Representative Napoleon Bonaparte Giddings

Napoleon Bonaparte Giddings (January 2, 1816 – August 3, 1897) was a United States Congressional Delegate from the Nebraska Territory and a member of the Democratic Party. Over the course of a long and varied career, he served as a soldier in multiple conflicts, a political appointee in the Republic of Texas, an editor of a small-town newspaper in Missouri, a participant in the California Gold Rush, a practicing attorney in both Missouri and Nebraska, and later a Union Army officer during the Civil War. As a delegate representing the Nebraska Territory, he contributed to the legislative process during one term in office at a significant moment in American territorial expansion and political realignment.

Giddings was born near Boonesborough, Madison County, Kentucky, on January 2, 1816, to George Giddings and Frances Tandy (Bush) Giddings. In 1828 he moved with his parents to Fayette, in Howard County, Missouri, a frontier community that would remain central to his early life and professional development. Growing up in Missouri during a period of westward migration and sectional tension, he was drawn early to public service and military affairs, experiences that would shape his later political and legal career.

As a young man, Giddings enlisted in the army during the Texas War of Independence, joining the forces fighting to separate Texas from Mexico. In that service he rose to the position of sergeant major of his regiment, gaining administrative and leadership experience. After the successful conclusion of the conflict and the establishment of the Republic of Texas, he was appointed chief clerk in the auditor’s office of the new republic. He subsequently served as acting auditor until his resignation in 1838, participating directly in the early financial and administrative organization of the Texas government.

Following his return to Missouri in 1838, Giddings settled again in Fayette and turned to the study of law. He was admitted to the Missouri bar in 1841 and commenced the practice of law in Fayette. On November 15, 1842, he married Armide Boone, daughter of the Reverend Hampton Lynch Boone and Maria Louisa (Roberts) Boone, and a great-niece of the noted frontiersman Daniel Boone, thereby linking his own frontier background to one of the most prominent pioneer families in American history. His legal practice in Missouri established him as a professional figure in the community and provided a foundation for his later political roles.

During the Mexican–American War, Giddings again entered military service. He was commissioned as captain of Company A, Second Regiment, Missouri Mounted Volunteers, and served until March 1847. After his wartime service, he returned to Missouri and became editor of the Union Flag, a newspaper in Franklin County, where he engaged in local journalism and public affairs. Seeking new opportunities in the wake of the discovery of gold in California, he joined the ranks of the “Forty-Niners” and traveled west to engage in gold mining. After a period in California, he returned to Missouri, settled in Savannah in Andrew County, and resumed the practice of law.

In the early 1850s, Giddings moved to Nebraska City in the newly developing Nebraska region and continued his legal practice there. When the Territory of Nebraska was organized in 1854, amid national debate over slavery and territorial status, he entered territorial politics. A Democrat, he was elected as a delegate from the Nebraska Territory to the Thirty-third United States Congress. Giddings served in Congress from January 5 to March 3, 1855, representing the interests of the territory’s residents and participating in the legislative process at a time when issues of territorial governance, expansion, and sectional conflict were central to national politics. He was not a candidate for renomination in 1854 and thus served a single term as delegate.

After his brief congressional service, Giddings returned to Missouri and resumed his law practice in Savannah. With the outbreak and later stages of the American Civil War, he again took up military responsibilities on the Union side. He was commissioned a lieutenant colonel of the Fifty-first Regiment, Missouri Volunteer Infantry, and served from April 11, 1865, to August 31, 1865. In this capacity he contributed to the Union war effort during the closing months of the conflict and was honorably discharged at the end of his term of service. In later years he continued to reside in Savannah, where he remained a respected figure in the community.

Napoleon Bonaparte Giddings died in Savannah, Missouri, on August 3, 1897. He was interred in the City Cemetery there. His life encompassed service in multiple wars, participation in the governance of both the Republic of Texas and the Nebraska Territory, engagement in frontier journalism and the California Gold Rush, and a sustained legal career in Missouri and Nebraska, reflecting the breadth of experience characteristic of many nineteenth-century American public figures.