Home > Nathaniel Prentiss Banks

General Nathaniel Banks served as Governor of Massachusetts and the Speaker of the House of the United States House of Representatives before becoming a General in the Union Army. He served as a Free Soiler in the Massachusetts House of Representatives from 1849 to 1853, and was speaker in 1851Events January 23 The flip of a coin determines whether a new city in Oregon is named after Boston, Massachusetts, or Portland, Maine, with Portland winning. March 1 Victor Hugo gives speech at the French national assembly and uses the phrase United State and 1852Events January 14 President Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte proclaims a new constitution for the French Second Republic. January 17 United Kingdom recognizes independence of the Transvaal Devil's Island penal colony opens February 11 First British public toilet; he was president of the state Constitutional ConventionAlternative meaning: Constitutional convention A Constitutional Convention is a gathering of persons for the purpose of drawing up a constitution, or planning to modify one. In British constitutional law the " Convention Parliament" of the late Stuart era of 1853, and in the same year was elected to the United States House of RepresentativesThe House of Representatives is the larger of two houses that make up the United States Congress, the other being the United States Senate. Members Members of the House are elected for a term of two years. Elections alternately coincide with the president as a coalition candidate of Democratslogo depicts a stylized donkey in red, white, and blue. The Democratic Party is one of the two major United States political parties. The Party is currently the minority in both the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives, as w and Free-Soilers. In 1854Events January 13 The accordion is patented by Anthony Faas. February 11 Major streets lit by coal gas for first time. February 14 Texas is linked by telegraph with the rest of the United States, when a connection between New Orleans and Marshall, Texas i he was reelected as a Know Nothing, but he soon left this party as well, and in 1855 presided over a Republican convention in Massachusetts.

At the opening of the Thirty-Fourth Congress the anti-Nebraska men gradually united in supporting Banks for speaker, and after one of the bitterest and most protracted speakership contests in the history of congress, lasting from the 3rd of December 1855 to the 2nd of February 1856, he was chosen on the 133rd ballot. This has been called the first national victory of the Republican party. Re-elected in 1856 as a Republican, he resigned his seat in December 1857, and was governor of Massachusetts from 1858 to 1861, a period marked by notable administrative and educational reforms. He then succeeded George B. McClellan as president of the Illinois Central railway . When McClellan entered upon his Peninsular Campaign in 1862 the important duty of defending Washington from the army of "Stonewall" Jackson fell to the corps commanded by Banks.

In the spring Banks was ordered to move against Jackson in the Shenandoah Valley, but the latter with superior forces defeated him at Winchester, Virginia, on the 25th of May, and forced him back to the Potomac river. On the 9th of August, Banks again encountered Jackson at Cedar Mountain , and, though greatly outnumbered, succeeded in holding his ground after a very bloody battle. He was later placed in command of the garrison at Washington, and in November sailed from New York with a strong force to replace General B. F. Butler at New Orleans, Louisiana as commander of the Department of the Gulf . Being ordered to co-operate with Grant, who was then before Vicksburg, he invested the defences of Port Hudson, Louisiana , in May 1863, and after three attempts to carry the works by storm he began a regular siege. The garrison surrendered to Banks on the 9th of July, on receiving word that Vicksburg had fallen.

In the autumn of 1863, Banks organized a number of expeditions to Texas, chiefly for the purpose of preventing the French in Mexico from aiding the Confederates, and secured possession of the region near the mouths of the Nueces and the Rio Grande. But his Red River expedition, March-May 1864, forced upon him by superior authority, was a complete failure. In August 1865 he was mustered out of the service, and from 1865 to 1873 he was again a representative in congress, serving as chairman of the committee on foreign affairs. A personal quarrel with President Ulysses Grant led in 1872, however, to his joining the Liberal-Republican revolt in support of Horace Greeley, and as the Liberal-Republican and Democratic candidate he was defeated for re-election.

In 1874 he was successful as a Democratic candidate, serving one term ( 1875- 1877). Having rejoined the Republican party in 1876, he was United States marshal for Massachusetts from 1879 until 1888, when for the ninth time he was elected to Congress. He retired at the close of his term ( 1891) and died at Waltham on the 1st of September 1894.