OBITUARIES, AMERICAN. (BANKS BARROW.) 





Banks, Nathaniel Prentiss, statesman, born in Wal- 

 tham, Mass., Jan. 30, 1816; died there, Sept. 1, 1894. 

 His early education was obtained in the common 

 schools of his native town, and when twelve years 

 old he was put to work in a cotton factory, of which 

 his father was manager. While tending the bobbins 

 lie acquired a taste for mechanics, and subsequently 

 he learned the machinist's trade. Naturally ambi- 

 tious, he applied his leisure to study, became a suc- 

 cessful lyceum lecturer, and was made editor of a 

 weekly newspaper in Waltham. Under the Polk 

 Administration he was appointed to a place in the 

 customhouse in Boston, and while there he continued 

 his general studies 

 and read law. He 

 was admitted to 

 the bar, and began 

 practice. In 1849, 

 when the Free-soil 

 party was develop- 

 ing an influence in 

 Massachusetts, he 

 was elected to the 

 Legislature. In 1851 

 and 1852 he was 

 elected Speaker of 

 the Lower House, 

 as the advocate of 

 coalition. The fol- 

 lowing year he was 

 elected a delegate 

 and chosen Presi- 

 dent of the State 

 Constitutional Convention, and was also elected to 

 Congress as a Coalition Democrat. In this term 

 he withdrew from the Democratic party and joined 

 the American or Know-Nothing party, and as its 

 candidate for Congress was re-elected by an over- 

 whelming majority against the Whig and Democratic 

 candidates. The ensuing session was made memo- 

 rable in the history of Congress by the prolonged and 

 bitter contest for the speakership of the House of Rep- 

 resentatives. The session began Dec. 3, 1855. Mr. 

 Banks had already made his influence felt in the 

 House, and had won many friends, who placed him 

 in nomination for the office. William Aiken, a large 

 slaveholder of South Carolina, was the favorite can- 

 didate of many of the Southern members. Henry N. 

 Fuller, of Pennsylvania, was favored for a time by 

 the Southern Know-Nothings, and Lewis D. Camp- 

 bell, an Ohio American, had an influential following. 

 The contest lasted more than two months, because of 

 a deadlock. The President's message was withheld, 

 all legislative business was stopped, the members ate 

 and slept in the hall, and the sergeant-at-arms bor- 

 rowed $20,000 from a bank in Philadelphia to enable 

 him to make advances to the members of both par- 

 ties who had become impecunious. After the one 

 hundred and twenty-ninth ballot the House agreed 

 to adopt the plurality rule after three more, and on 

 the one hundred and thirty-third ballot (Feb. 2, 1856) 

 Mr. Banks was elected, having received 103 votes to 

 100 for Mr. Aiken. As presiding officer of the House, 

 Mr. Banks added much to his fame by his courtly 

 manners, his impartiality, his grasp on the engrossing 

 questions of the hour, and his skill as a parliamen- 

 tarian. It is said that none of the decisions rendered 

 by him while in the Speaker's chair was ever reversed 

 by the House. With this historic contest the Amer- 

 ican party passed out of existence. Mr. Banks united 

 with the newly formed Republican party, and as its 

 candidate was again elected to Congress by a larger 

 majority than he had previously received. In No- 

 vember, 1857, he was elected Governor of Massachu- 

 setts, and on Dec. 4 following he resigned his seat in 

 Congress. He was re-elected Governor in 1858 and 

 1859. In 1860 he announced his retirement from 

 political life, removed to Chicago, 111., and succeeded 

 George B. McClellan in the presidency of the Illinois 

 Central Railroad Company. Early in 1861 he re- 

 signed this office, and was appointed by President 



Lincoln a major-general of volunteers arid ussi<rnr<l 

 to the command of the 5th Corps of the Army of the 

 Potomac. His first duty was the guarding of the 

 fords of the river between Washington and Harper's 

 Ferry. He spent the summer and autumn of 1861 in 

 this service, at the same time drilling his army thor- 

 oughly^ task with which he was familiar from early 

 militia experience. In the spring of 1862 he was or- 

 dered into the Shenandoah valley, where, on March 

 23, a part of his corps acquitted itself with credit in 

 the battle of Winchester. With two divisions he 

 guarded the Shenandoah during April and May. In 

 the latter month one of these divisions was with- 

 drawn, and with the other he successfully resisted an 

 attempt by " Stonewall " Jackson, in a sudden move- 

 ment, to capture his command, and on Mav 26 he 

 passed the greater part of his force across the Potomac 

 at Front Royal. On Aug. 9 he took part in the bat- 

 tle of Cedar Mountain, under Gen. John Pope ; in 

 September he accompanied Gen. Franz Sigel in his 

 movement in the valley of Virginia ; and soon after- 

 ward he was placed in command of the defenses of 

 the national capital. While he was in Washington 

 on this last duty, secret preparations were made for 

 an expedition by water to New Orleans. Gen. Banks 

 was appointed commander of the expedition, and, on 

 reaching New Orleans, succeeded Gen. Butler in 'the 

 command of the Department of the Gulf in December, 

 1862. In the following spring plans were perfected 

 by Admirals Farragut and Porter and Gen. Banks to 

 complete the opening of the Mississippi. In April 

 Gen. Banks captured Opelousas, and then began the 

 investment of Port Hudson in co-operation with the 

 fleet. He made several attempts to carry the works 

 by storm, but was repelled with heavy losses. Vicks- 

 burg surrendered on July 4, and the same month 

 Port Hudson, with a garrison of 6,000 men, capitu- 

 lated. In the spring of 1864 he commanded the land 

 forces in an expedition up Red river to secure control 

 of western Louisiana, while Admiral Porter had com- 

 mand of the accompanying fleet. The expedition, 

 undertaken against his judgment, advanced along the 

 south bank of Red river to Sabine Crossroads, where 

 the Confederates, under Gen. Richard Taylor, made 

 an attack and defeated the national forces severely. 

 Gen. Banks then retreated to Pleasant Hill, where he 

 was again attacked, but without serious results, and 

 thence he continued the retreat to Alexandria. There 

 the subsidence of the Red river after the spring 

 freshets raised a barrier against the descent of the 

 fleet, and the engineering skill of Lieut.-Col. Joseph 

 Bailey alone saved the vessels and enabled the ex- 

 pedition to return to the Mississippi. For the disas- 

 trous termination of this expedition Gen. Banks was 

 widely and severely censured, and soon afterward he 

 was relieved of his command. lie believed the mis- 

 takes of others had been charged to his responsibility, 

 but, having tiled protests against the orders to un- 

 dertake the expedition, he could do nothing except 

 await the vindication he was assured history would 

 give him. Years afterward Gen. Grant, in his " Mem- 

 oirs," magnanimously furnished the vindication and 

 named the superior officer who had ordered the un- 

 fortunate undertaking. On being relieved of this 

 command, Gen. Banks resigned his commission in 

 the army, returned to Massachusetts, and was elected 

 to Congress from his old district for the unexpired 

 term of D. W. Gooch, resigned. He was re-elected 

 in the years 1866-'76, and 1888 ; was for many years 

 chairman of the Committee on Foreign Relations ; 

 was an active supporter of Horace Greeley for the 

 presidency in 1872; and was United States marshal 

 for Massachusetts in 1879-'88. He was afflicted with 

 a mental disorder from 1890, and in 1891 Congress 

 voted him a pension of $1,200 per annum. 



Barrow, Frances Elizabeth, author, born in Charles- 

 ton, S. C., Feb. 22, 1822; died in New York city, May 

 7, 1894. She was removed in infancy to New York 

 city, where she was educated, and spent nearly her 

 entire life. In 1841 she married James Barrow, Jr., 

 who died over twenty-five years ago. She began 



