James Franklin Bell (January 9, 1856 – January 8, 1919) was Chief of Staff of the United States Army from 1906 to 1910. Bell was a major-general in the Regular United States Army, commanding the Department of the East, with headquarters at Governors Island, New York at the time of his death in 1919. He entered West Point in 1874, and graduated 38th in a class of 43 in 1878, with a commission as second lieutenant of 9th Cavalry Regiment, a black unit.