Nathan Kimball (November 22, 1822 – January 21, 1898) was a physician, politician, postmaster, and military officer, serving as a general in the Union army during the American Civil War.

He attended the Washington County Seminary and then Indiana Asbury College (what is now DePauw University) from 1839 until 1841 before leaving to teach school and farm in Independence, Missouri.

When the Mexican–American War erupted, Dr. Kimball volunteered his services to state, raising a company from Livonia in the 2nd Indiana Infantry and being elected as a captain.

Kimball was distinguished at the Battle of Buena Vista, where he rallied his company and held them fast even as the rest of the regiment crumbled and fled in disorder.

On the second day of the fighting at Kernstown, he temporarily assumed command of the division of wounded Brigadier General James Shields, and then pushed back Stonewall Jackson in a successful counterattack.

[2] After adding the 4th Ohio Infantry to his brigade, Kimball was briefly stationed in Fort Monroe before covering John Pope's retreat from the Second Battle of Bull Run on September 1.

In April 1864, Kimball was relieved of duty in the Department of Arkansas and ordered to report to William T. Sherman, who became a close personal friend.

He had originally been selected to stand as the Republican nominee for lieutenant governor in the 1864 gubernatorial election, but he would decline the nomination in the midst of the campaign.

This was encouraged by the state Republican Party so that he could be replaced with Conrad Baker, who they believed could better appeal to recalcitrant radical German voters.

His former commander in the Vicksburg Campaign, Ulysses S. Grant, appointed Kimball in 1873 as Surveyor General for the Utah Territory, a post that he held until 1878.