John Benjamin Sanborn was a lawyer, politician, and soldier from the state of New Hampshire

New Hampshire

New Hampshire is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. The state was named after the southern English county of Hampshire. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Atlantic Ocean to the east, and the Canadian...

 who served as a general in the Union Army

Union Army

The Union Army was the land force that fought for the Union during the American Civil War. It was also known as the Federal Army, the U.S. Army, the Northern Army and the National Army...

 during the American Civil War

American Civil War

The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...

. He was also a key member of the postbellum Congressional-appointed Indian Peace Commission, which negotiated and signed several important treaties with native American tribes.

Early life and career

John B. Sanborn was born on a farm in Epsom, New Hampshire

Epsom, New Hampshire

Epsom is a town in Merrimack County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 4,566 at the 2010 census.-History:Incorporated in 1727, Epsom takes its name from Epsom, England. Although dotted with several small mountains, the land was suitable for grazing and growing grain...

, on December 5, 1826. He was the youngest of five children of Deacon F. and Lucy L. (Sargent) Sanborn. He was educated at the Thetford Academy

Thetford Academy

Thetford Academy is a historic independent school in Thetford, Vermont. It is the state's oldest secondary school.The co-educational school was founded in February 1819 by local citizens and was granted a charter by the legislature in October of the that same year...

 and the Pembroke Academy

Pembroke Academy

Pembroke Academy is a secondary school in Pembroke, New Hampshire.-History:Pembroke Academy was incorporated on June 25, 1818, and the first building dedicated May 25, 1819. The academy opened with 48 students on May 26, 1819. The first headmaster of Pembroke Academy was the Reverend Amos Burnham...

. He briefly attended Dartmouth College

Dartmouth College

Dartmouth College is a private, Ivy League university in Hanover, New Hampshire, United States. The institution comprises a liberal arts college, Dartmouth Medical School, Thayer School of Engineering, and the Tuck School of Business, as well as 19 graduate programs in the arts and sciences...

 in 1851-52, but left after only one quarter to join the law office of Asa Fowler

Asa Fowler

Asa Fowler was a New Hampshire politician, lawyer and jurist. He served as a justice of the New Hampshire Supreme Court from August 1, 1855 until February 1, 1861 and in the New Hampshire House of Representatives 1845, 1847, 1848 and 1871 to 1872. In 1872 he was Speaker of the House...

 in Concord

Concord, New Hampshire

The city of Concord is the capital of the state of New Hampshire in the United States. It is also the county seat of Merrimack County. As of the 2010 census, its population was 42,695....

. He passed his bar exam in 1854 and subsequently moved to St. Paul, Minnesota, in December of that year. In partnership with two other men, he established a law firm in January 1855.

In March 1857, Sanborn married Catherine Hall. 1859, Sanborn was elected as a Republican

Republican Party (United States)

The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...

 to the Minnesota House of Representatives

Minnesota House of Representatives

The Minnesota House of Representatives is the lower house in the Minnesota State Legislature. There are 134 members elected to two-year terms, twice the number of members in the Minnesota Senate. Each senate district is divided in half and given the suffix A or B...

 for a term, and then was elected to the Minnesota State Senate in 1861. His wife died in 1860.

Civil War

In April 1861 Sanborn was appointed as the state's Adjutant General

Adjutant general

An Adjutant General is a military chief administrative officer.-Imperial Russia:In Imperial Russia, the General-Adjutant was a Court officer, who was usually an army general. He served as a personal aide to the Tsar and hence was a member of the H. I. M. Retinue...

. His duties included overseeing the organization and equipping of three regiment

Regiment

A regiment is a major tactical military unit, composed of variable numbers of batteries, squadrons or battalions, commanded by a colonel or lieutenant colonel...

s of volunteer infantry

Infantry

Infantrymen are soldiers who are specifically trained for the role of fighting on foot to engage the enemy face to face and have historically borne the brunt of the casualties of combat in wars. As the oldest branch of combat arms, they are the backbone of armies...

 for the fledgling Union army. He became the colonel

Colonel (United States)

In the United States Army, Air Force, and Marine Corps, colonel is a senior field grade military officer rank just above the rank of lieutenant colonel and just below the rank of brigadier general...

 of the 4th Minnesota Infantry in December 1861. The regiment had been mustered into Federal service by companies at Fort Snelling between October 4 and December 23. Sanborn and his men moved to Benton Barracks in St. Louis, Missouri

St. Louis, Missouri

St. Louis is an independent city on the eastern border of Missouri, United States. With a population of 319,294, it was the 58th-largest U.S. city at the 2010 U.S. Census. The Greater St...

, on April 23, 1862. Sanborn led the 1st Brigade, 7th Division of the Army of the Mississippi

Army of the Mississippi

Army of the Mississippi was the name given to two Union armies that operated around the Mississippi River, both with short existences, during the American Civil War.-1862:...

 in the Battle of Iuka

Battle of Iuka

The Battle of Iuka was fought on September 19, 1862, in Iuka, Mississippi, during the American Civil War. In the opening battle of the Iuka-Corinth Campaign, Union Maj. Gen. William S. Rosecrans stopped the advance of the army of Confederate Maj. Gen. Sterling Price.Maj. Gen. Ulysses S...

 and then in Maj. Gen.

Major general (United States)

In the United States Army, United States Marine Corps, and United States Air Force, major general is a two-star general-officer rank, with the pay grade of O-8. Major general ranks above brigadier general and below lieutenant general...

 Henry Wager Halleck

Henry Wager Halleck

Henry Wager Halleck was a United States Army officer, scholar, and lawyer. A noted expert in military studies, he was known by a nickname that became derogatory, "Old Brains." He was an important participant in the admission of California as a state and became a successful lawyer and land developer...

's Siege of Corinth

Siege of Corinth

The Siege of Corinth was an American Civil War battle fought from April 29 to May 30, 1862, in Corinth, Mississippi.-Background:...

, Mississippi

Mississippi

Mississippi is a U.S. state located in the Southern United States. Jackson is the state capital and largest city. The name of the state derives from the Mississippi River, which flows along its western boundary, whose name comes from the Ojibwe word misi-ziibi...

, from May 18 to May 30 of that year.

Sanborn's brigade fought in Ulysses S. Grant

Ulysses S. Grant

Ulysses S. Grant was the 18th President of the United States as well as military commander during the Civil War and post-war Reconstruction periods. Under Grant's command, the Union Army defeated the Confederate military and ended the Confederate States of America...

's Central Mississippi Campaign from November 1862 to January 1863. That was followed by Grant's Vicksburg Campaign

Vicksburg Campaign

The Vicksburg Campaign was a series of maneuvers and battles in the Western Theater of the American Civil War directed against Vicksburg, Mississippi, a fortress city that dominated the last Confederate-controlled section of the Mississippi River. The Union Army of the Tennessee under Maj. Gen....

, with the Battle of Port Gibson

Battle of Port Gibson

The Battle of Port Gibson was fought near Port Gibson, Mississippi, on May 1, 1863, between Union and Confederate forces during the Vicksburg Campaign of the American Civil War. The Union Army was led by Maj. Gen. Ulysses S...

 on May 1, the Battle of Raymond

Battle of Raymond

The Battle of Raymond was fought on May 12, 1863, near Raymond, Mississippi, during the Vicksburg Campaign of the American Civil War. The bitter fight pitted elements of Union Army Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant's Army of the Tennessee against Confederate forces of Lt. Gen. John C. Pemberton's...

 eleven days later, and the Battle of Jackson on May 14. Sanborn also participated in the subsequent Battle of Champion's Hill, the Battle of Big Black River, and the Siege of Vicksburg from May 18 to July 4. During part of the time, he commanded a division

Division (military)

A division is a large military unit or formation usually consisting of between 10,000 and 20,000 soldiers. In most armies, a division is composed of several regiments or brigades, and in turn several divisions typically make up a corps...

. Sanborn's men performed garrison duty at Vicksburg following the surrender.

On August 4, 1863, Sanborn received a promotion to brigadier general

Brigadier general (United States)

A brigadier general in the United States Army, Air Force, and Marine Corps, is a one-star general officer, with the pay grade of O-7. Brigadier general ranks above a colonel and below major general. Brigadier general is equivalent to the rank of rear admiral in the other uniformed...

. In October of that year the U.S. War Department

United States Department of War

The United States Department of War, also called the War Department , was the United States Cabinet department originally responsible for the operation and maintenance of the United States Army...

 named him as the commander of the District of Southwestern Missouri. He played a key role in helping defeat the forces of Confederate

Confederate States Army

The Confederate States Army was the army of the Confederate States of America while the Confederacy existed during the American Civil War. On February 8, 1861, delegates from the seven Deep South states which had already declared their secession from the United States of America adopted the...

 Maj. Gen. Sterling Price

Sterling Price

Sterling Price was a lawyer, planter, and politician from the U.S. state of Missouri, who served as the 11th Governor of the state from 1853 to 1857. He also served as a United States Army brigadier general during the Mexican-American War, and a Confederate Army major general in the American Civil...

 during his Missouri Raid

Price's Raid

Price's Missouri Expedition, also known as Price's Raid, was an 1864 Confederate cavalry raid through the states of Missouri and Kansas during the American Civil War. While Confederate Major General Sterling Price enjoyed some successes during this campaign, he was decisively beaten at the Battle...

.

In February 1865 Sanborn was promoted to brevet

Brevet (military)

In many of the world's military establishments, brevet referred to a warrant authorizing a commissioned officer to hold a higher rank temporarily, but usually without receiving the pay of that higher rank except when actually serving in that role. An officer so promoted may be referred to as being...

 major general.

Postbellum career

Following the collapse of the Confederacy in the spring of 1865, Sanborn was ordered in June to report to Maj. Gen. John Pope

John Pope (military officer)

John Pope was a career United States Army officer and Union general in the American Civil War. He had a brief but successful career in the Western Theater, but he is best known for his defeat at the Second Battle of Bull Run in the East.Pope was a graduate of the United States Military Academy in...

 in the Western frontier

American Old West

The American Old West, or the Wild West, comprises the history, geography, people, lore, and cultural expression of life in the Western United States, most often referring to the latter half of the 19th century, between the American Civil War and the end of the century...

 to help subdue hostile Indians. In September he, William Bent

William Bent

William Wells Bent was a frontier trapper, trader, and rancher in the American West who mediated among the Cheyenne Nation, other Native American tribes and the expanding United States. With his brothers, Bent established a trade business along the Santa Fe Trail. In the early 1830s Bent built an...

, and famed explorer Kit Carson

Kit Carson

Christopher Houston "Kit" Carson was an American frontiersman and Indian fighter. Carson left home in rural present-day Missouri at age 16 and became a Mountain man and trapper in the West. Carson explored the west to California, and north through the Rocky Mountains. He lived among and married...

 were appointed as commissioners to negotiate a peace treaty with several tribes. Sanborn remarried on November 1865 to Anna Elmer Nixon. From February 1867 until 1869, Sanborn was a member of the Indian Peace Commission, an appointment confirmed by the U.S. Congress. Among his accomplishments was the negotiation of the Medicine Lodge Treaty

Medicine Lodge Treaty

The Medicine Lodge Treaty is the overall name for three treaties signed between the United States government and southern Plains Indian tribes in October 1867, intended to bring peace to the area by relocating the Native Americans to reservations in Indian Territory and away from European-American...

.

Sanborn commanded the District of the Upper Arkansas. He mustered out of the army in 1869 and returned to Minnesota. He resumed his partnership in the law firm of Sanborn, French and Lund. In 1872, he was elected to another term as a state representative and remained heavily involved in state politics and in various veterans organizations on both a state and national level. He was again a state senator from 1891 until 1893. He married a third time, to Rachel Rice.

In May 1903, Sanborn was elected as the president of the Minnesota Historical Society

Minnesota Historical Society

The Minnesota Historical Society is a private, non-profit educational and cultural institution dedicated to preserving the history of the U.S. state of Minnesota. It was founded by the territorial legislature in 1849, almost a decade before statehood. The Society is named in the Minnesota...

. He died in St. Paul a year later.

His son, John B. Sanborn, Jr.

John B. Sanborn, Jr.

John Benjamin Sanborn, Jr. was a lawyer, politician, and United States federal judge from the state of Minnesota. His record of public service spanned more than fifty years.-Early life and education:...

, also served in the Minnesota legislature and as a federal judge on the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals.

See also

• List of American Civil War generals
• Minnesota in the American Civil War

External links

• John B. Sanborn photo gallery at generalsandbrevets.com Retrieved 2008-10-21