General Hugh Boyle Ewing his Colt first model dragoon revolver

May 29, 2022

Hello, just want to share this very nice piece of civil war history in my collection, this is the Colt first model dragoon serial number 4268 build in 1849 which was given to Hugh Boyle Ewing in august of 1861 when he became a colonel in the 30th Ohio Volunteers, as can be read on the engraving of the backstrap of the revolver. The revolver is in a very good condition.

Hugh Boyle Ewing, brother of Generals Charles and Thomas Ewing, was born in Lancaster, Ohio, October 31, 1826. His early education was received from private tutors and on July 1, 1844, he entered the Military Academy, from which he resigned on the eve of graduation in 1848 because of deficiency in engineering.

The following year he went to California during the gold rush. In 1852, Ewing returned east and commenced the practice of law, first in St.Louis and later in Leavenworth, Kansas, where he was associated with his brother Thomas and his foster brother William Tecumseh Sherman. (Sherman
was taken into the Ewing household in 1829, after his own father died, and was reared there. Although he was never legally adopted, his relationship with the Ewing boys was one of foster brother. Subsequently, he married one of the Ewing girls.)

Having returned to Ohio in 1858, he was appointed to a staff position by Governor William Dennison in May, 1861; served under Generals George B. McClellan and William S. Rosecrans in western Virginia that summer; and in August became colonel of the 30th Ohio Volunteers. In the
battles of South Mountain and Sharpsburg in September, 1862, Ewing distinguished himself in command of his regiment and then a brigade of the IX Corps, following which his command was assigned to Sherman's XV Corps in U.S. Grant's operations against Vicksburg; Ewing was promoted to brigadier general of volunteers on November 29, 1862. After the surrender of the city he succeeded to the command of William Sooy Smith's division of the XVICorps, which had been transferred to Sherman's XV Corps. At the battle of Chattanooga, Ewing's division was the spearhead of Sherman's assault on the Confederate right wing, commanded by Patrick R. Cleburne, on Missionary Ridge and sustained heavy losses. The following February he was assigned to command of the post of Louisville, Kentucky. In February, 1865, he was ordered to join Sherman in North Carolina and was planning an expedition up Roanoke River when the end of the war came.

Mustered out in 1866, General Ewing received the brevet of major general "for meritorious services," and soon after was appointed minister to Holland by President Andrew Johnson. He served in this capacity until 1870, when he returned to Washington and resumed the practice of law. In 1874 he purchased a farm near his birthplace, where he resided until his death on June 30, 1905.

General Ewing is buried in Lancaster, Ohio. He is the author of two novels and
numerous magazine articles.