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 .