Horace H. Miller

Miller was a native of Louisville, Kentucky.{{Cite news |date=1877-01-29 |title=Colonel Horace H. Miller |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/public-ledger-colonel-horace-h-miller/167051367/ |access-date=2025-03-02 |work=Public Ledger |pages=2}} He was the son of Anderson Miller, whose family was originally from Virginia and who had been a pioneer of both steamboating the Mississippi and producing cotton-seed oil.{{Cite book |last=Kentucky |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QKM6AQAAMAAJ&dq=%22anderson+miller%22+mississippi&pg=PA85 |title=Reports Communicated to Both Branches of the Legislature |date=1860 |language=en}}{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=i-REAQAAMAAJ&dq=%22anderson+miller%22+mississippi&pg=PA400 |title=Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Mississippi: Embracing an Authentic and Comprehensive Account of the Chief Events in the History of the State and a Record of the Lives of Many of the Most Worthy and Illustrious Families and Individuals |date=1891 |publisher=Goodspeed |pages=400 |language=en}} Miller invested in a commercial-scale cotton-seed press built at Natchez in 1834.{{Cite book |last=Wrenn |first=Lynette Boney |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ndr81PowWogC&dq=%22anderson+miller%22+mississippi&pg=PA6 |title=Cinderella of the New South: A History of the Cottonseed Industry, 1855-1955 |date=1995 |publisher=Univ. of Tennessee Press |isbn=978-0-87049-882-4 |pages=6 |language=en}} The elder Miller, who was variously described as a "celebrated steamboat captain" and/or "land speculator and gentleman of pleasure," was appointed U.S. marshal for the Southern District of Mississippi in 1841, serving until 1845. The appointment was made by John Tyler following the death of William Henry Harrison, for whom Miller had been a Whig nominating convention delegate.{{Cite book |last=Paxton |first=William McClung |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zcM1AAAAMAAJ&dq=%22anderson+miller%22+mississippi&pg=PA188 |title=The Marshall Family: Or A Genealogical Chart of the Descendants of John Marshall and Elizabeth Markham, His Wife, Sketches of Individuals and Notices of Families Connected with Them |date=1885 |publisher=R. Clarke & Company |pages=188 |language=en}}{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Hc9CAQAAMAAJ&dq=%22anderson+miller%22+mississippi&pg=RA20-PA13 |title=Speeches in Congress, Delivered by Henry Clay and Others, 1833–1842 |date=1834 |language=en}}{{Cite book |last=Norton |first=Anthony Banning |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=h74TAAAAYAAJ&dq=%22anderson+miller%22+mississippi&pg=PA20 |title=The Great Revolution of 1840: Reminiscences of the Log Cabin and Hard Cider Campaign |date=1888 |publisher=A.B. Norton & Company |pages=20 |language=en}}

His brother William Trigg Miller worked for their father as a deputy marshal and married Emily Van Dorn, a grandniece of Andrew Jackson and sister of future Confederate General Earl Van Dorn.{{Cite news |date=1843-01-25 |title=From the Port Gibson Herald |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/vicksburg-daily-whig-from-the-port-gibso/167074065/ |access-date=2025-03-02 |work=Vicksburg Daily Whig |pages=3}}{{Cite book |last=Fortier |first=Alcée |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1_AxAQAAMAAJ&dq=%22william+t.+miller%22+van+dorn&pg=PA783 |title=Louisiana: Comprising Sketches of Parishes, Towns, Events, Institutions, and Persons, Arranged in Cyclopedic Form |date=1914 |publisher=Century historical association |language=en}}{{Cite news |date=1844-10-31 |title=Marshall's Sale |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/port-gibson-herald-marshalls-sale/167074856/ |access-date=2025-03-02 |work=Port-Gibson Herald |pages=3}}

At age 21, Miller fought in the Mexican–American War, serving as a sergeant major in Captain Crump's Company, later called Company H, in the Mississippi Rifles.{{cite web |website=United States, Mexican War Index and Service Records, 1846–1848 |publisher=FamilySearch |url=https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QLXQ-2521 |title=Entry for Horace H Miller, 09 Jun 1846}} He and partner Charles Buck founded the True Issue newspaper at Vicksburg in 1851.{{Cite news |date=1860-06-20 |title=Notes on Printing and the Press in Mississippi |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/vicksburg-whig-notes-on-printing-and-the/154532267/ |access-date=2025-03-02 |work=Vicksburg Whig |pages=4}} The True Issue was probably a Whig paper because that was where Alexander K. McClung pushed his editorials.{{Cite news |date=1841-05-14 |title=The New Marshals |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-yazoo-city-whig-and-political-regist/167072828/ |access-date=2025-03-02 |work=The Yazoo City Whig and Political Register |pages=2}} Miller was by profession primarily an attorney.{{Cite news |date=1963-07-01 |title=Vicksburg Lawyers |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-vicksburg-post-vicksburg-lawyers/167047875/ |access-date=2025-03-02 |work=The Vicksburg Post |pages=125}} He succeeded Alexander Keith McClung, fellow Mississippian and a Marshall political family scion, as charge d'Affaires to Bolivia, appointed to the post in 1852 by president Millard Fillmore.{{Cite book |last=United States Department of State |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KtMWAAAAYAAJ&dq=%22Horace+H.+Miller%22&pg=PA219 |title=Biographic Register of the Department of State |date=1925 |publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office |pages=219 |language=en}} Miller was after this law partners with his brother-in-law Thomas A. Marshall, who had married to his Miller's older sister Letitia, and who, like McClung, was a cousin of Chief Justice John Marshall.{{Cite book |last=Davis |first=Jefferson |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qXonmIMRI4oC&dq=%22Horace+H.+Miller%22+%22thomas+a+marshall%22&pg=PA24 |title=The Papers of Jefferson Davis: June 1841–July 1846 |date=1975 |publisher=LSU Press |isbn=978-0-8071-0082-0 |pages=24 |language=en}}{{Cite news |date=1887-02-10 |title=Death of Mrs. Marshall |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/memphis-avalanche-death-of-mrs-marshall/167073553/ |access-date=2025-03-02 |work=Memphis Avalanche |pages=4}} Miller was married around 1857 to Sarah Augusta Ragan of Warren County, Mississippi.{{Cite news |date=1875-07-07 |title=In memoriam |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-vicksburg-herald-in-memoriam/167052368/ |access-date=2025-03-02 |work=The Vicksburg Herald |pages=4}}

He was also an officer on the Confederate side of the American Civil War.{{Cite web |title=The Daily Dispatch: may 9, 1861., [Electronic resource], Vicksburg batteries. |url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:2006.05.0114:article=4 |access-date=2025-03-02 |website=www.perseus.tufts.edu}} In March 1861 he was a brigadier general of the Mississippi state militia charged with "fortifying Vicksburg." He went to Virginia with the 12th Mississippi in May 1861. He was captured at Fort Donelson. In 1863 as lieutenant colonel of the 20th Mississippi Infantry he commanded an expedition from Hammond Station and thus was one of the defenders of a Confederate position from within an abandoned shoe factory at Ponchatoula, Louisiana.{{Cite news |date=1963-03-24 |title=This Week |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/clarion-ledger-this-week/167053991/ |access-date=2025-03-02 |work=Clarion-Ledger |pages=18}} He was colonel of the 9th Mississippi Cavalry Regiment, "which was mounted during the Vicksburg campaign."{{Cite news |date=1928-01-01 |title=List of Mississippi cavalry regiments |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/daily-mississippi-clarion-and-standard-l/167053213/ |access-date=2025-03-02 |work=Daily Mississippi Clarion and Standard |pages=3}} In 1865 he was arrested for participating in "alleged illegal cotton trading."{{cite web |website=United States, Confederate Officers Card Index, 1861–1865 |publisher=FamilySearch |url=https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:73LB-DBW2 |title=Entry for Horace H Miller, 1861–1865, film images 1505–1509 of 3256}} He ended his Confederate service with the title colonel which was extended to him as an honorific for the remainder of his life.

Miller became law partners with R. V. Booth in 1872.{{Cite news |date=1872-02-09 |title=New Law Firm |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-vicksburg-herald-new-law-firm/167052183/ |access-date=2025-03-02 |work=The Vicksburg Herald |pages=2}} Booth later described him as a "convivial friend and companion."{{Cite news |date=1903-02-06 |title=Where are they now? |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-vicksburg-herald-where-are-they-now/167053668/ |access-date=2025-03-02 |work=The Vicksburg Herald |pages=5}} Miller died of heart disease at Vicksburg in 1877.{{Cite news |date=1877-01-27 |title=Col. Horace H. Miller |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/clarion-ledger-col-horace-h-miller/167051687/ |access-date=2025-03-02 |work=Clarion-Ledger |pages=2}} He is buried at Cedar Hill Cemetery in Vicksburg. He had at least four children who survived to adulthood.{{Cite news |date=1900-04-23 |title=Death of E. B. Miller |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-vicksburg-post-death-of-e-b-miller/167054414/ |access-date=2025-03-02 |work=The Vicksburg Post |pages=4}}

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• [https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-daily-commercial-herald-buckmiller/167052038/ Buck-Miller wedding 1880]

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Category:Ambassadors of the United States to Bolivia

Category:1826 births

Category:1877 deaths

Category:American military personnel of the Mexican–American War

Category:Confederate States Army officers

Category:American newspaper editors

Category:19th-century American lawyers

Category:Lawyers from Louisville, Kentucky

Category:People from Vicksburg, Mississippi

Category:19th-century American diplomats

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