John Franklin Miller (politician, 1831)

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John Franklin Miller

John Franklin Miller (born November 21, 1831 in South Bend , Indiana , † March 8, 1886 in Washington, DC ) was an American lawyer and politician . He fought as a general in the Union Army in the Civil War . From 1881 until his death in 1886 he represented the state of California in the US Senate .

Adolescent years and training

Miller was born in South Bend, Indiana. He completed his training in South Bend, Chicago and New York . There he also graduated from the State and National Law School as a lawyer in 1852 . He initially practiced in South Bend, but moved to Napa , California the next year . In addition to his work as a lawyer, he also became a community treasurer. In 1955 he returned to South Bend and was elected to the Indiana Senate in 1960 .

Civil War

At the beginning of the Civil War , Miller joined the Union Forces. On 27 August 1861 he the governor of Indiana, appointed Oliver P. Morton , the colonel of the 29th Infantry Regiment of Indiana. The regiment was assigned to the Brigade of Edward Needles Kirk in the division of Alexander McDowell McCook in Don Carlos Buell's Army of the Ohio and was stationed in Tennessee . Miller fought on the second day of the Battle of Shiloh and took part in the Siege of Corinth . Miller led his regiment through northern Alabama and Tennessee and pursued Braxton Bragg through Kentucky . He then commanded a brigade under James Scott Negley during the Battle of the Stones River in December 1862. On the second day of the battle, Miller led the Confederate counterattack that repelled the attack by John C. Breckinridge . During this attack, Miller was wounded in the neck.

During the Tullahoma campaign , Miller commanded a brigade under General McCook in the XX. Corps . He was seriously wounded and lost his left eye during a battle at Liberty Gap on June 27, 1863. He returned to service on April 10, 1864, and was promoted to Brigadier General retrospectively as of January 5. In May 1864 he became the commander of the garrison of Nashville appointed. He returned to the battlefield in December and commanded a handsome force in the Battle of Nashville . For services in this battle, he was promoted to two-star general on March 13, 1865.

Return to California

Miller refused employment as a colonel in the regular army and retired on September 29, 1865 from the service. He moved back to California, where President Andrew Johnson made him Customs Master in the Port of San Francisco . In 1869 he turned down another term and became chairman of the Alaska Commercial Company , which controlled the fur industry of the Pribilof Islands .

Miller bought part of Rancho Yajome in the Napa Valley in 1869 . At the time of purchase, the property was completely undeveloped. The couple bought the area on which the Silverado Country Club is now located from various sources.

Miller returned to politics. From 1878 to 1879 he was a member of the second state constitutional convention . The California State Legislature elected Republican Miller as US Senator for the state in 1880 . He was a strong advocate of various legislative proposals to limit the influence of Chinese immigrants. He expressed his prejudices against Chinese immigrants in the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882: One complete man, the product of free institutions and high civilization, is worth more to the world than hundreds of barbarians. Upon what other theory can we justify the almost complete extermination of the Indians, the original possessor of all these States? I believe that one such man as Newton, or Franklin, or Lincoln, glorifies the creator of the world and benefits mankind more than all the Chinese who have lived, struggled and died on the banks of the Hoang Ho. 13 Cong. Rec. 1,487 (1882).

He chaired the United States Law Revision Committee in the 47th Congress and was a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee in the 49th Congress.

Senator Miller died in his Washington office. He was originally buried in Laurel Hill Cemetery , San Francisco, but was reburied in Arlington National Cemetery on May 5, 1913 with his wife, Mary Wickerham (Chess) Miller, their daughter and son-in-law, Rear Admiral Richardson Clover .

His nephew was also called John Franklin Miller , also went into politics and was a Congressman for Washington State .

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Individual evidence

  1. ^ Earth Metrics Inc., "Environmental Site Assessment, Silverado Country Club, Napa County, California," May, 1989