★ ★ Banks, Nathaniel P.

Nathaniel Prentice Banks Jr.​

Born: January 30, 1816

Birthplace: Waltham, Massachusetts

Father: Nathaniel Prentice Banks Sr. 1783 – 1857

(Buried: Grove Hill Cemetery, Waltham, Massachusetts)​

Mother: Rebecca Greenwood 1793 – 1873

(Buried: Grove Hill Cemetery, Waltham, Massachusetts)​

Wife: Mary Theodosia Palmer 1819 – 1901

(Buried: Grove Hill Cemetery, Waltham, Massachusetts)​

Married: April 11, 1847 in Waltham, Massachusetts

Children:

Henry Waltham Banks 1848 – 1853​

(Buried: Grove Hill Cemetery, Waltham, Massachusetts)​

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Joseph Fremont Banks 1855 – 1931​

(Buried: Grove Hill Cemetery, Waltham, Massachusetts)​

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Maude Banks 1857 – 1927​

(Buried: Grove Hill Cemetery, Waltham, Massachusetts)​

Occupation before War:

Editor of Weekly Newspaper in Waltham, Massachusetts​

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Attorney in Boston, Massachusetts​

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1849 – 1852: Massachusetts State Representative

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1853: Member Massachusetts State Constitution Convention​

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1853 – 1857: U.S. Congressman from Massachusetts​

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1856 – 1857: Speaker of U.S. House of Representatives​

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1858 – 1861: Governor of Massachusetts​

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1860: Unsuccessful Candidate for Republican Nomination​

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1860: Unsuccessful Candidate for Nomination as Vice President​

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Vice President of Illinois Central Railroad​

Civil War Career:

1861: Was Considered for Cabinet position by President Lincoln​

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1861 – 1865: Major General of Union Army Volunteers​

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1861: Union Commander of Military District of Eastern Maryland​

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1861: Union Commander of Military District of Western Maryland​

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1861 – 1862: Union Army Commander, Department of the Shenandoah​

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1862: Unsuccessful Union Army Commander, Valley Campaign in Virginia​

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1862: Union Army Commander of 5th Army Corps​

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1862: Union Army Commander, Department of the Shenandoah​

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1862: Union Army Commander, First Battle of Winchester, Virginia​

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1862: Union Army Commander, 2nd​ Army Corps Army of Virginia

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1862: Union Army Commander, Battle of Cedar Mountain, Virginia​

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1862: Stationed with his troops at Bristoe Station, Virginia​

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1862: Relieved of Command of his troops on September 12th​​

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1862 – 1864: Army Union Commander, Army of the Gulf​

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Held dinner parties in New Orleans, Louisiana​

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1863: Union Army Commander, Siege of Port Hudson, Louisiana​

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1864: Union Army Commander, during Red River Campaign, Louisiana​

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1864: Union Army Commander, Battle of Mansfield, Louisiana​

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1864: Union Army Commander, Battle of Pleasant Hill, Louisiana​

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1865: Resigned as Major General in May​

Occupation after War:

Advocate of Manifest Destiny​

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1865 – 1873: U.S. Congressman from Massachusetts​

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1865 – 1873: Congressional Chairman of Foreign Affairs Committee​

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1872: Supporter of Horace Greeley's Presidential Campaign​

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1875 – 1879: U.S. Congressman from Massachusetts​

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1879 – 1888: United States Marshal for Massachusetts​

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1889 – 1891: U.S. Congressman from Massachusetts​

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1889 – 1891: Congressional Chairman of Interior Dept. Expenses​

Died: September 1, 1894

Place of Death: Waltham, Massachusetts

Age at time of Death: 78 years old

Burial Place: Grove Hill Cemetery, Waltham, Massachusetts

 

[gentlemanrob]

Happy weekend (January 30th) Birthday Major General Nathaniel P. Banks! Salutes remembering General Banks on his birthday.

 

[ErnieMac]

Despite numerous articles discussing Banks' replacement following the Red River debacle, no such event occurred. On May 7, 1864, the War Department created the Military Division of West Mississippi to be commanded by MG E. R. S. Canby. The division was composed of the Department of Arkansas and Department of the Gulf (Banks' command). Canby took control of all military affairs in the Division, but leaving Banks to deal with political affairs, primarily in Louisiana, until his resignation from the army in May, 1865.

 

[Louisiana Jayhawker]

Happy Birthday General Banks!!! I have upheld the importance of Politician Generals in the American Civil War and will always do so. His reported defeat at Mansfield, Louisiana was caused by a mistake in his plan of marching which caused a portion of his Army to be overthrown. He reformed at Pleasant Hill shortly afterwards whereupon he received the full force of the enemy. The Confederates were checked and soon driven off the field. Within a short period, Banks ordered a retreat for reasons others than a defeat. His victory is now changed to a draw. He should not have left the dead on the field. He did capture the entire garrison at Port Hudson (around 6,000).

 

[Pollaco]

I'm sure just about everyone here has heard of his childhood job at a cotton mill in Massachusetts and his nickname as "Bobbin Boy".

 

[Pollaco]

I was sure I sent this earlier about someone and I was sure it was Banks, maybe not.There were 14 officers given the Thanks of Congress and Banks was one of those 14.

 

[Pollaco]

When Lincoln considered Banks for a cabinet post he got a negative recommendation from Massachusetts Gov. Andrew who considered Banks to be unsuitable for any office.

 

[Pollaco]

John Fremont attempted to start up a Railroad in Kentucky. This would have been about 1872 and the attempt was unsuccessful
Banks was an investor and appears to have lost heavily. He had just lost an election to Daniel Gooch and he was hoping the added income would help take the "bite" out of defeat.

 

[NedBaldwin]

When Lincoln considered Banks for a cabinet post he got a negative recommendation from Massachusetts Gov. Andrew who considered Banks to be unsuitable for any office.

Though both Republicans, Banks and Andrews were not allies.

 

[NedBaldwin]

John Fremont attempted to start up a Railroad in Kentucky. This would have been about 1872 and the attempt was unsuccessful
Banks was an investor and appears to have lost heavily. He had just lost an election to Daniel Gooch and he was hoping the added income would help take the "bite" out of defeat.

Two years later he ran as an independent and beat Gooch to take back the seat.

 

[Pollaco]

Two years later he ran as an independent and beat Gooch to take back the seat.

It seems like him and Gooch ran against each other several times in their political careers, it was almost like they were "taking turns" or something.

 

[NedBaldwin]

It seems like him and Gooch ran against each other several times in their political careers, it was almost like they were "taking turns" or something.

At first they were friends - when Banks left Congress to become Governor, Gooch ran for the seat and Banks supported him.
Gooch was on the Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War and wrote a minority report favorable to Banks on the Red River campaign. At the end of the war Gooch resigned to take a government job in Boston and Banks won the seat back. But after that they came into conflict and challenged each other for the seat for several elections in a row.

 

[gentlemanrob]

Today is a political general's birthday before the war he served as United States Speaker of the House during the war he would rise to the rank of Major General in the Union Army. After the war he would return to U.S. Congress.

 

[Pollaco]

Happy Birthday, Bobbin Boy!

 

[LSBusch]

I doubt Colonel William T. Shaw, 14th Iowa Volunteers, commander of the Third Brigade, Sixteenth Corps, ever forgave Banks after the Battle of Pleasant Hill. He was dismissed from the Army October 4, 1864, after writing letters to newspapers about Banks and the battle (Chapter 8 of my book).

 

[USS ALASKA]

Pretense of Glory: The Life of General Nathaniel P. Banks by James G. Jr. Hollandsworth

In this first modern biography of Nathaniel P. Banks, James G. Hollandsworth, Jr., reveals the complicated and contradictory nature of the man who called himself the "fighting politician." Despite a lack of formal education, family connections, and personal fortune, Banks (1816–1884) advanced from the Massachusetts legislature to the governorship to the U.S. Congress and Speaker of the House. He learned early in his political career that the pretext of conviction can be more important than the conviction itself, and he practiced a politics of expedience, espousing popular beliefs but never defining beliefs of his own. A leader in the new Republican party, he developed a reputation as a compelling orator and a politician with a bright future.

At the onset of the Civil War, Lincoln appointed Banks a major general, and, as Hollandsworth shows, the same pretext of conviction that served Banks so well in politics proved disastrous on the battlefield. He suffered resounding defeats in the 1862 Shenandoah Valley Campaign, the Battle of Cedar Mountain, and the Red River Campaign. Illuminating the personal characteristics that stalled the promise of Banks's early political career and contributed to his dismal record as a commanding officer, Hollandsworth demonstrates how Banks's obsessive pretense of glory prevented him from achieving its reality.

Pretense of Glory: The Life of General Nathaniel P. Banks: Hollandsworth, James G.: 9780807122938: Amazon.com: Books

Pretense of Glory: The Life of General Nathaniel P. Banks [Hollandsworth, James G.] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Pretense of Glory: The Life of General Nathaniel P. Banks

www.amazon.com

Cheers,
USS ALASKA

 

[bayouace]

I live 4 miles from Port Hudson, and as I walk some of the trails to still-existing fortifications there, I wonder how it took Banks and some 24,000 men 49 days to take Port Hudson from 5,000 under-gunned, starving Confederates. As it was, Gardner surrendered when Grant took Vicksburg, and Banks simply walked in.

 

[Luke Freet]

Banks gets harped on for his abilities as a general, though I feel people should be taking more umbridge with his treatment of black soldiers. When he took command in Louisiana, he inheritted the Louisiana Native Guard from Benjamin Butler, one of the first black units formed for Union service, and one of the first in American military history to allow blacks to serve as officers. This last fact irked the New Englander, and so he took upon a campaign to ride himself of these officers. He tricked officers of the Third Regiment into resignation; allowed white soldiers to harass the Guardsmen while punishing those who took issue with their treatment; and often assigned the officers to backwoods assignments, hoping they'd resign out of frustration.

At Port Hudson, he placed the guardsmen under the drunkard William Dwight, who sent them in a poorly planned charge against the enemy works, resulting in horrific casualties. Among the dead in this senseless charge was Captain Andre Cailloux, one of the few remaining black officers in the 1st Native Guards; after losing his arm earlier in the charge, he was cut in two by a cannonball, dying in agony. Around 600 men lay dead or wounded in front of the rebel works. When the rebel commander in the sector, Colonel Shelby, requested a truce to allow the Union forces to remove the bodies; Banks claimed "I have no casualties in that area", and refused. It would be another 47 days, after the fortress surrendered, when the bloated corpses of Cailloux and his men were recovered.

(for further reading, see Hollandsworth's "The Louisiana Native Guards").

Men like Banks show the deep rooted racism and unwillingness to accept blacks as equals amongst many northerners, even those of the Republican party.

 

[bayouace]

Ah, yes. The famous Whiskey Charge. Dwight is on my list, as well.