Hugh Boyle Ewing Letter

Hugh Boyle Ewing was born on October 31, 1826 in Lancaster, Ohio. He was privately tutored and on July 1, 1844 entered the United States Military Academy. On the eve of graduation in 1848, he resigned because of a deficiency in engineering. He traveled to California in 1849 during the gold rush, but returned to Ohio in 1852 to practice law. He later practiced law in St. Louis and then in Leavenworth, Kansas with his brother Thomas, foster brother William Tecumseh Sherman, and Dan McCook. In 1858 he returned to Ohio to take over his fathers saltworks and lands. Governor William Dennison appointed him brigade-inspector of Ohio volunteers on May 6, 1861. He served under Generals George B. McClellan and William S. Rosecrans in Western Virginia during the summer of 1861 and in August became colonel of the 30th Ohio Volunteers. In September, 1862 he distinguished himself in the battles of South Mountain and Sharpsburg. He commanded the IX Corps until assigned to General William Tecumseh Sherman's XV Corps in General Ulysses S. Grant's Vicksburg campaign. He was promoted to Brigadier General of Volunteers on November 29, 1862. He led a division under Sherman at Missionary Ridge and then given the command of the post of Louisville, Kentucky. In February, 1865 he was ordered to join Sherman in North Carolina. In 1866 he was mustered out of the service, receiving the brevet of Major General "for meritorious services". Andrew Johnson soom after appointed him minister to Holland. In 1870 he returned to Washington to practice law and four years later he purchased a farm near his birthplace and resided there until his death on June 30, 1905.