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Bucksport’s Edward Winslow Hincks
A battle-scarred Civil War general
by James Nalley
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In 1861, a Bucksport-born man received a regular army commission as a second lieutenant in the 2nd U.S. Cavalry. However, after the U.S. Civil War broke in April of the same year, he was offered a volunteer commission as the colonel of the 19th Regiment Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry. Seeing it as an attractive command position, he promptly accepted it and led the men in several major battles, beginning with the Battle of Ball’s Bluff in October 1861 and ending with the Battle of Antietam in September 1862, where he was seriously wounded. After (mostly) recovering, he eventually commanded the 3rd Division of the XVIII Corps, which was composed entirely of United States Colored Troops, many of whom were former slaves who had volunteered to fight in the Union Army.
Edward Winslow Hincks was born in Bucksport on May 30, 1830. After attending local public schools, he moved to Boston, Massachusetts, at the age of 19, and worked in the printing and publishing business. Through his connections in the city, Hincks went on to get elected to the Massachusetts House of Representatives in 1855. He also served on the Boston City Council in the same year.
As the country braced for the oncoming civil war in 1861, Hincks, due to his leadership experience, received a regular army commission as a second lieutenant in the 2nd U.S. Cavalry. However, as stated earlier, when the U.S. Civil War officially began on April 12 of that year, Hincks was offered a volunteer commission as the Colonel of
General Edward Winslow Hincks, ca. 1864 the 19th Regiment Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry. At that time, the 19th Massachusetts was organized at Camp Schouler in Lynnfield, Massachusetts, and it was mustered in for a three-year enlistment on August 28, 1861.
Under Hincks’s command, the regiment left two days later for Washington D.C., where it would camp in the area until October 21, when it finally saw action at the Battle of Ball’s Bluff. This battle was one of the early skirmishes of the war in which the Union Army (under Major General George B. McClellan) suffered a humiliating defeat, despite having an equal number of troops on each side (approximately 1,700). Although the Union loss was relatively small, compared to other battles, it had a significant impact on future military affairs. For example, according to the National Museum of the U.S. Army, “In addition to losing 223 soldiers, the Union lost a sitting senator, which led to the establishment of the Congressional Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War.” Its establishment “would bedevil Union officers for the remainder of the war (particularly those who were Democrats) and contribute to nasty po-
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litical infighting among the generals in the high command.”
Hincks and his regiment went on to fight in the Peninsula Campaign (March to July 1862) and the Battle of Glendale (June 1862), where he was wounded. In the latter battle, Confederate General Robert E. Lee failed to achieve his objective of preventing the Union Army’s retreat and destroying Major General George McClellan’s forces. As for Hincks, according to the book Massachusetts in the Rebellion (1866) by P.C. Headley, “he was wounded by a bullet through the upper portion of the right thigh, and received a severe contusion in the left ankle, after which he was sent to the rear.”
Upon recovering, Hincks returned to his regiment for the Maryland Campaign (September 4-20, 1862), which was Lee’s first invasion of the North. However, Lee was promptly intercepted by McClellan near Sharpsburg, Maryland, resulting in the Battle of Antietam (September 17, 1862), the bloodiest single-day battle in U.S. history. This was also where Hincks was seriously wounded. As stated by Headley, “Col. Hincks fell wounded with a bullet through the right arm that fractured and shattered the bone, and another that went through the abdomen, passed over the right hip in front, penetrated the colon, and exited the left side of the spine, in the region of the kidneys.” Hincks’s wounds were thought to be so serious that obituary notices appeared in Massachusetts newspapers.
Although he did manage to recover, the wounds disabled him for six months and caused him pain for the rest of his life. For his actions in battle, Hincks was brevetted to the rank of colonel in the regular army. Then, while on convalescent leave, he was promoted to Brigadier General of Volunteers in November 1862. However, due to his wounds, he was assigned to restricted positions, such as court martial and recruiting duty, for the next two years.
From March to May 1864, Hincks commanded the prison camp at Camp Lookout, Maryland, which was relatively mundane. He was then assigned to command the 3rd Division of the XVIII Corps, which was, as stated earlier, composed entirely of U.S. Colored Troops. He then served as one of the leaders of the unsuccessful First Battle of Petersburg (June 9, 1864). However, by July 1864, Hincks had become frequently ill and his wounds prevented him from effectively continuing his command. He was then re-assigned to recruiting duty until the end of the war in 1865.
After the war, Hincks remained in the army as the Lieutenant Colonel of the 40th U.S. Infantry Regiment, before retiring at the rank of colonel in December 1870. He then spent his remaining years as Governor of the National Military Home for Disabled Veterans in Hampton, Virginia (1870-1873), and in Milwaukee, Wisconsin (1873-1880). He died on February 14, 1894, in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He was 63 years of age.
As for his legacy, he was a battle-scarred leader who, despite his valiant efforts, remained humbled by his experiences. For example, according to the book The Forty-Fifth Regiment Massachusetts Volunteer Militia (1883) by Hincks himself, “In 1864, while in front of Petersburg during the siege, General Butler said to me one day, ‘General Hincks, do you know what is the most gallant action that has been performed in this war?’ I said, ‘I certainly do not. I have no doubt that when the history of the war is written, we shall find many gallant acts that have been performed, but it will be difficult to tell what is the most gallant.’ Butler continued, ‘Well, I’ll tell you, when you marched out of the naval academy with two companies in order to invade a hostile state and oppose the acts of the large mob, it was the most gallant act of this or any other war.’ I replied, ‘I know it was an important duty, but I claim no credit, except for having volunteered to perform it.’”
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