Banks, Nathaniel Prentice

Life Span
to
Full name
Nathaniel Prentice Banks
Place of Birth
Waltham, MA
Burial Place
Waltham, MA
Birth Date Certainty
Exact
Death Date Certainty
Exact
Gender
Male
Race
White
Sectional choice
North
Origins
Free State
Family
Nathaniel P. Banks (father), Rebecca Greenwood (mother), Mary Palmer (wife, 1847)
Occupation
Politician
Military
Attorney or Judge
Businessman
Journalist
Political Parties
Democratic
Republican
American Party (Know Nothings or Nativists)
Liberal Republican
Other
Other Political Party
Independent
Other Affiliations
Nativists (Know Nothings)
Government
Harrison/Tyler Administration (1841-45)
Polk Administration (1845-49)
US House of Representatives
Governor
State legislature
Military
Union Army

Nathaniel Prentice Banks (Congressional Biographical Directory)

Reference
BANKS, Nathaniel Prentice, a Representative from Massachusetts; born in Waltham, Mass., January 30, 1816; attended the common schools; a machinist by trade; editor of a weekly paper in Waltham, Mass.; clerk in the customhouse in Boston, Mass.; studied law; was admitted to the Suffolk County bar and commenced practice in Boston; member of the State house of representatives 1849-1852, for two years serving as speaker; member of the State constitutional convention of 1853; elected as a Democrat to the Thirty-third Congress, as the candidate of the American Party to the Thirty-fourth Congress, and as a Republican to the Thirty-fifth Congress and served from March 4, 1853, until he resigned December 24, 1857, to become Governor; Speaker of the House of Representatives (Thirty-fourth Congress); Governor of Massachusetts from January 1858, until January 1861; moved to Chicago, Ill.; vice president of the Illinois Central Railroad; entered the Union Army as a major general of Volunteers May 16, 1861; honorably mustered out August 24, 1865; returned to Massachusetts; elected as a Republican to the Thirty-ninth Congress to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Daniel W. Gooch; reelected as a Republican to the Fortieth, Forty-first, and Forty-second Congresses and served from December 4, 1865, to March 3, 1873; chairman, Committee on Foreign Affairs (Thirty-ninth through Forty-second Congresses); unsuccessful Liberal and Democratic candidate for reelection in 1872 to the Forty-third Congress; member of the State senate in 1874; elected as an Independent to the Forty-fourth Congress and as a Republican to the Forty-fifth Congress (March 4, 1875-March 3, 1879); unsuccessful candidate for renomination in 1878 to the Forty-sixth Congress; appointed United States marshal on March 11, 1879, and served until April 23, 1888; elected as a Republican to the Fifty-first Congress (March 4, 1889-March 3, 1891); chairman, Committee on Expenditures in the Department of the Interior (Fifty-first Congress); unsuccessful candidate for renomination in 1890 to the Fifty-second Congress; died in Waltham, Middlesex County, Mass., September 1, 1894; interment in Grove Hill Cemetery.
“Banks, Nathaniel Prentice,” Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1774 to Present, http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=B000116.
Date Event
The 34th Congress opens in Washington, DC
- The 34th Congress is in session in Washington, DC, sitting from early December, 1855 till mid-August, 1857
The 34th Congress ends its first session in Washington, DC
The 34th Congress begins a ten day special session in Washington, DC
- The House and the Senate are both sitting in a special session that will last till the end of the month
The special session of both houses of Congress adjourns in Washington, DC
The regular second session of the 34th Congress opens in Washington, DC
With the end of its second regular session, the 34th Congress of the United States finishes its term and adjourns
Governor Banks of Massachusetts signs the order removing Judge Edward Greely Loring as Judge of Probate for Suffolk County
Amid great ceremony, the cornerstone is laid for the National Monument at Plymouth Rock
- Michigan State Fair in session in Detroit
Massachusetts Republicans make William H. Seward their first choice for President
Governor Banks of Massachusetts declines re-nomination for a second term
Federal troops arrest Baltimore's four Police Commissioners in pre-dawn raids on their homes
In Baltimore, the War Department, to secure local shipping from hijack, seizes two Chesapeake ferries
- Federal troops in Maryland swoop to arrest pro-secession legislators, officials, and newspaper editors
Confederate artillery shells Hancock, Maryland, firing across the Potomac from Morgan County, Virginia
In the Shenandoah Valley, Union forces skirmish with retreating Confederates around Woodstock
President Lincoln creates two new army departments, one directly protecting Washington DC
Union forces continue to advance in the Shenandoah Valley and occupy Mount Jackson
Stonewall Jackson wins a major victory at Winchester and drives Union forces back into Maryland
Major General Banks completes his withdrawal from the Shenandoah Valley to Maryland
Union troops land below Port Hudson seeking to make contact with Admiral Farragut's naval force
- In Louisiana, Union forces advance to surround the Mississippi River fortress at Port Hudson
Afro-Creole Captain Andre Cailloux falls at the head of his troops in the attack on Port Hudson
In Louisiana, Confederate defenders of Port Hudson beat back an all-out Union assault
African-American troops perform well in the abortive attack on Port Hudson and earn wide praise
- In Louisiana, the Siege of Port Hudson continues
In Louisiana, Confederate defenders of Port Hudson beat back another all-out Union assault
- In Louisiana, the Siege of Port Hudson continues
U.S. naval units drive off a Confederate attempt to capture Donaldsonville, Louisiana
The War Department decides that Generals Fremont and McClellan outrank General Benjamin Butler
In Louisiana, General N.P. Banks accepts the surrender of Port Hudson after a seven week siege
In Texas, the Confederate fort defending the Sabine Pass defeats a far superior Union amphibious attack
On the Red River, Union troops storm the formidable Fort De Russy in twenty minutes
At Mansfield, Louisiana, Confederate forces deal a severe blow to the Union's Red River Campaign
In Louisiana, after defeat the day before, reinforced Union troops repel further attacks at Pleasant Hill
A mass meeting in Ontario calls for annexation of parts of Canada to the United States
Know Nothings
Red River Campaign
Republican Party
Thirty-Ninth Congress of the United States
Fortieth Congress of the United States
Date Title
Abraham Lincoln to Lyman Trumbull, June 7, 1856
New York Times, “How a Gentleman is Appreciated by Proslavery Fanatics,” March 18, 1857
New York Times, "Presidential Candidates," July 14, 1858
New York Herald, “Douglas for the Presidency,” November 7, 1858
Carlisle (PA) American Volunteer, "Tenderly Sensitive," November 3, 1859
Newark (OH) Advocate, “Mr. Douglas and the Presidency,” December 23, 1859
Newark (OH) Advocate, “The Chicago Convention,” March 2, 1860
Richmond (VA) Dispatch, “The Chicago Convention,” May 21, 1860
New York Herald, “Commencement of Republican Cabinet Making,” June 12, 1860
New York Herald, “Massachusetts Thoroughly Abolitionized,” September 7, 1860
New York Herald, “The Crisis and Its Solution,” December 10, 1860
(Concord) New Hampshire Statesman, “The Patriot and the Merryman Case,” June 15, 1861
New York Times, “Arrest of Marshal Kane,” June 28, 1861
Marriot Boswell to William H. Seward, July 1, 1861
John P. Crawford to Abraham Lincoln, August 10, 1861
Chicago (IL) Tribune, “Simon Cameron,” August 11, 1861
Chicago (IL) Tribune, “How They Do It,” September 21, 1861
Abraham Lincoln to George B. McClellan, April 9, 1862
Cleveland (OH) Herald, “The Coming Siege of Vicksburg,” February 3, 1863
Entry by Cornelia Peake McDonald, May 15, 1863
New York Herald, “The Pen and the Sword,” May 17, 1863
Abraham Lincoln to Isaac Newton Arnold, May 26, 1863
Abraham Lincoln to Ulysses Simpson Grant, July 13, 1863
New York Times, “Gen. Banks,” July 17, 1863
Recollection of Richard Taylor, Battle of Bayou Bourbeau, November 3, 1863
Christopher C. Andrews to Abraham Lincoln, March 12, 1864
Ruben F. Briggs to Abraham Lincoln, Tuesday, March 15, 1864, New Orleans, Louisiana
Recollection of Richard Taylor, Battle of Mansfield, April 8, 1864
Willard P. Hall to Abraham Lincoln, May 12, 1864
Date Title
Abraham Lincoln to Nathaniel Prentice Banks, August 5, 1863
Chicago Style Entry Link
Dupree, Stephen A. Planting the Union Flag in Texas: The Campaigns of Major General Nathaniel P. Banks in the West. College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 2008. view record
Hollandsworth, James G. Pretense of Glory: The Life of General Nathaniel P. Banks. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1998. view record
How to Cite This Page: "Banks, Nathaniel Prentice," House Divided: The Civil War Research Engine at Dickinson College, https://hd.housedivided.dickinson.edu/index.php/node/5033.