Today New York native and Baptist Orville E. Hoyt, born 1846, is one of hundreds discharged from the Union Army.
In 1864 at the age of 18, Hoyt moved to Philadelphia and in December enlisted in Company A, 202nd Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, serving as a private until his discharge this day.
The conclusion of the war leads Hoyt on a career search.
Following stints in Pennsylvania and Michigan, Hoyt settles in Hammonton, New Jersery, marries, starts a family, and becomes editor of the South Jersey Republican newspaper.
Like many Baptists of the post-war North, Hoyt is involved in the growing Temperance movement, his Baptist faith intersecting his public life.
Sources: Biographical, Genealogical and Descriptive History of the First Congressional District of New Jersey, Volume 2, Lewis Publishing Company, pp.578-579 (link)
