1864 Civil War Massachusetts Governor General Nathaniel Banks Signed Document

  
1864 Civil War and Massachusetts Governor General Nathaniel Banks Autographed Signed Official Massachusetts Document with seal, measures 10 1/2" x 16". Nathaniel Prentice (or Prentiss) Banks (January 30, 1816 - September 1, 1894) was an American politician and soldier, and a. A millworker by background, Banks was prominent in local debating societies, and his oratorical skills were noted by the Democratic Party. But his abolitionist views fitted him better for the nascent Republican Party, through which he became. Speaker of the United States House of Representatives. At the outbreak of the civil war, Lincoln appointed Banks as one of the first'political' major generals, over the heads of West Point regulars, who initially resented him, but came to acknowledge his influence on the administration of the war.