John B . Sanborn John Benjamin Sanborn ( December 5 , 1826 – May 6 , 1904 ) was a lawyer , politician , and soldier from the state of New Hampshire who served as a general in the Union Army during the American Civil War . He was also a key member of the postbellum Congressional - appointed Indian Peace Commission , which negotiated and signed several important treaties with native American tribes . Early life and career . John B . Sanborn was born on a farm in Epsom , New Hampshire , on December 5 , 1826 . He was the youngest of five children of Deacon F . and Lucy L . ( Sargent ) Sanborn . He was educated at the Thetford Academy and the Pembroke Academy . He briefly attended Dartmouth College in 1851 - 52 , but left after only one quarter to join the law office of Asa Fowler in Concord . He passed his bar exam in 1854 and subsequently moved to St . Paul , Minnesota , in December of that year . In partnership with two other men , he established a law firm in January 1855 . In March 1857 , Sanborn married Catherine Hall . 1859 , Sanborn was elected as a Republican to the Minnesota House of Representatives for a term , and then was elected to the Minnesota State Senate in 1861 . His wife died in 1860 . Civil War . In April 1861 Sanborn was appointed as the state ' s Adjutant General . His duties included overseeing the organization and equipping of three regiment s of volunteer infantry for the fledgling Union army . He became the colonel of the 4th Minnesota Infantry in December 1861 . The regiment had been mustered into Federal service by companies at Fort Snelling between October 4 and December 23 . Sanborn and his men moved to Benton Barracks in St . Louis , Missouri , on April 23 , 1862 . Sanborn led the 1st Brigade , 7th Division of the Army of the Mississippi in the Battle of Iuka and then in Maj . Gen . Henry Wager Halleck ' s Siege of Corinth , Mississippi , from May 18 to May 30 of that year . Sanborn ' s brigade fought in Ulysses S . Grant ' s Central Mississippi Campaign from November 1862 to January 1863 . That was followed by Grant ' s Vicksburg Campaign , with the Battle of Port Gibson on May 1 , the Battle of Raymond eleven days later , and the Battle of Jackson on May 14 . Sanborn also participated in the subsequent Battle of Champion ' s Hill , the Battle of Big Black River , and the Siege of Vicksburg from May 18 to July 4 . During part of the time , he commanded a division . Sanborn ' s men performed garrison duty at Vicksburg following the surrender . On August 4 , 1863 , Sanborn received a promotion to brigadier general . In October of that year the U . S . War Department named him as the commander of the District of Southwestern Missouri . He played a key role in helping defeat the forces of Confederate Maj . Gen . Sterling Price during his Missouri Raid . In February 1865 Sanborn was promoted to brevet major general . Postbellum career . Following the collapse of the Confederacy in the spring of 1865 , Sanborn was ordered in June to report to Maj . Gen . John Pope in the Western frontier to help subdue hostile Indians . In September he , William Bent , and famed explorer Kit Carson were appointed as commissioners to negotiate a peace treaty with several tribes . Sanborn remarried on November 1865 to Anna Elmer Nixon . From February 1867 until 1869 , Sanborn was a member of the Indian Peace Commission , an appointment confirmed by the U . S . Congress . Among his accomplishments was the negotiation of the Medicine Lodge Treaty . Sanborn commanded the District of the Upper Arkansas . He mustered out of the army in 1869 and returned to Minnesota . He resumed his partnership in the law firm of Sanborn , French and Lund . In 1872 , he was elected to another term as a state representative and remained heavily involved in state politics and in various veterans organizations on both a state and national level . He was again a state senator from 1891 until 1893 . He married a third time , to Rachel Rice . In May 1903 , Sanborn was elected as the president of the Minnesota Historical Society . He died in St . Paul a year later . His son , John B . Sanborn , Jr . , also served in the Minnesota legislature and as a federal judge on the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals .