Background
Nathan Kimball, the son of Nathaniel, a small merchant, and of Nancy (Furgeson) Kimball, was born on November 22, 1822 in Fredericksburg, Washington County, Indiana, United States.
military physician politician Soldier statesman
Nathan Kimball, the son of Nathaniel, a small merchant, and of Nancy (Furgeson) Kimball, was born on November 22, 1822 in Fredericksburg, Washington County, Indiana, United States.
Kimball matriculated at Asbury College (now DePauw University) in 1839 but did not graduate. In 1843 he undertook the study of medicine with Dr. Alexander McPheeters at the University of Louisville Medical School.
In 1841 Kimball began to teach school at Independence, Missouri, later tried his hand at farming. In 1844 he established a private medical practice in Salem and Livonia. At the outbreak of the Mexican War, he raised a company and served as a captain in the 2nd Indiana Regiment. At the battle of Buena Vista the cowardice of the colonel caused the regiment to retreat in disorder, but Kimball was able to rally his company to continue fighting. He was mustered out in 1847 at New Orleans and returned to Indiana, where he was practising medicine at Loogootee when the Civil War broke out.
He was commissioned captain by Governor Morton, helped to raise the 14th Indiana Regiment, and became its colonel. In 1861 he and his regiment saw action at Cheat Mountain and at Greenbrier. On March 22, 1862, near Winchester in the Shenandoah Valley, where General James Shields was wounded in a skirmish, he assumed command of Shields's division, a part of the V Corps of the Army of the Potomac. Next day he fought and defeated "Stonewall" Jackson at the battle of Kernstown. The Union losses were less than six hundred, while those of the Confederates were more than seven hundred. For this distinguished service Kimball was made a brigadier-general. In September his brigade fought gloriously at Antietam and in the disastrous assault on Fredericksburg his brigade again distinguished itself, but he was badly wounded.
On his recovery, the next spring, he commanded a division of the XVI Corps in the siege of Vicksburg. After the capture of that place he served for a time in Arkansas against Price, made a journey to Washington with important dispatches to the government, and returned to Arkansas for the reorganization of the state government. In the spring of 1864 he joined Sherman's army in its advance on Atlanta, being attached to the 1st Division of the IV Army Corps. For services in the battle of Peachtree Creek he was given command of the division.
Soon after the fall of Atlanta he was recalled to southern Indiana to help in suppressing the activities of the "Knights of the Golden Circle. " Successful in these efforts he returned to the front in time to participate in the battles of Franklin and Nashville, and to aid in the almost total destruction of Hood's army. On February 1, 1865, he was brevetted major-general and was mustered out of the service in the following August.
In political and in civil life he continued to be respected and trusted by Governor Morton and by the people of the state. In 1864 he had been offered the Republican nomination for Lieutenant-Governor but considered it his patriotic duty to remain with the army. Soon after the war ended he helped to organize the Grand Army of the Republic in Indiana and became its state commander. He contributed the article "Fighting Jackson at Kernstown" to Battles and Leaders of the Civil War. In 1866 and, again, in 1868 he was elected state treasurer and in 1872 was elected to the state legislature, where he served on the committee of ways and means. Appointed surveyor general of Utah by Grant in the next year he went there and ultimately settled in Ogden, where he became postmaster under Hayes, and was serving in that capacity at the time of his death.
Kimball married Martha Ann McPheeters on September 23, 1845.