author
William H. (William Henry) Hodgkins
1840–1905
Best remembered for preserving Civil War experiences in print, this Massachusetts veteran also served his city as mayor and state senator. His writing brings together a soldier’s close-up view of war with the steady eye of a local historian.
1 Audiobook
History of the Thirty-sixth Regiment Massachusetts Volunteers. 1862-1865
by Henry S. (Henry Sweetser) Burrage, William H. (William Henry) Hodgkins, Edmund W. Noyes, S. Alonzo Ranlett, Alonzo A. White
About the author
Born in Charlestown, Massachusetts, in 1840, William Henry Hodgkins served in the 36th Massachusetts Infantry during the Civil War and rose from private to captain, later receiving the brevet rank of major. His wartime experiences became the basis for published diaries, regimental history, and battle accounts that have helped keep firsthand Union Army perspectives in circulation.
After the war, he remained active in public life in Somerville, Massachusetts. Reliable reference sources identify him as a mayor of Somerville and a member of the Massachusetts State Senate, showing a career that reached beyond military service into civic leadership.
For readers, Hodgkins is especially interesting because his work sits at the crossroads of memory, history, and public duty. Whether writing about campaigns and battles or helping document the service of fellow soldiers, he left behind a practical, eyewitness record of a defining period in American history.