Nathaniel Banks

Nathaniel Prentice Banks (30 January 1817 – 1 September 1894) was an American politician from Massachusetts and a Union general during the Civil War. A millworker by background, Banks was prominent in local debating societies, and his oratorical skills were noted by the Democratic Party. However, his abolitionist views fitted him better for the nascent Republican Party, through which he became Speaker of the United States House of Representatives and Governor of Massachusetts in the 1850s.