William H. (William Henry) Hodgkins

author

William H. (William Henry) Hodgkins

1840–1905

A Civil War soldier whose diary later became a book, he also built a public life in Massachusetts as a state senator and mayor of Somerville. His story bridges the everyday reality of war with the work of local government in the decades that followed.

1 Audiobook

History of the Thirty-sixth Regiment Massachusetts Volunteers. 1862-1865

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

William Henry Hodgkins (June 9, 1840 – September 24, 1905) was an American Civil War veteran and Massachusetts public official. He served in Company B of the 36th Massachusetts Infantry, and his wartime diary was later published as Journal of War: A Civil War Diary of the Life of William H. Hodgkins, preserving his firsthand account of military life from 1862 to 1865.

After the war, Hodgkins became active in civic life in Somerville, Massachusetts. He served on the Somerville Common Council, including as its president, went on to become the city’s eighth mayor, and also served in the Massachusetts State Senate.

He is remembered both for public service and for leaving behind a personal record of the Civil War that gives modern readers a direct, human view of the conflict.