Luther Wesley Hopkins was born on November 13, 1843, in Loudoun County, Virginia, to Phillip and Joanna Hopkins. His father was a farmer who owned $3,500 of real estate and $8,000 of personal property by 1860. He grew up and attended school in Loudoun County.
He enlisted in the Confederate army on September 1, 1862, and he mustered in as a private in Company A of the 6th Virginia Cavalry later that day. The regiment took part in the Seven Days’ Battles, the Second Battle of Bull Run, the Battle of Antietam, the Battle of Fredericksburg, the Battle of Chancellorsville, the Battle of Gettysburg, the Overland Campaign, the Siege of Petersburg, and the Appomattox Campaign. Union forces captured him near Upperville, Virginia, on October 17, 1862, and he was paroled on November 2. He was captured again near Yellow Tavern, Virginia, on May 11, 1864, and he was paroled on September 18.
He settled in Scott, Virginia, after the war and earned a living as a clerk. By 1870, he owned $1,400 of personal property. He moved to Baltimore, Maryland, in the 1870s, and married Sarah Brown. They had at least two children: Annette, born around 1880; and John, born around 1882. He worked as a clerk and real estate broker in Baltimore, and by 1900, he employed at least two servants. He died in Sewickley, Pennsylvania, of “chronic myocarditis” on July 3, 1920.