Nathaniel P. Banks

Nathaniel P. Banks
21st Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives
In office February 2, 1856 – March 4, 1857
President	Franklin Pierce
Preceded by	Linn Boyd
Succeeded by	James Lawrence Orr
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Massachusetts's 5th district
In office March 4, 1889 – March 3, 1891
Preceded by	Edward D. Hayden
Succeeded by	Sherman Hoar
In office March 4, 1875 – March 3, 1879
Preceded by	Daniel W. Gooch
Succeeded by	Selwyn Z. Bowman
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Massachusetts's 6th district
In office December 4, 1865 – March 3, 1873
Preceded by	Daniel W. Gooch
Succeeded by	Benjamin Butler
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Massachusetts's 7th district
In office March 4, 1853 – December 24, 1857
Preceded by	John Z. Goodrich
Succeeded by	Daniel W. Gooch
24th Governor of Massachusetts
In office January 7, 1858 – January 3, 1861
Lieutenant	Eliphalet Trask
Preceded by	Henry Gardner
Succeeded by	John Albion Andrew
Personal details
Born	Nathaniel Prentice Banks January 30, 1816 Waltham, Massachusetts
Died	September 1, 1894 (aged 78) Waltham, Massachusetts
Political party	Democratic American Republican Liberal Republican
Spouse(s)	Mary Theodosia Palmer
Profession	Politician, military officer, U.S. marshal
Signature
Military service
Allegiance	United States of America Union
Service/branch	United States Army Union Army
Years of service	1861–1865
Rank	Major General
Commands	Army of the Shenandoah V Corps Army of the Gulf
Battles/wars	American Civil War

Nathaniel Prentice (or Prentiss)^[1] Banks (January 30, 1816 – September 1, 1894) was an American politician from Massachusetts and a Union general during the American Civil War.

A millworker by background, Banks was prominent in local debating societies, and his oratorical skills were noted by the Democratic Party. But his abolitionist views fitted him better for the nascent Republican Party, through which he became Speaker of the United States House of Representatives and Governor of Massachusetts in the 1850s.

At the outbreak of the Civil War, President Lincoln appointed Banks as one of the first 'political' major generals, over the heads of West Point regulars, who initially resented him, but came to acknowledge his influence on the administration of the war. After suffering a series of inglorious setbacks in the Shenandoah River Valley at the hands of Stonewall Jackson, Banks replaced Benjamin Butler at New Orleans as commander of the Department of the Gulf, charged with administration of Louisiana and gaining control of Mississippi River. But he failed to reinforce Grant at Vicksburg, and badly handled the Siege of Port Hudson, taking its surrender after Vicksburg had fallen. He then launched the Red River Campaign, a failed attempt to occupy eastern Texas that prompted his recall. Banks was also instrumental in early Reconstruction efforts in Louisiana, intended by Lincoln as a model for later such activities.

After the war, Banks returned to the Massachusetts political scene, serving in Congress, where he influenced the Alaska Purchase legislation and supported women's suffrage.

Early life

Nathaniel Startle Prentice Banks was born at Waltham, Massachusetts, the first child of Nathaniel P. Banks, Sr., and Rebecca Greenwood Banks, on January 30, 1816. His father worked in the textile mill of the Boston Manufacturing Company, eventually becoming a foreman.^[2] Banks went to local schools until the age of fourteen, at which point the family's financial demands compelled him to take a job in the mill. He was a bobbin boy, responsible for replacing bobbins full of thread with empty ones.^[3] Because of this he became known as Bobbin Boy Banks, a nickname he carried throughout his life.^[4] He was at one time apprenticed as a mechanic alongside Elias Howe, a cousin.^[5]

Recognizing the value of education, Banks continued to read, sometimes walking to Boston on his days off to visit the Atheneum Library. He attended company-sponsored lectures by luminaries of the day including Daniel Webster and other orators. He formed a debate club with other mill workers to improve their oratorical skills, and took up acting. He became involved in the local temperance movement; speaking at its events brought him to the attention of Democratic Party leaders, who asked him to speak at campaign events during the 1840 elections. He honed his oratorical and political skills by emulating Robert Rantoul, Jr., a Democratic Congressman who also had humble beginnings.^[6]

Banks's success as a speaker convinced him to quit the mill. He first worked as an editor for two short-lived political newspapers; after they failed he ran for a seat in the state legislature in 1844, but lost. He then applied to Rantoul, who had been appointed Collector of the Port of Boston, for a job.^[7] The job gave him sufficient security that he was able to marry Mary Theodosia Palmer, an ex-factory employee he had been courting for some time.^[8] Banks again ran unsuccessfully for the state legislature in 1847.^[9]

Antebellum political career

Banks in his younger years.

In 1848 Banks was victorious in another run for the state legislature, successfully organizing elements in Waltham whose votes were not easily controlled by the Whig-controlled Boston Manufacturing Company (which could effectively compel votes for Whigs because there was no secret ballot).^[10] He was at first moderate in opposition to the expansion of slavery, but recognizing the potency of the burgeoning abolitionist movement, he became more strongly attached to that cause.^[11] This brought Banks, along with fellow Democrats Rantoul and George S. Boutwell to form a coalition with the Free Soil Party that successfully gained control of the legislature and governor's chair. The deals negotiated after the coalition win in the 1850 election put Boutwell in the governor's chair and made Banks the Speaker of the Massachusetts House of Representatives. Although Banks did not like the radical Free Soiler Charles Sumner, he supported the coalition agreement that resulted in Sumner's election to the United States Senate. His role as house speaker and his effectiveness in conducting business raised his status significantly,^[12] as did side work he did for the state Board of Education.^[13]

Congress

In 1852 Banks sought the Democratic nomination for a seat in the United States Congress. While it was at first granted, his refusal to disavow abolitionist positions meant party support was withdrawn. He ended up winning a narrow victory anyway, with Free Soil support.^[14] In 1853, he presided over the state Constitutional Convention of 1853. This convention produced a series of proposals for constitutional reform, including a new constitution, all of which were rejected by voters. The failure, which was led by Whigs and conservative anti-abolitionist Democrats, spelled the end of the Democratic-Free Soil coalition.^[15]

In Congress, Banks sat on the Committee of Military Affairs. He bucked the Democratic party line by voting against the Kansas-Nebraska Act, which overturned the 1820 Missouri Compromise. Supported by his constituents, he then publicly endorsed the abolitionist cause.^[16] In 1854 he formally joined the Know Nothing cause, was renominated for Congress by the Democrats and Free Soilers, and won an easy victory in the Know Nothing landslide.^[17]

In 1855 Banks agreed to chair the convention of a new Republican Party convention, whose platform was intended to bring together antislavery interests from the Democrats, Whigs, Free Soilers, and Know Nothings. When Know Nothing Governor Henry Gardner refused to join in the fusion, Banks carefully kept his options open, passively supporting the Republican effort but also avoiding criticism of Gardner in his speeches. Gardner was reelected.^[18]

At the opening of the Thirty-Fourth Congress in December 1855, representatives from several parties opposed to slavery's spread gradually united in supporting Banks for speaker. After the longest and one of the most bitter speakership contests on record, lasting from December 3, 1855 to February 2, 1856, Banks was chosen on the 133rd ballot.^[19] This has been called the first national victory of the Republican party.^[20] He gave antislavery men important posts in Congress for the first time, and cooperated with investigations of both the Kansas conflict and the caning of Charles Sumner on the floor of the Senate. Because of his fairness in dealing with the numerous factions, as well his parliamentary ability, Banks was lauded by others in the body, including former Speaker Howell Cobb, who called him "in all respects the best presiding officer [I] had ever seen."^[21]

Banks played a key role in 1856 in bringing forward John C. Frémont as a moderate Republican presidential nominee. Because of his success as speaker, Banks was considered a possible presidential contender, and his name was put in nomination by supporters (knowing that he supported Frémont) at the Know Nothing convention, held one week before the Republicans met. Banks then refused the Know Nothing nomination, which went instead to former President Millard Fillmore. Banks was active on the stump in support of Frémont, who lost the election to James Buchanan; Banks easily won reelection to his own seat. Democrats, however, regained control of the House of Representatives, depriving him of the speakership.^[22]

Governor of Massachusetts

In 1857 Banks ran for Governor of Massachusetts against the incumbent Henry Gardner. His nomination by the Republicans was contentious, with opposition coming primarily from radical antislavery interests opposed to his comparatively moderate stand on the issue. After a contentious campaign Banks won a comfortable victory.^[23] One key action Banks took in support of the antislavery movement was the dismissal of Judge Edward G. Loring.^[24] Loring had ruled in 1854 that Anthony Burns, a fugitive slave, be returned to slavery under the terms of the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850.^[25] Under the pressure of a public petition campaign spearheaded by William Lloyd Garrison, the legislature passed two Bills of Address, in 1855 and 1856, calling for Judge Loring to be removed from his state office, but in both cases Governor Gardner declined to remove Loring. Banks signed a third such bill in 1858.^[24]

Banks's 1859 reelection was influenced by two significant issues. One was a state constitutional amendment requiring newly naturalized citizens to wait two years before becoming eligible to vote. Promoted by the state's Know Nothings, it was passed by referendum in May of that year. Banks, catering to Known Nothing supporters, supported its passage, although Republicans elsewhere opposed such measures, because they were seeking immigrant votes.^[26] (The amendment was repealed in 1862-63.)^[27] The other issue was John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry, which more radical Republicans (notably John Albion Andrew) expressed sympathy for. Not yet ready for armed conflict, the state voted for the more moderate Banks.^[26]

Banks made a serious attempt to gain the Republican presidential nomination in 1860, but dislike of him by the radicals in the state party harmed him. His failure to secure a majority in the state delegation prompted him to skip the national convention.^[28] His attempt to promote Henry L. Dawes, another moderate Republican, as his successor in the governor's chair also failed: the party nominated the radical John Andrew, who went on to win the general election.^[29]

Banks then moved to Chicago, Illinois, where he was briefly resident director of the Illinois Central Railroad, engaged primarily in the promotion and sale of the railroad's extensive lands.^[30]

Civil War

Gen. Banks in The champions of the Union, lithograph by Currier & Ives, 1861

As the Civil War became imminent in early 1861, President Abraham Lincoln considered Banks for a cabinet post,^[31] despite a negative recommendation from Governor Andrew, who considered Banks to be unsuitable for any office.^[32] Lincoln eventually chose him as one of the first major generals of volunteers, appointing him on May 16, 1861.^[33] Perceptions that the Massachusetts militia was well organized and armed at the beginning of the Civil War likely played a role in the appointment decision, as Banks had also been considered for quartermaster general. He was initially resented by commanders who had graduated from the United States Military Academy, but Banks, given his national prominence as a leading Republican, brought political benefits to the administration, including the ability to attract recruits and money for the Union cause, despite his lack of significant field experience.^[34]

First command

Banks first commanded a military district in eastern Maryland, which notably included Baltimore, a hotbed of secessionist sentiment and a vital rail link. Banks for the most part stayed out of civil affairs, allowing political expression of secessionism to continue, while maintaining important rail connections between the north and Washington, DC.^[35] He did, however arrest the police chief and commissioners of the city of Baltimore, and replaced the police force with one that had more carefully vetted pro-Union sympathies.^[36] In August 1861, Banks was assigned to the western district of Maryland. There he was responsible for the arrest of legislators sympathetic to the Confederate cause (as was John Adams Dix, who succeeded Banks in the eastern district) in advance of legislative elections. This, combined with the release of local soldiers in his army to vote, ensured that the Maryland legislature remained pro-Union.^[37] Banks's actions had a chilling effect on Confederate sentiment in Maryland, which, although a slave state, remained loyal through the war.^[36]

Shenandoah Valley Campaign

In February 1862 Banks was ordered by Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan to secure the lower Shenandoah Valley, moving most of his forces east of the Blue Ridge Mountains in anticipation of assisting in McLellan's Peninsula Campaign. After Stonewall Jackson was turned back at the March 23 First Battle of Kernstown, Banks was instead ordered to pursue Jackson up the valley, to prevent Jackson from reinforcing the defenses of Richmond. When Banks's men reached the southern Valley at the end of a difficult supply line, the president recalled them to Strasburg, at the northern end.^[38] Jackson then marched rapidly down the adjacent Luray Valley, and encountered some Banks' forces in the May 23 Battle of Front Royal. This prompted Banks to withdraw to Winchester, where Jackson again attacked on May 25. The Union forces were poorly arrayed in defense, and retreated in disorder across the Potomac River and back into Maryland.^[39] An attempt to capture Jackson's forces in a pincer movement (with forces led by John Frémont and Irvin McDowell) failed, and Jackson was able to reinforce Richmond. Banks was criticized in the campaign for mishandling his troops and performing inadequate reconnaissance.^[40]

Northern Virginia Campaign

General Nathaniel P. Banks

In June 1862, the Union forces were reorganized under Maj. Gen. John Pope, with Banks heading one of three divisions. Pope was a West Pointer with little confidence in Banks's abilities as a leader. By early August this force was in Culpeper County. Pope gave Banks an ambiguous series of orders, directing him south of Culpeper to determine enemy strength, hold a fortified defensive position, and to engage the enemy. Banks again placed his troops poorly, and compounded the error by not performing the reconnaissance needed to determine the enemy's strength, particularly in the area of Cedar Mountain, the local high ground, which was held by Confederate forces, a division of Jackson's army led by A.P. Hill. These forces clashed in the August 9 Battle of Cedar Mountain, in which Banks attacked to gain an early advantage, but a Confederate counterattack led by A.P. Hill repulsed Banks' corps and won the day. Banks failed to commit his reserves after nearly flanking the Confederate right, which might have given him the victory.^[41] Although Banks thought the battle one of the "best fought", an officer in his corps described it as "about as great a piece of folly as I have ever witnessed on the part of an incompetent general."^[42] The arrival at the end of the day of Union reinforcements under Pope, as well as the rest of Jackson's men, resulted in a two-day stand-off there. The Northern newspapers provided flattering versions of Banks' performance while Southern newspapers called the battle a Southern victory. Banks was recalled and placed in command of the forces defending Washington.^[43]

Army of the Gulf

In November 1862, President Lincoln gave Banks command of the Army of the Gulf, and asked him to organize a force of thirty thousand new recruits, drawn from New York and New England. As a former governor of Massachusetts, he was politically connected to the governors of these states, and the recruitment effort was successful.^[44] In December he sailed from New York with a large force of raw recruits to replace Maj. Gen. Benjamin Butler at New Orleans, Louisiana, as commander of the Department of the Gulf.^[45]

According to historian John D. Winters, Butler disliked Banks and his portrayed success as a general drawn from "civil life".^[46] Nevertheless, Butler, "swallowing his bitter pill with a show of good grace," welcomed Banks to New Orleans and briefed him on civil and military affairs of importance. Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy, doubted the wisdom of replacing Butler [also a political general, and later a Massachusetts governor] with Banks. According to Winters, "Welles's opinion of the military abilities of both men was very low, but he did not question Butler's skill as a 'police magistrate' in charge of civil affairs. Banks, he thought, did not have 'the energy, power or ability of Butler.' He did have 'some ready qualities for civil administration,' but was less reckless and unscrupulous' and probably would not be able to hold a tight enough rein on the people" once placed under Union control."^[46]

Banks issued orders to his men prohibiting pillage, but the undisciplined troops had chosen to disobey them, particularly when near a prosperous plantation. A soldier of the New York 114th wrote: "The men soon learned the pernicious habit of slyly leaving their places in the ranks when opposite a planter's house. ... Oftentimes a soldier can be found with such an enormous development of the organ of destructiveness that the most severe punishment cannot deter him from indulging in the breaking of mirrors, pianos, and the most costly furniture. Men of such reckless disposition are frequently guilty of the most horrible desecrations."^[47]

Banks's wife joined him in New Orleans, and held lavish dinner parties for the benefit of Union soldiers and their families. On April 12, 1864, she played the role of the "Goddess of Liberty" surrounded by all of the states of the reunited country. She did not then know of her husband's loss at the Battle of Mansfield three days earlier. By July 4, 1864, however, occupied New Orleans had recovered from the Red River Campaign to hold another mammoth concert extolling the Union.^[48]

Siege of Port Hudson

Part of Banks's orders included instructions to ascend the Mississippi River to join forces with Ulysses S. Grant, in order to gain control of the waterway, which was under Confederate control between Vicksburg, Mississippi and Port Hudson, Louisiana. Grant was moving against Vicksburg, and Banks was under orders to secure Port Hudson before joining Grant at Vicksburg. He did not move immediately, because the garrison at Port Hudson was reported to be large,^[49] his new recruits were ill-equipped and insufficiently trained for action, and he was overwhelmed by the bureaucratic demands of administering the occupied portions of Louisiana.^[50] He did send forces to reoccupy Baton Rouge, and sent a small expedition that briefly occupied Galveston, Texas but was evicted in the Battle of Galveston (January 1, 1863).^[51]

In 1862, several Union gunboats had successfully passed onto the river between Vicksburg and Port Hudson, interfering with Confederate supply and troop movements. In March 1863, after they had been captured or destroyed, naval commander David Farragut sought to run the river past Port Hudson in a bid to regain control over that area, and convinced Banks to make a diversionary land attack on the Confederate stronghold. Banks marched with 12,000 men from Baton Rouge on March 13, but was unable to reach the enemy position due to inaccurate maps. He then compounded the failure to engage the enemy with miscommunications with Farragut.^[52][53] The naval commander successfully navigated two gunboats past Port Hudson, taking fire en route, without support. Banks ended up retreating back to Baton Rouge, his troops plundering all along the way. The episode was a further blow to Banks's reputation as a military commander, leaving many with the false impression he had not wanted to support Farragut.^[52]

1860s map showing the Siege of Port Hudson

Under political pressure to show progress, Banks embarked on operations to secure a route that bypassed Port Hudson via the Red River in late March.^[54] He was eventually able to reach Alexandria, Louisiana, but stiff resistance from the smaller forces of Confederate General Richard Taylor meant he did not get there until early May. His army seized thousands of bales of cotton, and Banks claimed to have interrupted supplies to Confederate forces further east. During these operations Admiral Farragut turned command of the naval forces assisting Banks to David Porter, with whom Banks had a difficult and prickly relationship.^[55]

Following a request from Grant for assistance against Vicksburg, Banks finally laid siege to Port Hudson in May 1863.^[56] Two attempts to carry the works by storm, as with Grant at Vicksburg, were dismal failures. The first, made against the entrenched enemy on May 27, failed because of inadequate reconnaissance and because Banks failed to ensure the attacks along the line were coordinated.^[57][58] After a bloody repulse, Banks continued the siege, and launched a second assault on June 14. It was also badly coordinated, and the repulse was equally bloody: each of the two attacks resulted in more than 1,800 Union casualties.^[57] The Confederate garrison under General Franklin Gardner surrendered on July 9, 1863, after receiving word that Vicksburg had fallen.^[59] This brought the entire Mississippi River under Union control. Port Hudson was the first time African American soldiers were used in a major Civil War battle.^[60][61]

In the autumn of 1863, Lincoln and Chief of Staff Henry Halleck informed Banks that plans should be made for operations against the coast of Texas, chiefly for the purpose of preventing the French in Mexico from aiding the Confederates or occupying Texas, and to interdict Confederate supplies from Texas heading east.^[62] The second objective he attempted to achieve at first by again sending a force against Galveston, which was badly beaten in the Second Battle of Sabine Pass on September 8.^[63] An expedition sent to Brownsville secured possession of the region near the mouth of the Rio Grande and the Texas outer islands in November.^[64]

Red River Campaign

As part of operations against Texas, Halleck also promoted to Banks the Red River Campaign, an overland approach to taking resource-rich but well-defended parts of northern Texas. Banks and General Grant both considered the Red River Campaign a strategic distraction, with an eastward thrust to capture Mobile, Alabama preferred.^[65] Political forces prevailed, and Halleck drafted a plan for operations on the Red River.^[66]

The campaign lasted from March to May 1864, and was a major failure. Banks's army was routed at the Battle of Mansfield (April 8) by General Taylor and retreated 20 miles (32 km) to make a stand the next day at the Battle of Pleasant Hill. Despite winning a tactical victory at Pleasant Hill, Banks continued the retreat to Alexandria, his force rejoining part of David Porter's Federal Inland Fleet. That naval force had joined the Red River Campaign to support the army^[67] and to take on cotton as a lucrative prize of war, and Banks had allowed rich speculators to come along for the gathering of cotton. A cooperating land force launched from Little Rock, Arkansas was turned back in the Camden Expedition.^[68]

Part of Porter's large fleet became trapped above the falls at Alexandria by low water. Banks and others approved a plan proposed by Joseph Bailey to build wing dams as a means to raise what little water was left in the channel. In ten days, 10,000 troops built two dams, and managed to rescue Porter's fleet, allowing all to retreat to the Mississippi River.^[69] After the campaign, just before General William T. Sherman began his operations against Atlanta, Sherman said of the Red River campaign that it was "One damn blunder from beginning to end", and Banks earned the dislike and loss of respect of his officers and rank and file for his mishandling of the campaign.^[70] On April 22, 1864, Grant wired Chief of Staff Halleck asking for Banks's removal. Banks was replaced by Edward Canby, who was promoted to major general.

The Confederates held the Red River for the remainder of the war. They finally surrendered in June 1865, two months after Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered the Army of Northern Virginia at Appomattox Court House in Virginia.

Louisiana Reconstruction

Banks undertook a number of steps intended to facilitate the Reconstruction plans of President Lincoln in Louisiana. When Banks arrived in New Orleans, the atmosphere was somewhat hostile to the Union owing to some of Butler's actions. Banks moderated some of Butler's policies, freeing civilians that Butler had detained and reopening churches whose ministers refused to support the Union. He recruited large numbers of blacks for the military, and instituted a formal work program to organize the many slaves who had wandered from their plantations, believing they had been freed. Because Banks believed the plantation owners would need to play a role in Reconstruction, the work program was not particularly friendly to the blacks, requiring them to sign year-long work contracts, and subjecting vagrant blacks to involuntary public work.^[71]

In August 1863, President Lincoln ordered Banks to oversee the creation of a new state constitution, and in December granted him wide-ranging authority to oversee the creation of a new civilian government.^[72][73] However, because voter enrollment was low, Banks cancelled planned Congressional elections, and worked with civilian authorities to increase enrollment rates. After a February 1864 election organized by Banks, a Unionist government was elected in Louisiana, and Banks optimistically reported to Lincoln that Louisiana would "become in two years, under a wise and strong government, one of the most loyal and prosperous States the world has ever seen."^[74] A constitutional convention held from April to July 1864 drafted a new constitution that provided for the emancipation of slaves.^[75] Banks was a significant influence on the convention, insisting that provisions be included for black education and at least partial suffrage.^[76]

By the time the convention ended, Banks's Red River Campaign had come to its ignominious end and Banks was superseded in military matters by General Canby. President Lincoln ordered Banks to oversee elections held under the new constitution in September, and then ordered him to return to Washington to lobby Congress for acceptance of Louisiana's constitution and elected Congressmen.^[77] Congress refused to seat Louisiana's two Congressmen in early 1865. After six months, Banks returned to Louisiana to resume his military command under Canby. However, he was politically trapped between the civilian government and Canby, and resigned from the army in May 1865 after only one month in New Orleans. He returned to Massachusetts in September 1865.^[78]

A secret presidential investigating commission headed by conservative Democrats William Farrar Smith and James T. Brady in early 1865 sought without success to connect Banks with vice and irregular trading permits in the New Orleans area. The somewhat one-sided final commission report, which did not specifically accuse him of wrongdoing, was never released. But Banks had definitely granted special favors without apparent compensation to men later connected to the Crédit Mobilier scandal and to a few others of questionable reputation.

General Banks was mustered out of the Army on August 24, 1865. Military recognition of service in the war included election in 1867 as a captain of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company of Massachusetts. He was re-elected for a second one-year term in 1875. In 1892 he was elected as a Veteran First Class Companion of the Massachusetts Commandery of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States, a military society for officers who had served the Union during the Civil War.

Postbellum career

Postbellum portrait by Mathew Brady or Levin C. Handy

Banks was once again elected as a representative to Congress, serving from 1865 to 1873, during which time he chaired the Foreign Affairs Committee and sometimes also headed the Republican caucus. He was active in supporting the reconstruction work he had done in Louisiana, trying to get its Congressional delegation seated in 1865. He was opposed in this by a powerful faction in Louisiana, who argued he had essentially set up a puppet regime, and alienated Radical Republicans by accepting a bill on the matter that omitted a requirement that states not be readmitted until they had given their black citizenry voting rights.^[79] Despite his position as chair of an important committee, Banks was snubbed by President Grant, who worked around him whenever possible.^[80] In 1872 he joined the Liberal-Republican revolt in support of Horace Greeley. While Banks was campaigning across the North for Greeley, an opponent successfully gathered enough support in his Massachusetts district to defeat him as the joint Liberal-Republican and Democratic candidate.

During this period in Congress, Banks played a key role in the final passage of the Alaska Purchase legislation, supported women's suffrage, and was one of the strongest early advocates of Manifest Destiny. Banks' financial records strongly suggest he received a large gratuity from the Russian minister after the Alaska legislation passed.^[81] Banks supported the idea that the United States should acquire Canada and the Caribbean islands in order to reduce European influence in the region. He also served on the committee investigating the Crédit Mobilier scandal.

After his loss in then 1872 election, Banks invested in a start-up Kentucky railroad and other railroads, hoping they would substitute for the political loss. But the Panic of 1873 doomed the railroad, and Banks went on the lecture circuit. He also won election to the Massachusetts Senate.

Statue of Banks by Henry Hudson Kitson, Waltham, Massachusetts

In 1874, Banks was elected to Congress again, this time as an independent, and served two terms (1875–1879). He was a member of the committee investigating the irregular 1876 elections in South Carolina. After he was defeated in 1878, President Rutherford B. Hayes appointed him as United States marshal for Massachusetts as a patronage reward for his service. He held the post from 1879 until 1888, but exercised poor oversight over his subordinates, and consequently became embroiled in legal action over the recovery of unpaid fees.^[82]

In 1888 Banks once again won a seat in Congress. He played little role, because his mental health was failing.^[83] After one term he was not renominated, and retired to Waltham.^[84] His health continued to deteriorate, and he was briefly sent to McLean Hospital shortly before his death in Waltham on September 1, 1894.^[85] His death made nationwide headlines; he is buried in Waltham's Grove Hill Cemetery.^[84]

Legacy and honors

Fort Banks in Winthrop, Massachusetts, built in the late 1890s, was named for him.^[86] A statue of him stands in Waltham's Central Square,^[87] and Banks Street in New Orleans is named after him, as is Banks Court in Chicago's Gold Coast neighborhood.^[88] His Waltham home from 1855 to his death is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.^[89]

See also

• List of American Civil War generals
• List of Massachusetts generals in the American Civil War
• Massachusetts in the American Civil War

Notes

1. Many short biographical summaries spell his middle name "Prentiss." He is known to have spelled it "Prentice".
2. Hollandsworth, p. 3
3. Hollandsworth, p. 4
4. Reef, p. 327
5. Rosenberg, p. 41
6. Hollandsworth, pp. 5–8
7. Hollandsworth, pp. 8–9
8. Banks, R.H., pp. 9–25
9. Hollandsworth, p. 10
10. Hollandsworth, pp. 10–11
11. Hollandsworth, p. 12
12. Hollandsworth, pp. 13–14
13. Hollandsworth, p. 15
14. Hollandsworth, pp. 15–16
15. Hollandsworth, pp. 16–17
16. Hollandsworth, pp. 20–21
17. Hollandsworth, pp. 22–23
18. Hollandsworth, p. 24
19. Hollandsworth, pp. 25–27
20. Hollandsworth, p. 29
21. Hollandsworth, p. 28
22. Hollandsworth, pp. 30–33
23. Hollandsworth, pp. 34–35
24. Voss-Hubbard (1995), pp. 173–174
25. Von Frank, p. 1
26. Hollandsworth, pp. 37-38
27. Baum, p. 48
28. Hollandsworth, pp. 40-41
29. Pearson, pp. 1:119–120,123-128
30. Hollandsworth, p. 44
31. Hollandsworth, p. 43
32. Baum, p. 57
33. Work, pp. 10–11
34. Hollandsworth, pp. 44-45
35. Hollandsworth, pp. 46-48
36. Harris, pp. 66-80
37. Work, pp. 160-161
38. Work, pp. 58-59
39. Work, pp. 60-61
40. Work, pp. 61-63
41. Work, pp. 66-69
42. Work, p. 69
43. Hollandsworth, p. 81
44. Hollandsworth, pp. 83-85
45. Hollandsworth, pp. 84-86
46. Winters, p. 146
47. Winters, p. 236
48. Winters, p. 390
49. Work, p. 99
50. Patterson, pp. 76-77
51. Dupree, pp. 25-30
52. Work, p. 100
53. Dupree, pp. 32–33
54. Dupree, pp. 41–44
55. Dupree, pp. 42–44
56. Dupree, p. 45
57. Work, p. 104
58. Dupree, pp. 44–47
59. Dupree, p. 48
60. Patterson, p. 84
61. Hewitt, pp. 174-178
62. Dupree, pp. 49-51
63. Dupree, pp. 55-61
64. Dupree, pp. 70-74
65. Johnson, pp. 1-36
66. Work, p. 123
67. Work, pp. 123-128
68. WOrk, pp. 123-124
69. Work, p. 128
70. Work, p. 127
71. Dawson, pp. 11–14
72. Dawson, p. 16
73. Tunnell, p. 30
74. Dawson, pp. 16–18
75. Dawson, p. 18
76. Tunnell, p. 79
77. Dawson, p. 19
78. Dawson, pp. 19–23
79. Richards, pp. 219-221
80. Baum, p. 169
81. Banks, R.H., pp. 1312–17
82. Hollandsworth, pp. 248–249
83. Hollandsworth, pp. 249–250
84. Hollandsworth, pp. 252–253
85. Hollandsworth, pp. 251–252
86. Plaque on site provided by Winthrop Historical Commission. Photographed 19-Oct-2009
87. Hollandsworth, p. 254
88. http://www.chsmedia.org/househistory/namechanges/start.pdf
89. "MACRIS inventory record and NRHP nomination for Gale-Banks House". Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Retrieved 2014-04-26.

References

• Banks, Raymond H (2005). The King of Louisiana, 1862-1865, and Other Government Work: A Biography of Major General Nathaniel Prentice Banks. Las Vegas, NV: self-published. OCLC 63270945.
• Baum, Dale (1984). The Civil War Party System: The Case of Massachusetts, 1848-1876. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press. ISBN 9780807815885.
• Dawson, Joseph (1994). Army Generals and Reconstruction: Louisiana 1862–1877. Baton Rouge, LA: Louisiana State University Press. ISBN 9780807119600. OCLC 31399333.
• Dupree, Stephen (2008). Planting the Union flag in Texas: The Campaigns of Major General Nathaniel P. Banks in the West. College Station, TX: Texas A&M University Press. ISBN 9781585446414. OCLC 153772989.
• Eicher, John H., and David J. Eicher. Civil War High Commands. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2001. ISBN 0-8047-3641-3.
• Bowen, James L., Massachusetts in the War 1861-1865. Springfield, MA: Clark W. Bryan, 1889.
• Foote, Shelby. The Civil War: A Narrative. vol. 1, Fort Sumter to Perryville. New York: Random House, 1958. ISBN 0-394-49517-9.
• Hewitt, Lawrence Lee (1994). Port Hudson, Confederate Bastion on the Mississippi. Baton Rouge, LA: LSU Press. ISBN 9780807119617. OCLC 31399457.
• Hollandsworth, James (1998). Pretense of Glory: The Life of General Nathaniel P. Banks. Baton Rouge, LA: Louisiana State University Press. ISBN 0-8071-2293-9.
• Johnson, Ludwell H (1993) [1958]. Red River Campaign: Politics and Cotton in the Civil War. Kent, OH: Kent State University Press. ISBN 9780873384865. OCLC 27035762.
• Joiner, Gary Dillard. One Damn Blunder from Beginning to End: The Red River Campaign of 1864. Wilmington, DE: Scholarly Resources, 2003. ISBN 0-8420-2937-0.
• Patterson, Benton Rain (2014). Lincoln's Political Generals: The Battlefield Performance of Seven Controversial Appointees. Jefferson, NC: McFarland. ISBN 9780786478576. OCLC 877370980.
• Pearson, Henry. The Life of John A. Andrew (Volume 1, Volume 2)
• Reef, Catherine (2009). Education and Learning in America. New York: Facts on File. ISBN 9781438126906. OCLC 435912035.
• Richards, Leonard (2015). Who Freed the Slaves?: The Fight Over the Thirteenth Amendment. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. ISBN 9780226178202. OCLC 881469687.
• Rosenberg, Chaim (2004). The Great Workshop: Boston's Victorian Age. Charleston, SC: Arcadia Publishing. ISBN 9780738524689. OCLC 60246514.
• Von Frank, Albert (1998). The Trials of Anthony Burns. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-03954-4. OCLC 37721476.
• Voss-Hubbard, Mark (August 1995). "The Political Culture of Emancipation: Morality, Politics, and the State in Garrisonian Abolitionism, 1854–1863". Journal of American Studies (Volume 29, No. 2). JSTOR 27555920.
• Warner, Ezra J. Generals in Blue: Lives of the Union Commanders. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1964. ISBN 0-8071-0822-7.
• Tunnell, Ted (1984). Crucible of Reconstruction: War, Radicalism and Race in Louisiana; 1862–1877. Baton Rouge, LA: Louisiana State University Press. ISBN 9780807118030.
• Work, David (2012) [2009]. Lincoln's Political Generals. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press. ISBN 9780252078613. OCLC 776777739.
• United States Congress. "BANKS, Nathaniel Prentice (id: B000116)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.

External links

• Website of Banks links
• NNDB entry
• Infoplease biography
•  "Banks, Nathaniel Prentice". Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography. 1900.