Nathaniel Prentice Banks was an American politician from Massachusetts and a Union general during the Civil War. A millworker, Banks became prominent in local debating societies and entered politics as a young adult. Initially a member of the Democratic Party, Banks's abolitionist views drew him to the nascent Republican Party, through which he won election to the United States House of Representatives and as Governor of Massachusetts in the 1850s. At the start of the 34th Congress, he was elected Speaker of the House in an election that spanned a record 133 ballots taken over the course of two months.
HEADQUARTERS TRANS-MISSISSIPPI DEPARTMENT, Shreveport, La., July 11, 1863. GENERAL: I have received your communication from Delhi, announeing the reported fall of Vicksburg. Should this report be confirmed, Grant’s army will…
HEADQUARTERS FIRST DIVISION, Fort Brown, Texr., August 27, 1863. Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your dispatch August 3 [47], 1563. In the exercise of that…
OFFICE CHIEF QUARTERMASTER, DEPT. OF THE GULF, New Orleans, September 6, 1864. Maj. Gen. N. P. BANKS, Commanding : GENERAL: The strikes among boiler makers and machinists and the exorbitant…
General Canby to General Banks Headquarters Military Division of West Mississippi, New Orleans, Louisiana, September 15, 1864. General: The correspondence of Colonel Day, in relation to the Mexican force under…