# Allen Thomas

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{{about||the mayor of Greenville, North Carolina|Allen M. Thomas|those of a similar name|Alan Thomas (disambiguation)}}
{{Infobox military person
|name          = Allen Thomas
|image         = Brig. Gen. Allen Thomas.jpg
|caption       =
|birth_date    = {{Birth date|1830|12|14}}
|death_date    = {{Death date and age|1907|12|03|1830|12|14}}
|birth_place   = [Howard County, Maryland](/source/Howard_County%2C_Maryland)
|death_place   = [Waveland, Mississippi](/source/Waveland%2C_Mississippi)
|burial_place = [Donaldsonville, Louisiana](/source/Donaldsonville%2C_Louisiana)
|burial_label =
|burial_coordinates =
|nickname      =
|birth_name    =
|allegiance    = {{Flagicon|CSA}} [Confederate States of America](/source/Confederate_States_of_America)
|branch        = {{flagicon|CSA|army}} [Confederate States Army](/source/Confederate_States_Army)
|service_years  = 1861–1865 (CSA)
|rank          = 35px [Brigadier General](/source/Brigadier_General_(CSA)) (CSA)
|service_number =
|unit          =
|commands      =
|battles       = [American Civil War](/source/American_Civil_War)
|battles_label =
|awards        =
|relations     =
|other_work     = Professor of Agriculture<br>[Louisiana State University](/source/Louisiana_State_University)<br>Coiner, U.S. Mint (New Orleans)<br>U.S. Minister to [Venezuela](/source/Venezuela)
|signature     =
}}

'''Allen Thomas''' (December 14, 1830 &ndash; December 3, 1907) was a [Confederate States Army](/source/Confederate_States_Army) [brigadier general](/source/Brigadier_General_(CSA)) during the [American Civil War](/source/American_Civil_War) (Civil War). He was born in [Howard County, Maryland](/source/Howard_County%2C_Maryland), and became a lawyer but he moved to [Louisiana](/source/Louisiana) in the later 1850s and became a planter and colonel in the Louisiana militia. After the war, he was a planter, [Presidential elector](/source/United_States_Electoral_College) in 1872 and 1880, professor of agriculture at [Louisiana State University](/source/Louisiana_State_University) and coiner at the [United States Mint](/source/United_States_Mint) at [New Orleans, Louisiana](/source/New_Orleans%2C_Louisiana). He moved to [Florida](/source/Florida) in 1889. Between 1894 and 1897, he was United States Minister to [Venezuela](/source/Venezuela). He moved to [Mississippi](/source/Mississippi) in 1907 and died there in that year. He was buried at [Donaldsonville, Louisiana](/source/Donaldsonville%2C_Louisiana).

==Early life==
Allen Thomas was born December 14, 1830, in [Howard County, Maryland](/source/Howard_County%2C_Maryland).<ref name="Eicher526">Eicher, John H., and [David J. Eicher](/source/David_J._Eicher). ''Civil War High Commands''. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2001. {{ISBN|0-8047-3641-3}}. p. 526.</ref> He graduated from Princeton University in 1850 and became a lawyer.<ref name="Eicher526"/><ref name="Warner303">[Warner, Ezra J.](/source/Ezra_J._Warner_(historian)) ''Generals in Gray: Lives of the Confederate Commanders.'' Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1959. {{ISBN|0-8071-0823-5}}. pp. 303&ndash;304.</ref><ref name="Faust 753">Faust, Patricia L. "Thomas, Allen" in ''Historical Times Illustrated History of the Civil War'', edited by Patricia L. Faust. New York: Harper & Row, 1986. {{ISBN|978-0-06-273116-6}}. p. 753.</ref> After his marriage, in 1857, he moved to Louisiana where he became a planter and a colonel in the Louisiana militia.<ref name="Eicher526"/><ref name="Warner303"/><ref name="Faust 753"/> He was a brother-in-law of Confederate [Lieutenant General](/source/Lieutenant_General_(CSA)) [Richard Taylor](/source/Richard_Taylor_(Confederate_general)).<ref name="Eicher526"/><ref name="Warner303"/><ref name="Faust 753"/><ref name="Sifakis648">Sifakis, Stewart. ''Who Was Who in the Civil War.'' New York: Facts On File, 1988. {{ISBN|0-8160-1055-2}}. p. 648.</ref><ref name="Boatner835">{{Civil War Dictionary|page=835}}</ref>

==American Civil War service==
[[File:22-26-165-thomas-cropped.jpg|thumb|Bronze relief portrait of Thomas by [T.A.R. Kitson](/source/Theo_Alice_Ruggles_Kitson), [Vicksburg National Military Park](/source/Vicksburg_National_Military_Park)]]

Allen Thomas joined the 29th Louisiana Infantry<ref>Boatner, 1988, p. 835 says this is sometimes known as the 28th Louisiana Infantry, although that unit is also shown as Gray's regiment.</ref> as a [major](/source/Major_(United_States)) in July 1861.<ref name="Eicher526"/><ref name="Sifakis648"/> On May 3, 1862, he was promoted to [colonel](/source/Colonel_(United_States)) of the regiment, when it was expanded from its original battalion size.<ref name="Eicher526"/><ref name="Warner303"/><ref name="Faust 753"/> He commanded a brigade in the Confederate Department of Mississippi and East Louisiana in December 1862 and January 1863.<ref name="Eicher526"/> He fought in the [Vicksburg Campaign](/source/Vicksburg_Campaign), notably at the [Battle of Chickasaw Bayou](/source/Battle_of_Chickasaw_Bayou) (Chickasaw Bluffs or Walnut Hills).<ref name="Warner303"/><ref name="Faust 753"/><ref name="Boatner835"/> During the [siege of Vicksburg](/source/siege_of_Vicksburg), Thomas and his regimental staff occupied [Planters Hall](/source/Planters_Hall), a building which survives and is listed on the U.S. [National Register of Historic Places](/source/National_Register_of_Historic_Places).  Thomas was captured in the fall of Vicksburg on July 4, 1863, and was later exchanged.<ref name="Eicher526"/> After his parole, he brought Lieutenant General [John C. Pemberton's](/source/John_C._Pemberton) report on the fall of Vicksburg to Richmond.<ref name="Warner303"/><ref name="Faust 753"/><ref name="Sifakis648"/><ref name="Boatner835"/> He then served in reorganizing paroled and exchanged prisoners.<ref name="Faust 753"/><ref name="Sifakis648"/> Thomas was promoted to [brigadier general](/source/Brigadier_General_(CSA)) on February 4, 1864.<ref name="Eicher526"/><ref name="Sifakis648"/><ref name="Boatner835"/> He was assigned to the department of his brother-in-law, Lieutenant General Richard Taylor, at [Alexandria, Louisiana](/source/Alexandria%2C_Louisiana), where he commanded a brigade of five Louisiana regiments and a battalion.<ref name="Warner303"/><ref name="Faust 753"/><ref name="Sifakis648"/>

From September 1864 to May 26, 1865—with the exception of March 17, 1865, to May 10, 1865, when he commanded the division of [Major General](/source/Major_General_(CSA)) [Camille Armand Jules Marie, Prince de Polignac](/source/Camille_Armand_Jules_Marie%2C_Prince_de_Polignac), during the latter's trip to France seeking help for the Confederacy from [Napoleon III](/source/Napoleon_III)—Thomas commanded a brigade<ref>This brigade previously had been commanded by Brigadier General [Henry Watkins Allen](/source/Henry_Watkins_Allen).</ref> in Polignac's division in the Confederate [Army of the Trans-Mississippi](/source/Army_of_the_Trans-Mississippi).<ref name="Eicher526"/><ref name="Faust 753"/><ref name="Sifakis648"/>

Allen Thomas was paroled at [Natchitoches, Louisiana](/source/Natchitoches%2C_Louisiana), on June 8, 1865, and pardoned on July 19, 1865.<ref name="Eicher526"/><ref name="Faust 753"/>

==Aftermath==
After the Civil War, Thomas returned to his plantation.<ref name="Faust 753"/><ref name="Boatner835"/> He became a professor of agriculture and member of the board of supervisors at Louisiana State University in 1882&ndash;1884.<ref name="Eicher526"/><ref name="Warner303"/><ref name="Faust 753"/> He was a Presidential elector in 1872 and 1880.<ref name="Warner303"/><ref name="Faust 753"/> Then he became coiner at the United States Mint at New Orleans.<ref name="Eicher526"/><ref name="Warner303"/> Thomas was nominated to run for Congress in 1876 but declined.<ref name="Warner303"/> In 1889, he moved to Florida.<ref name="Eicher526"/><ref name="Warner303"/><ref name="Faust 753"/> He was [U.S. Minister to Venezuela](/source/United_States_Ambassador_to_Venezuela) from 1895 to 1897, succeeding [Seneca Haselton](/source/Seneca_Haselton).<ref name="Eicher526"/><ref name="Warner303"/><ref name="Faust 753"/><ref name="Boatner835"/>

Thomas moved to [Waveland, Mississippi](/source/Waveland%2C_Mississippi), where he had bought a plantation, in 1907 and died there on December 3, 1907.<ref name="Eicher526"/><ref name="Warner303"/><ref name="Faust 753"/> Allen Thomas was buried at Ascension Catholic Church Cemetery, [Donaldsonville, Louisiana](/source/Donaldsonville%2C_Louisiana), in the family vault of his wife.<ref name="Eicher526"/><ref name="Warner303"/>

==See also==
{{Portal|American Civil War|Biography}}
*[List of American Civil War generals (Confederate)](/source/List_of_American_Civil_War_generals_(Confederate))

==Notes==
{{Reflist}}

==References==
* {{Civil War Dictionary}}
* Eicher, John H., and [David J. Eicher](/source/David_J._Eicher), ''Civil War High Commands.'' Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2001. {{ISBN|978-0-8047-3641-1}}.
* Faust, Patricia L. "Thomas, Allen" in ''Historical Times Illustrated History of the Civil War'', edited by Patricia L. Faust. New York: Harper & Row, 1986. {{ISBN|978-0-06-273116-6}}.
* Sifakis, Stewart. ''Who Was Who in the Civil War.'' New York: Facts On File, 1988. {{ISBN|978-0-8160-1055-4}}.
* [Warner, Ezra J.](/source/Ezra_J._Warner_(historian)) ''Generals in Gray: Lives of the Confederate Commanders.'' Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1959. {{ISBN|978-0-8071-0823-9}}.

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Thomas, Allen}}
Category:1830 births
Category:1907 deaths
Category:Confederate States Army brigadier generals
Category:People of Louisiana in the American Civil War
Category:People from Howard County, Maryland
Category:People from Waveland, Mississippi
Category:Burials at Ascension of our Lord Catholic Church Cemetery (Donaldsonville)

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Allen Thomas](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allen_Thomas) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allen_Thomas?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.