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A.A. Hosmer

A.A. Hosmer

Federal (USV)

Lieutenant

Addison Augustus Hosmer

(1833 - 1902)

Home State: Massachusetts

Education: Union College (AB), Class of 1857

Branch of Service: Artillery

Unit: 2nd Division, 9th Corps

Before Antietam

After college, he studied and practiced law in North Carolina, but by 1860 he was a successful 27 year old lawyer in Boston, living in Oakdale, MA. He was commissioned First Lieutenant and Quartermaster of the 28th Massachusetts Infantry on 24 October 1861 and mustered on the 28th. He transferred to Battery A, First Massachusetts Heavy Artillery on 29 January 1862 and was detailed to General Sturgis' staff, date not given.

On the Campaign

He was an aide-de-camp (ADC) to General Sturgis' on the campaign in Maryland and was at South Mountain on 14 September 1862, but was

separated from me [General Sturgis] after the battle of South Mountain by sickness and orders for other service, and could not join again in time to take part in the battle of Sharpsburg.

The rest of the War

He was commissioned in the Judge Advocate's Department, US Volunteers on 24 November 1862 and promoted to Captain on 1 March 1863. He was promoted again, to Major and Judge Advocate on 24 November 1863. He was honored by brevets to Lieutenant Colonel and Colonel for his war service and mustered out on 28 November 1865.

After the War

By 1870 and to at least 1900 he was a lawyer and/or patent attorney in Washington, DC.

References & notes

His service from Heitman1 and the Massachusetts Adjutant General.2 Maryland detail from the General's after-action Report. Personal details from family genealogists, the US Census of 1860-1900, and Union College Alumni in the Civil War, 1861-1865 (1915). His gravesite is on Findagrave. His picture from a photograph in A.S. Roe and C. Nutt's History of the First Regiment of Heavy Artillery, Massachusetts Volunteers (1917).

He married Caroline F. Buck (1837-1863) in Bucksville, SC in May 1856 and they had 2 sons; both died young. He married again, Amanda Sturges (1840-1907) in June 1865 and they had 3 children.

Birth

02/28/1833; Oakdale, MA

Death

02/01/1902; Washington, DC; burial in Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington, VA

Notes

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. 543  [AotW citation 28779]

2   Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Adjutant General, Massachusetts Soldiers, Sailors, and Marines in the Civil War, 8 Vols, Norwood (MA): Norwood Press, 1931-35, Vol. 3, pg. 190; Vol. 5, pg. 562  [AotW citation 28780]