a sizable force of infantry and artillery at the Battle of Nashville. For his services at that battle, Miller was brevetted as a major general on March 13, 1865. Return to California Miller declined a commission as a colonel in the Regular Army and resigned from the Volunteers on September 29, 1865, to move back to California when President Andrew Johnson appointed him as collector of customs of the Port of San Francisco, a post he held until 1869 when he declined another term. He turned to business interests, and served for 12 years as the President of the Alaska Commercial Company, which controlled the fur industry in newly acquired Pribilof Islands. Miller purchased the property which was part of Rancho Yajome in Napa Valley in the year 1869. At the time Miller bought this holding, it was entirely wilderness area. General and Mrs. Miller purchased the property in several parcels from different grantors, including the United States via a deed signed by President U.S. Grant and the State of California by a deed signed by Governor Newton Booth. Deeds conveying the various parcels to the General were dated in the years 1869, 1872, 1873 and 1881. Silverado Country Club now occupies the property. Miller returned to politics, from 1878–79 as a member of the second state constitutional convention. The California state legislature elected the Republican Miller as one of the state's two Senators in 1880. He was an outspoken proponent of several bills to limit the influx and influence of Chinese immigrants. He expressed his sentiments during passage of the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act: He was chairman, Committee to Revise the Laws of the United States (Forty-seventh Congress) and served on the Committee on Foreign Relations (Forty-ninth Congress). Senator Miller died in Washington, D.C., while in office. He was initially buried in the Laurel Hill Cemetery in San Francisco, but was reinterred in the Arlington National Cemetery on May 5, 1913, alongside his wife Mary Wickerham (Chess) Miller, his daughter, and his son-in-law, Rear Admiral Richardson Clover. See also List of American Civil War generals (Union) List of United States Congress members who died in office (1790–1899) References Eicher, John H., and Eicher, David J., Civil War High Commands, Stanford University Press, 2001, . Warner, Ezra J., Generals in Blue: Lives of the Union Commanders, Louisiana State University Press, 1964, External links 1831 births 1886 deaths Burials at Arlington