Col. Thomas Moonlight, who served in the West against the Mormous as a soldier of the regular army, was honorably discharged at the expiration of his term of service in 1858. During the succeeding year he occupied the position of chief clerk in the commissary department, and in 1860 he hought a farm in Leavenworth County, Kansas. and settled down to agricultural pursuits. When the Civil war broke out, he raised a light battery and was commissioned captain of artillery. Promotions followed and at the close of the war he was colonel of the Eleventh Kansas cavalry. with the brevet rank of brigadier general. In 1864 he was a presidential elector on the republican ticket; was soon afterward anpointed collector of internal revenne, and in 1868 was elected secretary of state. At the close of his term he declined a second nomination and later, on account of his views on prohibition, went over to the democratic party. He was an elector-at-large on that ticket in 1884, and in 1893 he was anpointed minister to Belivia by President Cleveland, which position he held for four years. Colonel Moonlight died on February 7, 1899.
