Elisha Hunt Rhodes

Elisha Hunt Rhodes (March 21 1842 – January 14, 1917) served in the Union Army of the Potomac during the American Civil War. Rhodes' illustrative diary of his war service was quoted prominently in Ken Burns' PBS documentary "The Civil War".

Rhodes was born in Pawtuxet, Rhode Island, to Captain Elisha H. and Eliza A. Rhodes. He had several sisters and two brothers. At age 14, Rhodes went to a business academy. Three years after his father was drowned in the shipwreck of his schooner "Worcester" in a hurricane on Dec. 10, 1858 and buried on Linyards Cay, Abaco in the Bahamas Rhodes enlisted in the war with his mother's permission. At first he believed war to be an adventure. During the Civil War, he advanced from private in Company D of the 2nd Rhode Island Volunteer Infantry to Colonel of the regiment. After the war, he became a successful businessman and became active in veteran's affairs. He never missed a regimental reunion. From 1879 until 1893 he served as Brigadier General in command of the Rhode Island State Militia. Elisha Hunt Rhodes is most remembered for the wartime journal and letters published as "All For the Union" by a great-grandson, Robert H. Rhodes. This diary reflects the change in Rhodes's ideas about war greatly, and shows how he just wanted to be home with his family after seeing so much death and suffering. His writings were made famous by their incorporation into Ken Burns's PBS-TV serial documentary film "The Civil War". He married Caroline Pearce Hunt on June 12, 1866 and had a son, Frederick Miller Rhodes and a daughter Alice Caroline Rhodes Chace. His large collection of personal relics and mementos is now owned by the Rhode Island Historical Society in Providence.

References

* [http://www.angelfire.com/ri2/GARvets/2ndRIphotoAlbum.html GAR veterans bio of Rhodes]

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