Isaac Harris Hooper

Generally going by Harris, he was the son of a brass manufacturer & copper dealer in Boston. In 1860 he was a 21 year old merchant living with wealthy "fancy goods" merchant William H Cary and family in Brooklyn, NY. He enlisted on 14 May 1861 for 90 days and mustered as a private in the 13th New York State Militia. He was discharged on 3 August 1861.

He was commissioned 2nd Lieutenant of Company K, 15th Massachusetts Infantry on 8 October 1861, mustered for Federal service on 15 October, and reported to his regiment on the 19th. He was captured at Balls Bluff, VA 2 days later on 21 October 1861. He was in a prison in Richmond, VA on 24 October and paroled and exchanged at James River, VA on 19 or 20 February 1862, for Lt N. Taylor of North Carolina.

He was acting regimental Adjutant after 6 June 1862 and was promoted to First Lieutenant and Adjutant on 20 July to date from 6 June.

He was with the regiment in Maryland, and of him at Antietam on 17 September 1862 Lieutenant Colonel Kimball later wrote:

I desire to call your particular attention to Major Philbrick and Adjutant Hooper. They were with me during the entire engagement in the thickest of the fight, receiving and executing my orders with great coolness and promptitude.

He was wounded by a gunshot to his right side in action at Fredericksburg, VA on 13 December, furloughed for 60 days in February, and back with his regiment in April 1863. He was appointed Major on 1 May (to date from 17 April) and was "captured by guerrillas on the march from White Plains to Warrenton, VA" on 26 July 1863. He was back in Richmond by 5 August, but escaped from Libby Prison there on 9 February 1864 and, after a leave of 30 days, rejoined his regiment on 24 March.

On 26 December 1863, while a prisoner of war, he had been commissioned Lieutenant Colonel by the Governor, but was not mustered at that rank, there being no vacancy. He was wounded again, by a gunshot to his right arm at Petersburg, VA on 22 June 1864, and was admitted to the Ladies Home Hospital in New York City on 27 June. He was furloughed for 30 days and mustered out with the regiment at Worcester, MA on 28 July 1864.

In 1870 he was a "retired merchant" living with his future father-in-law corn merchant Charles Thayer and family in West Roxbury, MA. He died of consumption (tuberculosis) thought to have been contracted in prison, on Easter morning, 12 April 1873.

His service from his Compiled Service Records,1 online from fold3. Further details from Susan's Harnwell's extraordinary 15th Massachusetts site. Personal details from family genealogists and the US Census of 1850-1870. His gravesite is on Findagrave, source also of his picture, from a photograph contributed by Dale B.

He married Susan S. Thayer (1845-1928) in October 1871.

His own account of his 1864 escape from Libby Prison Twelve Days' "Absence Without Leave" (1870) is online from the University of Michigan.

07/29/1839; Brookline, MA

04/12/1873; Boston, MA; burial in Mount Auburn Cemetery, Cambridge, MA