Harry I. Thornton

Harry Innes Thornton Jr. (c. 1834 – February 25, 1895) was a United States Democratic politician and attorney in California.

Harry Innes Thornton
Born	1834 (1834)
Died	1895 (aged 60–61) Fresno, California
Unit	58th Alabama Infantry Regiment
Battles / wars	American Civil War Battle of Chickamauga

Born in Greene County, Alabama, Thornton followed his family to California. In 1841, his father, Harry Innis Thornton Sr., was a judge and member of the Alabama Legislature, residing in Eutaw, Alabama.^[1] By 1851, Thornton Sr. moved to California and was appointed to the federal Public Land Commission to address property ownership in California.^[2] By 1854, Thornton Jr.'s sister and her husband, James D. Thornton, had moved to San Francisco, also.

Thornton Jr. was a member of the California State Senate during the 1850s.^[3] At the start of the American Civil War, he gave a speech on the floor of the Senate defending the Southern states' rights to succeed.^[4] He resigned from the Legislature and went to serve in the Army of the Confederate States of America.^[5] He was wounded at the Battle of Chickamauga Sept. 18–20, 1863 while serving with the 58th Regiment Alabama Infantry.^[6] After the war, he returned to California and practiced law in that state and Nevada,^[7] handling complex mining litigation.^[4] He died in Fresno, California, on February 25, 1895.