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F.B. Hamilton
(1838 - 1891)
Home State: Ohio
Education: USMA, Western Reserve College, Class of 1862;Class Rank: 12
Branch of Service: Artillery
Before Antietam
He was a student at Western Reserve College (1856-58) then appointed to the US Military Academy at West Point on 1 July 1858. He graduated 12th in the class of 1862, on 17 June, and was commissioned 2nd Lieutenant, 3rd US Artillery. He joined his battery on the Peninsular Campaign that summer.
On the Campaign
He commanded a section of his battery on the Maryland Campaign. In his after-action Report, Battery commander Haines wrote:
I am gratified to bring to your notice the gallant conduct of Lieutenant Hamilton, chief of the right section, who had to act as gunner at one of his pieces under a galling fire, which had disabled the gunner of it and wounded and killed four of its cannoneers.
The rest of the War
He was also at Frederickburg, on Stoneman's Raid, and on the Gettysburg Campaign of July 1863, and at Brandy Station in October. He was then ordered back to West Point as assistant professor until 17 July 1868. He was promoted to First Lieutenant on 18 June 1864. He was honored by brevet to First Lieutenant (17 Sep 62) for Antietam and Captain (3 July 63) for Gettysburg.
After the War
He continued in Regular Army service and having been promoted to Captain, 14th US Infantry on 28 July 1866. He was at Camp Cady, CA and Camp Mojave, AZ (1869); briefly in St Louis, then at the Crow Creek Agency, Dakota, and Omaha Barracks, NE (1871). He transferred to the 2nd US Artillery on 15 December 1870. He was at Sitka, AK (1871), the Presidio (1872) then Raleigh (to 1875) and Ft. Macon, NC (to 1876). He was in garrison at Columbus Barracks, OH (1876), Washington DC Arsenal (to 1878), Ft Ontario, NY (to 1881), Ft. McHenry, MD (1883), Washington Barracks (1885), Little Rock, AR (1887) and Mt. Vernon Barracks, AK into 1889. He was then assigned as Military Attaché in Madrid, Spain. He returned to the US in March 1890, and was stationed at Fort Adams, RI, where he died of illness at age 53.
References & notes
Basic service data from Heitman1 and Cullum2. His photo from an 1862 group portrait by Alexander Gardner from September 1862, at the Library of Congress.
Birth
08/31/1838; Monroeville, OH
Death
05/29/1891; Fort Adams, RI
1 Heitman, Francis Bernard, Historical Register and Dictionary of the United States Army 1789-1903, 2 volumes, Washington DC: US Government Printing Office, 1903, Vol. 1, pg. 493 [AotW citation 14680]
2 Cullum, George Washington, Biographical Register of the Officers and Graduates of the US Military Academy, 2nd Edition, 3 vols., New York: D. Van Nostrand, 1868-79, Vol. 2, pg. 577; Vol. 4, pg. 136 [AotW citation 14681]