Hugh Boyle Ewing

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Hugh Boyle Ewing, (October 31, 1826 - June 30, 1905), was educated at the U.S. military academy, and in 1849 went to California where he joined an expedition ordered by his father, then Secretary of the Interior, to rescue the belated immigrants who were imprisoned in the Sierra by the heavy snows. He made the journey to California by way of New Orleans and Texas; passing through Mexico from the Rio Grande to Mazatlan on the Pacific, crossing the Cordilleras on mule back; and returning in 1852 by way of Panama, with dispatches for the government.

He then completed his course in law and settled in St. Louis, Mo., where he practiced from 1854 to 1856, when he removed with his brother, Thomas, to Leavenworth, Kansas. In 1858 he was married to Henrietta, daughter of George W. Young, a large plantation owner of the District of Columbia, whose family was prominent in the settlement and history of Maryland. He soon afterward took charge of his father's salt works in Ohio.

In April, 1861, he was appointed by Governor Dennison brigade-inspector of Ohio volunteers, and he served under Rosecrans and McClellan in western Virginia. He was made colonel of the 30th Ohio volunteers in August, 1861, brigadier-general, Nov. 29, 1862, and major-general by brevet in 1865. In the battle of South Mountain he led the assault which drove the enemy from the summit; and at midnight of that day he received an order placing him in command of a brigade.

Under McClellan at Antietam his brigade was placed upon the extreme left of the army, where, according to the report of General Burnside, "by a brilliant change of front he saved the left from being completely driven in." He served throughout the campaign before Vicksburg, leading the assaults made by General Sherman; and upon its fall was placed in command of a division. At Chattanooga his division formed the advance of Sherman's army and carried Missionary Ridge. He was ordered to North Carolina in 1865, and was planning an expedition up the Roanoke river to co-operate with the army of the James, when Lee surrendered.

President Andrew Johnson appointed him U.S. Minister to Holland, where he served, 1866-70. Upon his return to the United States he retired upon a farm near Lancaster, Ohio.

He was the author of: The Black List; A Tale of Early California (1887); A Castle in the Air (1887); The Gold Plague, and other works.

He was the son of Thomas Ewing, the brother of Thomas Ewing, Jr. and General Charles Ewing, and the foster brother of General William T. Sherman