Biographical Note

Joshua Gilman Hawkes, son of Joshua and Abigail Bancroft Hawkes, was born in Lynnfield, Massachusetts, on August 18, 1831. After serving as an apprentice manufacturer of sash doors and blinds, Hawkes attended school in Vermont. He graduated from Amherst Colege in 1859, and became principal of Conway Academy (Conway, Massachusetts). Hawkes left Conway in late 1861, returning to Lynnfield, where he resumed his studies and also took private lessons in military tactics. He enlisted in Company D, 52nd Massachusetts Infantry for a nine-month term of service on September 8, 1862. Eventually attaining the rank of sergeant, Hawkes participated in the occupation of Baton Rouge and the siege of Port Hudson. On the night of July 23, 1863, his regiment's term of service having expired, Hawkes was among those who boarded the steamer Henry Chouteau, bound for Cairo, Illinois, from which the 52nd would depart for Massachusetts. Hawkes, ill with dysentery, was expected after his recovery to accept an officer's commission in United States Colored Troops regiment. During the first night on the river, however, Hawkes disappeared and was assumed to have drowned.

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