\^L t467 IN MEMORIAM BREVET BRIGADIER-GENERAL THOMAS HAMLIN HUBBARD Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2010 with funding from The Library of Congress http://www.archive.org/details/inmemoriambrevet01mili Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States COMMANDERY-IN-CHIEF 3« Mtmanmn Brevet Brigadier-General THOMAS HAMLIN HUBBARD ■I "One by one they go Into the unknown dark — Starlit brows of the brave, Voices that drew men's souls. Rich is the land, Oh Death! Can give you dead like our dead." THOMAS HAMLIN HUBBARD First Lieutenant and Adjutant 25th Maine Infantry September 29, 1862; honorably mustered out July 11, 1863. Lieut.-Colonel 30th Maine Infantry December 19, 1863; Colonel June 2, 1864; resigned and honorably discharged July 23, 1865. Brevetted Brig.-General U. S. Volunteers July 13, 1865, "for mer- itorious service." Elected February 9, 1867, in the Commandery of the State of Maine. Class I. Insignia 2392. Transferred to the Commandery of the State of New York May 4, 1887. Junior Vice-Commander May 6, 1891-1892. Commander May 6, 1903- 1907, Commander-in-Chief of the Order October 15, 1913, to May 19, 1915. Born December 20, 1838, at Hallowell, Maine. Died May 19, 1915, at New York City. The value of high ideals in shaping character, and in opening the way to effective leadership among men, is the lesson of each succeeding generation. It is not achievement that counts as men come and go, but worthy achievement, the achievement that makes life worth living and gives to it its highest joy. Such ideals General Hubbard possessed , and they made him the man he was. He belonged to an old New England family. Three of his Hubbard ancestors bore military titles. Richard Hubbard, of Salisbury, Mass., born about 1631, was a Cornet. His eldest son, John Hubbard, was a Lieutenant. Another Richard Hubbard, John Hubbard's eldest surviving son, was a Captain. Three other later John Hubbards, in the same line and in succession, were physicians, the first of the three making his home in Readfield, Maine, to which place he removed in 1784. The third of these three physicians, General Hubbard's father, was graduated at Dartmouth College in 1816, studied medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, and not only gained a prominent place among the leading physicians in Maine, but became Governor of the State in 1849, a position which he held four years. Later, General Hubbard's father served as one of the Commissioners under the pro- visions of the Reciprocity Treaty between the United States and Great Britain, Governor Hubbard married July 12, 1825, Sarah Hodge Barrett, of Dresden, Maine. Of their five children, the two sons entered Bowdoin College and were graduated in the class of 1857. Both obtained high rank, Thomas Hamlin winning the prize for English composition and Phi Beta Kappa membership. The first year after graduation, he was Principal of Hallowell Academy. He then studied law, and in i860 he was admitted to the Maine bar; but seeking added preparation for his chosen profession he entered the Law School at Albany, N. Y., graduat- ing in 1 861. Already he seems to have caught a vision of the oppor- tunities which a great and growing metropolis affords for securing the prizes of honorable endeavors; and he now made his way to New York City, was admitted to the New York Bar, May 4, 1861, and entered upon the practice of his profession. These were the opening days of the War of the Rebellion. In the rapid unfolding of events connected with the war. General Hubbard's older brother, John Barrett, assisted in recruiting the First Maine Battery and received a commission as First Lieutenant. Later, as Captain and Assistant Adjutant-General on the staff of General Weitzel, he was killed in the first assault upon the works at Port Hudson, With the younger brother, the year that followed his coming to New York was one of divided interest because of the war; and in the summer of 1862, when the call of President Lincoln rang out for added volunteers, he closed his affairs, returned to his native State and assisted in raising the Twenty-fifth Maine Infantry, of which he was commissioned First Lieutenant and Adjutant. With this regiment he had nine months' service at Arlington Heights, Chantilly and in the defences of Washing- ton. On returning to Maine with the regiment at the close of its period of service, he was made Lieutenant Colonel of the Thirtieth Maine Infantry, which was asigned to the Department of the Gulf. In the Red River campaign, he participated with his regiment in the battles of Sabine Cross Roads and was in command of the regiment in the battles at Cane River Crossing and Marksville. For valuable aid in the con- struction of a dam across the river at Alexandria, securing the safety of the Union gunboats, he received honorable mention in Admiral Porter's report. He also distinguished himself in connection with the crossing of the Union Troops at Atchafalaya River, May i8, 1864. In the autumn of that year, meanwhile having received promotion, Colonel Hubbard with his regiment came north and with the Nineteenth Corps served under General Sheridan in the Shenandoah Valley. After the Grand Review in Washington at the close of the war, he proceeded with his regiment to Savannah, Georgia, where he presided over a board appointed to examine officers for the regular army. At different times in the fall of 1864 and the first half of 1865, he acted as brigade com- mander. But now that the war was over, the employments of civil life again strongly attracted him. Accordingly, resigning his commission and returning to New York, he entered upon the practice of his profession with undiminished interest, at first in partnership with Charles A. Rappallo, and later as a member of the well known firm of Butler, Stillman and Hubbard. His outlook upon the world had widened in his absence, and so too, we may well believe had his aims and purposes in life. The kind of success that he sought at the bar was that which he afterward described as the success that advances "the cause of truth and justice * * * whether by winning verdicts, by getting favorable decisions, or by preventing litigation." To him dishonesty in a case at law was as disreputable as dishonesty in any other relation among men. High standards of action he kept constantly in view, and their exempli- fication, in connection with his possession ofi ntellectual and professional ability, gave General Hubbard in due time merited distinction at the bar. At the same time, his reputation as a lawyer brought him into close relations with men who were engaged in large business enterprises in various parts of the country and even beyond. In 1896, the firm of Butler, Stillman and Hubbard was dissolved, and thenceforward General Hubbard devoted himself almost exclusively to his railroad and other financial interests, in many of which he held prominent official positions. These brought to him ample rewards. But as wealth increased he was not unmindful of the opportunities that were opening for its uses. His benefaetions, which were many, were those of one who accounted himself a steward. Concerning them little is known to the world. His gifts to Bowdoin College began at an early period with aid to needy and worthy students. The elaborate bronze memorial tablets in Memorial Hall, recording the names and services of Bowdoin's sons in the War of the Rebellion, were the gift of General Hubbard in 1889. Hubbard Hall, the beautiful library building of the college, erected at the cost of $300,000, was the joint gift of General and Mrs. Hubbard. Other gifts to the college, including cash subscriptions to various college funds, increased these benefactions before his death to about half a million of dollars. In this connection mention should be made of General Hubbard's contributions to the Peary Arctic Club of which he was the President. They were not only exceedingly generous, but back of them always was the moral assurance that if added gifts were needed his ever open hand would supply the need. He had unshaken and unshakable faith in the ultimate success of the enterprise, and his wise counsel with reference to it, and his determination that nothing should be lacking in order to achieve it, are deserving of honorable recognition and appreciation. Cape Thomas H. Hubbard, in the icy north, is the Arctic tribute of Admiral Peary to his unfailing friend and helper; while for this memorial he adds the generous words: "Of General Hubbard it may be said that to him was due the securing of the North Pole as a national trophy." Honors came to General Hubbard from the college which he so lov- ingly remembered in his benefactions. In 1874, he was made an overseer of Bowdoin and a trustee in 1889. Its degree of LL.D. was conferred upon him in 1894. Honors also came to him from his associ- ates in professional life, and in connection with the large business and financial interests with which in his later years he was prominently identified. In April last, at the fiftieth anniversary of the founding of our Order, he was summoned hither to deliver the oration. In the Academy of Music, in the presence of so many of his companions of the Loyal Legion, together with their wives and daughters and other invited guests, he appropriately responded by recurring to the funda- mental principles of the Order and by applying them to conditions existing in the world today because of the gigantic war in which so large a part of Europe is now engaged. Then, returning to his home in New York, how suddenly was the silver cord loosed and the golden bowl broken. It was as if he had recalled and made his own the words of Tennyson, "Sunset and evening star, And one clear call for me." The call came, and it found him ready. As Bunyan says of Mr. Valiant-for-Truth, "so he passed over;" and confidently we may add what the Dreamer said of his passing pilgrim, "all the trumpets sounded for him on the other side." January 28, 1868, General Hubbard married Sibyl A. Fahnestock, of Harrisburg, Penna. She survives him with two daughters, Mrs. Herbert S. Darlington and Miss Anna Weir Hubbard, and a son, Mr. John Hubbard. To the members of this suddenly and sorely bereaved family, the Commandery-in-Chief tenders heartfelt sympathy. Arnold A. Rand Henry S. Burrage Wm. S. Cogswell John P. Green Simeon H. Crane Committee. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 013 700 334 .// ^?' ^76 LIBRARY OF CONGRESS III III! 01 3 700 334 A pH8^