Joseph E. Hamilton

Age 22, he was commissioned Captain of the Blue Ridge Rifles, which later became Company E of Phillips' Legion Infantry Battalion, on 9 June 1861.

He was wounded in the right forearm in action at Fox's Gap on South Mountain, MD on 14 September 1862.

He was hospitalized in Lynchburg, VA and then furloughed home. He was promoted to Major on 18 December 1862 and returned to duty about January 1863. He took command of the Battalion at Gettysburg (relieving Lt. Colonel Barclay) in July and in November was wounded again, his right arm broken, at Knoxville, TN. He was then home on furlough for the rest of the year.

He was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel and commander of the Battalion in early 1864 (to date from 1 December 1863) but was wounded for the third time, in the neck at Cold Harbor, VA on 3 June 1864. He was on wounded furlough to January 1865 and was captured along with most of the Battalion at Sailor's Creek, VA on 6 April 1865. He was held at the Old Capitol Prison in Washington, DCV then transferred to Johnson's Island, OH. He took the oath of allegiance on 25 July 1865 and was released.

He was a farmer and teacher, first at the Dalton Academy in Dalton, GA then, from 1875, in Orange County, CA. He moved to Los Angeles in 1880 and retired there, worn out, in 1889.

His service from Graham.1 His gravesite is on Findagrave. There is also a marker for him at the Marietta Confederate Cemetery, Cobb County, GA.

He married Julia Ann Stokes (1842-1915) in 1864 while home on furlough after his Knoxville wound, and they had 6 children.

See more about Hamilton, his Company, and the Battalion in a bio sketch online from Kurt Graham, source also of his picture, from the collection of Tom and Sandy Pruitt.

04/15/1839; Rutherford County, NC

06/12/1907; Los Angeles, CA; burial in Rosedale Cemetery, Los Angeles, CA