Lewis & Clark College

Banks, Nathanial P.

Nathaniel P. Banks was an American politician and soldier, Speaker of the House, Governor of Massachusetts, and a Union general during the American Civil War. A millworker by background, Banks was prominent in local debating societies. His abolitionist views fitted him better for the nascent Republican Party, through which he became Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives in 1856 and Governor of Massachusetts in 1857. At the outbreak of the civil war, 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 an inglorious defeat in the Shenandoah and failed to reinforce Grant at Vicksburg. Banks was then put in charge of the Red River campaign, a doomed attempt to occupy eastern Texas. Banks had no faith in this strategy, but the outgoing General-in-Chief, Henry Halleck, is believed to have told Grant that it was Banks’ idea, in order to dodge responsibility for this expensive failure, for which Banks was removed from command. After the war, Banks returned to the Massachusetts political scene, where he influenced the Alaska Purchase legislation and supported women's suffrage.

Politicians

1877

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Nineteenth Century Political Party Photograph Collection