author
A. J. (Alfred James) Hill
1833–1895
A careful chronicler of Minnesota’s past, this 19th-century writer helped preserve both Civil War memory and early archaeological research in the Upper Midwest. His surviving work ranges from regimental history to studies of Native earthworks and exploration.
2 Audiobooks
History of Company E of the Sixth Minnesota Regiment of Volunteer Infantry
by A. J. (Alfred James) Hill, Charles J. Stees
Collections of the Minnesota Historical Society for the Year 1867
by Charles Edwin Mayo, Henry M. (Henry Mower) Rice, A. J. (Alfred James) Hill, Gideon H. (Gideon Hollister) Pond
About the author
Born in London in 1833 and later active in Minnesota, Alfred James Hill became known for writing and research tied closely to the region’s history. Records of his publications show that he wrote History of Company E of the Sixth Minnesota Regiment of Volunteer Infantry and contributed important historical and archaeological work connected with the Minnesota Historical Society.
Hill is especially associated with the study of mounds and other Indigenous sites in Minnesota and nearby states. Library and archival records credit his field surveys and notes as part of the foundation for The Aborigines of Minnesota, a major early reference work published by the Minnesota Historical Society after his death.
He died in 1895, but his work continued to matter because it preserved details that might otherwise have been lost. For listeners interested in local history, Civil War memory, or the early study of the American Midwest, his writing offers a direct window into how the 19th century tried to document its own past.