Cyrus Hamlin (general)

Cyrus Hamlin
Cyrus Hamlin
Born	April 26, 1839(1839-04-26) Hampden, Maine
Died	August 28, 1867(1867-08-28) (aged 28)
Place of burial	initially Girod Street Cemetery New Orleans reburied at Mount Hope Cemetery Bangor, Maine
Allegiance	United States of America Union
Service/branch	United States Army Union Army
Years of service	1862 - 1866
Rank	Brigadier General Brevet Major General
Battles/wars	American Civil War
Relations	Hannibal Hamlin (father) Charles Hamlin (brother)

Cyrus Hamlin (April 26, 1839 – August 28, 1867) was an attorney, politician, and a general in the Union Army during the American Civil War.

Early life

Hamlin was born in Hampden, Maine, a suburb of Bangor. He was the third son of the Vice President of the United States, Hannibal Hamlin. His brother, Charles Hamlin, was a Union Army major^[1][2] who was appointed a brevet brigadier general at the end of the war.^[3]

He was educated at the Hampden Academy and studied at Waterville College (now Colby College) in Waterville, Maine. He was admitted to the bar in 1860 and practiced law for a year in Kittery, Maine.

Civil War

Hamlin enlisted in the Union Army in April 1862, serving as an aide-de-camp to Maj. Gen. John C. Frémont. Hamlin was among the first to advocate enlisting African-American troops in the Union Army. In February 1863, he was appointed the first colonel of the 80th United States Colored Troops and was assigned to field duty in Louisiana, where he eventually took charge of a brigade of black troops and participated in the Siege of Port Hudson. He was promoted to brigadier general in December 1864 and assigned command of the military district of Port Hudson, Louisiana, Department of the Gulf.^[2] Hamlin was mustered out of the United States Volunteers on January 15, 1866.^[2] On February 21, 1866, President Andrew Johnson nominated Hamlin for the award of the honorary grade of brevet major general, U.S. Volunteers, to rank from March 13, 1865, and the U.S. Senate confirmed the award on April 26, 1866.^[4]

Postbellum life

Hamlin remained in Louisiana after the war as a carpetbagger lawyer and politician during the early days of Reconstruction, but died of yellow fever in 1867. Although he was initially interred in the Girod Street Cemetery in New Orleans, he was reburied three months later in his family plot at Mount Hope Cemetery in Bangor, Maine.

See also

	Biography portal
	United States Army portal
	American Civil War portal

• List of American Civil War generals

Notes

1. ^ Hunt and Brown, p. 257.
2. ^ ^{a b c} Eicher, p. 276.
3. ^ Eicher, p. 747.
4. ^ Eicher, p. 712.

References

• Eicher, John H., and David J. Eicher. Civil War High Commands. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2001. ISBN 0-8047-3641-3.
• Hunt, Roger D., and Jack R. Brown. Brevet Brigadier Generals in Blue. Gaithersburg, MD: Olde Soldier Books, Inc., 1990. ISBN 1-56013-002-4.

External links

• "Cyrus Hamlin (general)". Find a Grave. http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=19165. Retrieved 2008-02-12. 
• University of Maine biography of Hamlin

Persondata
Name	Hamlin, Cyrus
Alternative names
Short description	Union Army general
Date of birth	April 26, 1839
Place of birth	Hampden, Maine
Date of death	August 28, 1867
Place of death