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 [decorative delimiter] Class of 1851

Vol. II
p465 1525

(Born Vt.)

Henry C. Hodges

(Ap'd Vt.)

32

Henry Clay Hodges: Born Jan. 14, 1831.

Military History. — Cadet at the Military Academy, July 1, 1847, to July 1, 1851, when he was graduated and promoted in the Army to

Bvt. Second Lieut., 4th Infantry, July 1, 1851.

Served: on frontier duty at Ft. Howard, Wis., 1851‑52, — Benicia,

(Second Lieut., 4th Infantry, Aug. 1, 1852)

Cal., 1852, — Columbia Barracks, Or., 1852‑53, — Pacific Railroad Exploration, 1853‑54, — Ft. Vancouver, Wash., 1854‑55, — Scouting against Snake Indians, 1855, — and on Yakima Expedition, 1855; and as Adjutant,

(First Lieut., 4th Infantry, May 23, 1855, to May 17, 1861)

4th Infantry, Oct. 1, 1855, to May 14, 1861, at Ft. Vancouver, Wash., 1855‑56, 1857‑61, — and Ft. Dalles, Or., 1861.

Served during the Rebellion of the Seceding States, 1861‑66: as Purchasing

(Captain, Staff — Asst. Quartermaster, May 17, 1861)

and Disbursing Quartermaster on the Staff of Governor Morgan, of New York, Aug., 1861, to Jan., 1863, in Clothing and Equipping New York Volunteers, — in furnishing Transportation at New York for the conveyance of troops and supplies to the Virginia Peninsula, Feb. to Sep., 1862,​a — and in building Barracks for Drafted Men at Buffalo, Auburn, Fonda, Plattsburg, and Staten Island, Sep., 1862, to Jan., 1863; as Quartermaster of the Centre Grand Division of the Army of the Potomac, with the rank of Lieut.‑Colonel, Jan. 1 to Feb. 11, 1863; as Depot Quartermaster, at Nashville, Ten., Apr. to Aug., 1863; as Chief Quartermaster of the Army of the Cumberland, on the Staff of Major-General Indicates a West Point graduate and gives his Class.Rosecrans in the Tennessee Campaign, Aug. to Nov., 1863, being engaged in the Battle of Chickamauga, Sep. 19‑20, 1863; as Depot Quartermaster at Ft. Leavenworth, Kan., Dec., 1863, to Feb., 1865; in establishing a Depot at Morehead City, N. C., to supply Major-General Indicates a West Point graduate and gives his Class.Sherman's Army en route from Savannah, Ga., to Goldsborough, N. C., Mar., 1865;

(Bvt. Major and Bvt. Lieut.‑Col., Mar. 13, 1865,
for Faithful and Meritorious Services during the Rebellion)

as Chief Quartermaster, at Mobile, Ala, Apr. to July 31, 1865, — and at New Orleans, June‑July, 1865; on sick leave of absence, July to Oct.,  p466 1865; and as Chief Quartermaster of the Department of the Columbia, Nov. 14, 1865, to Dec. 12, 1866.

Major, Staff — Quartermaster, July 29, 1866.

Served: as Depot Quartermaster at Ft. Vancouver, Wash., Dec. 12, 1866, to May 2, 1868; as Chief Quartermaster of the Department of Columbia, May 19 to June 13, 1868; as Assistant to the Chief Quartermaster of the Department of California, Nov. 9 to Dec. 4, 1868, and Acting Chief Quartermaster, Dec. 5, 1868, to Apr. 13, 1869; as Quartermaster at the Philadelphia Depot, May 29 to July 17, 1869, and Chief Quartermaster of the Third District, Department of the East, July 17, 1869, to May 24, 1872; as Quartermaster at Atlanta, Ga., July 15, 1872, to Sep. 30, 1873; as Chief Quartermaster, Department of the Gulf, Oct. 8, 1873, to Feb. 10, 1875 (settling accounts at Washington, D. C., Sep. 7‑30, 1874, and Jan. 26 to Apr. 3, 1875), — and of the Fourth Quartermaster's District, Division of the Atlantic, Apr. 11 to Oct. 13, 1875; as Assistant to the Quartermaster-General at Washington, D. C., Nov. 1, 1875, to July 15, 1881; as Chief Quartermaster of the Department of

(Lieut.‑Colonel, Staff — Dep. Quartermaster-General, May 29, 1876)

Arizona, Aug. 5, 1881, to Mar. 29, 1882; in charge of the General Depot of the Quartermaster's Department, at New York city, Apr. 10, 1882, to Nov. 19, 1887; in settling his accounts, to Jan. 16, 1888; in charge of the General Depot of the Quartermaster's Department, at Jeffersonville, Ind., Jan. 23, 1888, to –––––.

Colonel, Staff — Asst. Quartermaster-General, Oct. 19, 1888.

Vol. IV
p83 [Supplement, Vol. IV: 1890‑1900]

Civil History. — In charge of the General Depot of the Quartermaster Department at Jeffersonville, Ind., from Jan. 23, 1888 to June 20, 1894.

(Colonel, Staff — Assistant Quartermaster-General, Oct. 19, 1888)

— Member of a Court of Inquiry convened in Washington, D. C., Oct., 1888 to April, 1889. — Settling accounts in Buffalo, N. Y., June 21, 1894, to Jan. 14, 1895.

Retired from Active Service, he being 64 Years of Age, Jan. 14, 1895.

— Post-office address, 335 Hudson Street, Buffalo, N. Y.

Vol. V
p75 [Supplement, Vol. V: 1900‑1910]

Military History. — Retired officer. — Residence, Buffalo, N. Y.

Vol. VI
p62 [Supplement, Vol. VI: 1910‑1920]

(Henry Clay Hodges, Born Jan. 14, 1831.)

Military History. —

Colonel, Assistant Quartermaster General, Oct. 19, 1888.

Colonel, U. S. A., Retired, Jan. 14, 1895, by Operation of Law.

Brigadier-General, U. S. A., on Retired List, April 23, 1904,
Act of April 23, 1904.

Died Nov. 3, 1917, at Buffalo, N. Y.: Aged 86.

Buried, Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington, VA.

Portrait and obituary in Annual Report, Association of Graduates, for 1918.

Thayer's Note:

a The thought may well have crossed the gentle reader's mind, as it did mine, that against the heroic feats of active combatants, a quartermaster's career is after all only a bureaucratic sinecure, cushy, safe, and neither particularly important nor arduous; a relative, Almon D. Hodges, sets us right in The Hodges Family of New England, 1896, as quoted in Ancestors and Descendants of Daniel Gardner V. and Mary (Hodges) Gardner, late of Champaign, Illinois by D. Hodges Gardner, 1915:

p53 On the 27th of February, 1862, Captains Henry C. Hodges and Indicates a West Point graduate and gives his Class.Rufus J. Ingalls received an order — without previous notice — to provide transportation and to transport Indicates a West Point graduate and gives his Class.McClellan's army from in front of Washington to Fortress Monroe. Captain Hodges undertook to provide the transportation, and in eighteen days had a fleet ready to begin loading. Captain Ingalls then took charge, and p54in thirty-seven days from the time the order was received the entire movement was completed, with no casualties, save the loss of eightmules."

This feat is described — in the records of the War Department — as Mr. Hodges quotes, "without a parallel on record, and as one of the most brilliant feats of logistics ever recorded" — and he intimates that the credit was appropriated by the Assistant Secretary, or, as he says, chief clerk, who transmitted the order.

In sum, there's always room to do something well, whatever it is.

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