Henry Appleton Hale

A 21 year old clerk from Salem, he enlisted in Company I (Salem Zouaves), 8th Massachusetts Infantry for 3 months service on 30 April 1861. He mustered out 1 August. He helped train the new 19th Infantry as drillmaster, and on 22 August 1861 he was commissioned 2nd Lieutenant, Company H, 19th Massachusetts Infantry. He transferred to Company I in November or December 1861, and was commissioned Captain, Company B, on 22 June 1862.

He was severely wounded in the face in action at Antietam on 17 September 1862:

Capt. Hale received a very peculiar wound. A minie ball carried away all his front teeth and a piece of his tongue, making a painful and disabling wound.

Sergt. McGinnis, who had received a bullet wound in the breast, saw Capt. Hale as he sat in the temporary hospital his lips swelled so that he could hardly open them and his face puffed out, trying to drink some tea. Thinking to "cheer the boys up a bit," he said to the wounded officer, "Oh, Captain, how I'd just like to kiss you now". The poor captain could not laugh as it hurt his lips to move them, and could only splutter in his pain ...

He returned to again command his Company on 1 January 1863, and was senior officer present with the regiment during that period. He was again wounded, in action at Cold Harbor, VA on 3 June 1863. In July 1863 he was on detached duty as acting Assistant Inspector General, 2nd Brigade, 2nd Division, 2nd Corps. He was discharged from the regiment 11 August 1864 to accept promotion, and was appointed Captain and Assistant Adjutant General (AAG), US Volunteers to date from 30 June 1864. He was honored by brevets to Major and Lieutenant Colonel, US Volunteers on 13 March 1865, and mustered out on 11 November 1865.

He was in his father's hardware business in Salem, which he ran after his father's death in 1890, and sold in 1896. He was elected President of the Salem Gas Light Company in 1891. He became President of the Salem Five Cents Savings Bank in 1905.

Service information from Soldiers, Sailors, and Marines 1 and the History,2 source of the quote above. Details from a bio sketch in Illustrated History of Salem and Environs (1897) and the Annual Report of the Essex Institute (1915) [collected online].

07/15/1840; Salem, MA

1927