Allen Thomas

Allen Thomas (December 14, 1830 – December 3, 1907) was a Confederate States Army brigadier general during the American Civil War (Civil War). He was born in Howard County, Maryland and became a lawyer but he moved to Louisiana in the later 1850s and became a planter and colonel in the Louisiana militia. After the war, he was a planter, Presidential elector in 1872 and 1880, professor of agriculture at Louisiana State University and coiner at the United States Mint at New Orleans, Louisiana. He moved to Florida in 1889. Between 1894 and 1897, he was United States Minister to Venezuela. He moved to Mississippi in 1907 and died there in that year. He was buried at Donaldsonville, Louisiana.

Early life
Allen Thomas was born December 14, 1830 in Howard County, Maryland. He graduated from Princeton University in 1850 and became a lawyer. After his marriage, in 1857, he moved to Louisiana where he became a planter and a colonel in the Louisiana militia. He was a brother-in-law of Confederate Lieutenant General Richard Taylor.

American Civil War service
Allen Thomas joined the 29th Louisiana Infantry as a major in July 1861. On May 3, 1862, he was promoted to colonel of the regiment, when it was expanded from its original battalion size. He commanded a brigade in the Confederate Department of Mississippi and East Louisiana in December 1862 and January 1863. He fought in the Vicksburg Campaign, notably at the Battle of Chickasaw Bayou (Chickasaw Bluffs or Walnut Hills). Thomas was captured after the fall of Vicksburg, Mississippi on July 4, 1863 and later exchanged. After his parole,he brought Lieutenant General John C. Pemberton's report on the fall of Vicksburg to Richmond. He then served in reorganizing paroled and exchanged prisoners. Thomas was promoted to brigadier general on February 4, 1864. He was assigned to the department of his brother-in-law, Lieutenant General Richard Taylor, at Alexandria, Louisiana, where he commanded a brigade of five Louisiana regiments and a battalion.

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 Camille Armand Jules Marie, Prince de Polignac when Polignac went to France to seek help for the Confederacy from Napoleon III, Thomas commanded a brigade in Polignac's division in the Confederate Army of the Trans-Mississippi.

Allen Thomas was paroled at Natchitoches, Louisiana on June 8, 1865 and pardoned on July 19, 1865.

Aftermath
After the Civil War, Thomas returned to his plantation. He became a professor of agriculture and member of the board of supervisors at Louisiana State University in 1882–1884. He was a Presidential elector in 1872 and 1880. Then he became coiner at the United States Mint at New Orleans. Thomas was nominated to run for Congress in 1876 but declined. In 1889, he moved to Florida. He was United States Minister to Venezuela between 1894 and 1897.

Thomas moved to Waveland, Mississippi, where he had bought a plantation, in 1907 and died at there on December 3, 1907. Allen Thomas was buried at Ascension Catholic Church Cemetery, Donaldsonville, Louisiana in the family vault of his wife.