The Biographical Dictionary of America/Banks, Nathaniel Prentiss

BANKS, Nathaniel Prentiss, statesman, was born in Waltham, Mass., Jan. 30, 1816. He received a common-school education and at an early age was employed in a cotton mill. Subsequently he became editor of a local paper, then studied law, and in 1849 was chosen to represent his native town in the legislature of Massachusetts. By a coalition of the Democratic and Free Soil parties he was elected speaker of the state assembly in 1811, and re-elected in 1852. In 1853 he became chairman of the Massachusetts constitutional convention, and in 1852 was elected to the 33d U. S. Congress as representative from Massachusetts, and was re-elected to the 34th Congress as a candidate of the American or "Know-Nothing" party. When Congress assembled in December, 1855, Representative Banks was named as speaker of the house, and after a prolonged contest was elected and took the chair Feb. 2, 1856. As presiding officer of the representative body of Congress he made the remarkable record of having been sustained in all his rulings. He was again elected to the 35th Congress as a Republican, and served until Dec. 4, 1857, when he resigned to take his seat as governor of Massachusetts, having been elected to that office in November as a Republican He was re-elected to that office in 1858 and again in 1859, and in 1860 he succeeded George B. McClellan as president of the Illinois Central railroad. When the civil war began he resigned, was commissioned major-general of volunteers, and commanded the 5th corps of the army of the Potomac. His first battle was Winchester, March 23, 1862. In April and May of that year he was left with two divisions to guard the Shenandoah valley. General Shields's division being withdrawn. Banks, with eight thousand men, was attacked by "Stonewall" Jackson's entire corps, and on May 26 he made a masterly retreat, escaping with some difficulty by crossing the Potomac at Williamsport, and thus saved his entire force from capture. He joined the army of Virginia under General Pope at Cedar Mountain, Aug. 9, 1862, and his corps there held the advance against a vastly superior force of the Confederates for two days, when being reinforced he drove the Confederates to the Rapidan. General Banks was employed in the defence of Washington and afterwards commanded an expedition which sailed from New York in November and December, 1862, to New Orleans, where he assumed command of the department, succeeding Gen. B. F. Butler. He took possession of Baton Rouge, made an expedition up the Teche country, and invested Port Hudson in connection with the fleet of Farragut. In July, 1863, the news of the surrender of Vicksburg was received, and on the 9th of that month the garrison of Port Hudson surrendered to the investing forces of General Banks. Early in 1864 his army, reinforced by ten thousand men and accompanied by a strong naval force, under Gen. A. J. Smith, undertook the Red river campaign. The combined force led by General Banks advanced rapidly up the Red river as far as Sabine cross-roads, where they encountered the Confederate forces under Gen. Richard Taylor, and were driven back to Pleasant Hill; but on the following day, when the Confederates renewed the attack, they were repulsed and the Federal forces enabled to retire to Alexandria, where they awaited the gunboats stranded above by reason of the subsidence of the spring freshets. When the boats were released by Colonel Bailey's dam, the combined land and naval forces fell back to the Mississippi river. The failure of the expedition was charged to General Banks, who, however, disclaimed the responsibility of the undertaking. In May, 1864, he was relieved of his command, resigned his commission and returned to his native state. He was elected a representative to the 39th Congress in 1865 to fill a vacancy caused by the resignation of D. W. Gooch, and was re-elected in 1866-'68-’70 and again elected in 1874. In 1879 he was appointed U. S. marshal for the district of Massachusetts by President Hayes, and served until 1888, when he was again elected to represent his district in the 51st Congress. Harvard college conferred on him the degree of LL. D. in 1858. He died in Waltham, Mass., Sept. 1, 1894.