- Ethan A. Hitchcock (general)
Ethan Allen Hitchcock (
May 18 ,1798 –August 5 ,1870 ) was a careerUnited States Army officer and author who had War Department assignments inWashington, D.C. , during theAmerican Civil War , in which he served as a major general.Early life
Hitchcock was born in
Vergennes, Vermont , grandson ofAmerican Revolutionary War hero GeneralEthan Allen . He graduated from theUnited States Military Academy in 1817 and was commissioned a third lieutenant in the U.S. Artillery. From 1829 to 1833, he served as commandant of cadets atWest Point and achieved the rank of the lieutenant colonel in the 3rd U.S. Infantry by 1842. He served in theSeminole War in Florida, in thePacific Northwest , and in theMexican-American War , where he served as Gen.Winfield Scott 's inspector general in the march onMexico City . He received a brevet promotion tocolonel for Contreras and Churubusco and to brigadier general for Molino del Rey. In 1851 became the colonel of the 2nd U.S. Infantry. He resigned from the Army in 1855 following a refusal by Secretary of WarJefferson Davis to extend a four-month leave of absence that he had requested for reasons of health. He moved toSt. Louis, Missouri , and a presumed retirement, occupying himself with writing and studies of general literature and philosophy.Civil War
After the start of the Civil War, Hitchcock applied to return to the service, but was rejected. It was only after the intervention of his former general, Winfield Scott, that he was commissioned a major general in the U.S. Army and became special adviser to the Secretary of War from
February 17 ,1862 . FromMarch 17 toJuly 23 ,1862 , he served as the chairman of the War Board, the organization that assisted PresidentAbraham Lincoln and Secretary of WarEdwin M. Stanton in the management of the War Department and the command of the Union armies during the period in which there was no general-in-chief. (Maj. Gen.George B. McClellan had been relieved of his responsibilities as general-in-chief and Maj. Gen.Henry W. Halleck had not yet replaced him.) He sat on the court-martial of Maj. Gen.Fitz John Porter which convicted the general of disobedience and cowardice. From November 1862 through the end of the war, he served as Commissioner forPrisoner of War Exchange, and then Commissary-General of Prisoners until 1867. He was mustered out of the volunteer service in 1867 and moved toCharleston, South Carolina , then toSparta, Georgia .Postbellum
Hitchcock died in Sparta, and is buried in West Point National Cemetery,
New York .Contributions to alchemy studies and Jungian psychology
Known as the "Pen of the Army," Ethan Allen Hitchcock was recognized by his contemporaries as an avid reader of philosophy and a published scholar.
By the time of his death, Hitchcock had amassed a large private library of philosophical texts, including over 250 volumes on the subject of
alchemy . This collection was widely regarded as one of the finest private holdings of rare alchemical works and is preserved bySt. Louis Mercantile Library at theUniversity of Missouri-St. Louis .Through "Remarks upon Alchemy and the Alchemists" and other writings, Hitchcock argued that the alchemists were actually religious philosophers writing in symbolism. In "Problems of Mysticism and its Symbolism", the Viennese psychologistHerbert Silberer credited Hitchcock with helping to open the way for his explorations of the psychological content of alchemy. Hitchcock was aRosicrucian and a member in Washington D. C. club along with Lincoln. [Clymer, R. Swinburne "The Book of Rosacruciae", vol. II p. 134, The Philosophical Publishing Co., 1947]Musical collection
The Major-General also played the
flute and amassed a sizeable collection of flute music. In the 1960s, almost one hundred years after his death, part of Hitchcock's personal music collection was discovered in Sparta, Georgia. This collection, which consists of 73 bound volumes and approximately 200 loose manuscripts, currently resides in the [http://music.fsu.edu/library/ Warren D. Allen Music Library] atFlorida State University . Included in this collection are works by some of the general's contemporaries, music manuscripts handwritten by Hitchcock himself, and items of personal correspondence. The library's acquisition of these materials was celebrated in 1989 by a recital given by F.S.U. flute students and attended by several of Hitchcock's descendants.elected works
* "Remarks upon Alchemy and Alchemists" (published in 1857)
* "Christ the Spirit" (1861)
* "The Story of the Red Book of Appin" (1863)
* "Spenser's Poem" (1865)
* "Remarks on the Sonnets of Shakespeare" (1867)
* "Fifty Years in Camp and Field" (posthumous, 1909)
* "A Traveler in Indian Territory: The Journal of Ethan Allen Hitchcock, Late Major-General in the United States Army" (posthumous, 1930)ee also
References
* Eicher, John H., and Eicher, David J., "Civil War High Commands", Stanford University Press, 2001, ISBN 0-8047-3641-3.
* Warner, Ezra J., "Generals in Blue: Lives of the Union Commanders", Louisiana State University Press, 1964, ISBN 0-8071-0822-7.
* [http://www.library.ci.corpus-christi.tx.us/MexicanWar/hitchcockea.htm Military biography of Ethan Allen Hitchcock at Corpus Christi public library]
* [http://music.fsu.edu/library/hitchcock.htm The Ethan Allen Hitchcock Collection at the Warren D. Allen Music Library]Notes
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