This day Albert R. Hicks, born in 1835 and a Michigan native, is among the many Union soldiers discharged from military service.
Hicks enlisted in 1864 in the First Regiment, Michigan Light Infantry, Seventh Battery. Sent to Alabama, he was involved in the capture of Port Mobile, a turning point in the war during 1864.
In the post-war years Hicks becomes a Baptist minister, pastoring various churches in the state of Michigan while also working as a medical doctor and raising a family.
Also this day, one of the largest Union Army hospitals in the country, the Satterlee United States General Hospital in Philadelphia, closes its doors. During its operational years, the hospital served some 60,000 “boys in blue.”
The one by one closing of Union Army hospitals during the summer months is a visible sign of the transition of national hostilities toward reunification, although begrudgingly so on the part of Southern white leaders.
Many years of Reconstruction, however, yet lie ahead.
Sources: “Albert R. Hicks,” in Portrait Biographical Album of Clinton and Shiawasse Counties, Michigan, Chicago: Chapman Brothers, 1891, pp. 733-734 (link); Kingsessing and Maylandville: A Mill Town Divided” (link)
