 1863, the Potomac River flooding at Williamsport, Maryland, trapped Imboden's wagon train. He put together a defensive force that included an artillery battery and as many of the wounded who could operate muskets. This hastily organized force turned back attacks from Union cavalry generals John Buford and Judson Kilpatrick, saving the wagon train. Robert E. Lee praised Imboden for the way in which he "gallantly repulsed" the Union cavalry.^{[citation needed]}