Edward Hunter – Colonel, United States Army

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Edward Hunter of Maine
Appointed from Maine, Cadet, United States Military Academy, 1 July 1860 (47
Second Lieuenant, 12th Infantry, 23 June 1865
First Lieutenant, 23 June 1865
Regimental Quartermaster, 11 August 1866 to 28 April 1869
Regimental Adjutant, 31 October 1869 to 19 February 1870
Regimental Quartermaster, 19 September 1870 to 1 May 1873
Regimental Adjutant, 26 November 1877 to 21 August 1879
Captain, 21 August 1879 to 16 January 1889
Major, Judge Advocate, 10 December 1888
Lieutenant Colonel, Deputy Judge Advocate General, 1895
Colonel, Judge Advocate General, 21 May 1907

Edward Hunter US Army was a career American Army officer who graduated from the United States Military Academy, (West Point) on June 23, 1865. He was born at Gardner Maine on November 22, 1839 and died at Mount Vernon, New York on October 12, 1928. He married Caroline Clay Hoff, (August 1, 1850 – July 1931) on March 27, 1870 at San Francisco, California.

He served in California, Georgia, Idaho, Minnesota, Nevada, New York, Puerto Rico Virginia, Washington and Washington DC.

He was commissioned a second lieutenant upon graduation from West Point and was promoted immediately as a first lieutenant in the Twelfth Infantry Regiment.

He spent his early years as an Indian fighter before transferring to to the judge advocate and adjutant general corps He took part in the campaigns against the Cheyenne’s, Arapahoe’s, Kiowa’s and Comanche’s, 1868; the Nez Perce War, 1877; and the Bannock War, 1878; and numerous other nameless skirmishes during that time including the Battle of Soldier Spring.

His first duty was the charge of military prisons in the Department of Virginia upon the surrender of Confederate Forces after the Civil War. These included Libby Prison, (This was for Union officers only and because of it’s high death toll, Libby Prison is generally regarded as second in notoriety only to Andersonville Prison in Georgia), and Castle Thunder Prison (equally known for its brutality and used to hold civilians, political prisoners and spies); and the state penitentiary.

He was then transferred to the Department of New Mexico. He was promoted to captain of the 1st cavalry regiment in August 1880.

He transferred to the Department of the Columbia and was stationed at Fort Walla Walla, Washington Territory, (now the city of Walla Walla Washington), and Fort Colville, (now the city of Colville Washington), in 1877 during and the early 1880s. (His daughter Jane Richards Hunter was born at Fort Walla Walla, Washington Territory on July 15, 1882; reportedly, (but unauthenticated), the first white child to be born in what is now the State of Washington.)

He next served for two years Washington D C as an examiner of claims arising from the Civil War.

He transferred to the Department of California in San Francisco as adjutant of the Twelfth Infantry. He was then transferred to the First Cavalry Regiment and appointed first quartermaster and then adjutant of the regiment. He was adjutant-general of the expedition against the Paiutes. He read for the law and was prompted to major and judge-advocate for the Department of California in December 1888 and was admitted to the California Bar. At the time he was president of the California Sons of the American Revolution.

In 1895 he was promoted to lieutenant colonel and deputy judge-advocate and adjutant general in the Department of Dakota at Fort Snelling, St. Paul Minn. When the Spanish American War broke out he served first at Chickamauga as the mustering officer and then in 1898 he served under General Brooke as judge-advocate in Puerto Rico and as secretary of the committee on evacuation. He was invalided back to the United States because of ill health.

He was promoted to colonel and judge advocate general for the Department of the East at Governors Island, NY in May 1901. He retired in 1903 on half pay at the mandatory retirement age of 64.

During his nearly forty years of service he served under Generals Miles, Gibbon, Rugur, Forsythe, Brook, Wade, McArthur and Chaffee.

He was the son-in-law of Brevet Colonel Alexander Henry Hoff, Surgeon, US Army and the brother-in-law of Colonel John Van Rennselaer Hoff, Deputy Surgeon General, U S Army; January 1902.

COLONEL EDWARD HUNTER
Retired Army Officer Died at 89 in Mount Vernon

NEW YORK, New York – October 13, 1929 – Colonel Edward Hunter, a retired Army officer, and for seventeen years a resident of Mount Vernon, New York, died yesterday at his home, 17 Cottage Avenue.  He had been ill for about a year.  He was in his ninetieth year, having been born in Gardiner, Maine, on November 22, 1839, the son of Mr. and Mrs. John Patten Hunter.

Colonel Hunter joined the Army on June 23, 1865 as a Second Lieutenant in the Twelfth Infantry and took part in many engagements against the Indians.

He was made Colonel Judge Advocate in 1901 and retired in 1903.

Funeral services will be held tomorrow afternoon at the Church of the Ascension.  Burial will be in Arlington Cemetery near Washington.

HUNTER, EDWARD
LT COL USA DEPUTY JUDGE ADVOCATE GENERAL
DATE OF DEATH: 10/12/1929
BURIED AT: SECTION E 2  SITE LOT 1006
ARLINGTON NATIONAL CEMETERY

HUNTER, CAROLINE CLAY WID/O EDWARD
DATE OF DEATH: 10/12/1929
BURIED AT: SECTION E  SITE LOT 1000
ARLINGTON NATIONAL CEMETERY

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