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.

American Civil War service Bronze relief portrait of Thomas by T.A.R. Kitson, Vicksburg National Military Park

Allen Thomas joined the 29th Louisiana Infantry as a major in July 1861. 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 U.S. Minister to Venezuela from 1895 to 1897, succeeding Seneca Haselton.

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