Samuel M. (Samuel Miller) Quincy

Born in Boston in 1832, he was the son of Josiah Quincy Jr. and a graduate of Harvard. Before he became known as an author, he built a varied career as a lawyer, journalist, and public-minded Bostonian with strong ties to local historical work.

During the American Civil War, he served in the Union Army with the 2nd Massachusetts Infantry, was wounded and captured, and later rose to the rank of brevet brigadier general. Those experiences shaped some of his most interesting writing, including History of the Second Massachusetts Regiment of Infantry and The Man Who Was Not a Colonel, works that mix military history with the perspective of someone who had lived through the events himself.

Quincy's life after the war remained unusually wide-ranging. He briefly served as mayor of New Orleans in 1865 and was active in preserving Boston's history through the Bostonian Society. He died in 1887, leaving behind writing that connects personal memory, Civil War history, and nineteenth-century public life.