Thomas Moonlight (30 September 1833 – 7 February 1899) was the Democratic Governor of the Wyoming Territory from 1887 to 1879, succeeding Elliot S.N. Morgan and preceding Francis E. Warren.
Biography[]
Thomas Moonlight was born in Forfarshire, Scotland in 1833, and he emigrated to the United States at an early age and served in the US Army before settling in Leavenworth, Kansas in 1860. He served as colonel of the 11th Kansas Cavalry Regiment during the American Civil War, fighting against Confederate bushwhackers in Missouri and Indians in Colorado. After the war, he assumed command of Fort Laramie in Wyoming, battling the Lakota and Arapaho there. Afterwards, he returned to Kansas and became involved in Republican politics, only to switch his allegiance to the Democratic Party in 1870. He served as Secretary of State of Kansas from 1869 to 1871 and as Adjutant General of Kansas from 1883 to 1885, and he served as President Grover Cleveland's Governor of the Wyoming Territory from 1887 to 1879 and Ambassador to Bolivia from 1893 to 1897. He died in 1899.