People of Nebraska in the American Civil War - John Milton Thayer, George L. Miller, Julius Sterling Morton, Algernon Paddock (Paperback)

Chapters: John Milton Thayer, George L. Miller, Julius Sterling Morton, Algernon Paddock, Robert Wilkinson Furnas, Alvin Saunders. Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 29. Not illustrated. Free updates online. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: John Milton Thayer (January 24, 1820 March 19, 1906) was a general in the Union Army during the American Civil War and a postbellum United States Senator from Nebraska, as well as governor of Wyoming Territory and governor of Nebraska. John M. Thayer was born in Bellingham, Norfolk County, Massachusetts. He attended and then taught in rural schools, and later studied law at Brown University and established a practice in Worcester, Massachusetts. He served as a lieutenant in the local militia company before deciding to move with his family to the West. Arriving in Nebraska in 1854, he quickly affiliated himself with the Republican Party and thereafter actively participated in politics, as well as owning a large farm near Omaha. He became the major general of the territory militia and gained a reputation as an Indian fighter in his encounters with the local Pawnee. Thayer served as delegate to the Convention which organized the Republican Party in the Nebraska Territory and was elected to the Nebraska Territorial Legislature in 1860-61. With the outbreak of the Civil War, Thayer wrote a letter to Secretary of War Simon Cameron asking that he be allowed to raise a Nebraska regiment in response to President Abraham Lincoln's call for volunteers. He resigned his legislative seat in June 1861 to become Colonel of the 1st Nebraska Infantry, and spent the entire war fighting in the Western Theater. He commanded a brigade under Lew Wallace in the battles of Fort Donelson and Shiloh. Promoted to brigadier general in October 1862, he led a brigade in the XV Corps. He saw action at the battles ...More: http: //booksllc.net/?id=1105380