George S. Hawley was born on November 9, 1831, in Monkton, Vermont, to Gordon and Loraine Hawley. His father was a farmer who owned $3,000 of real estate in 1850. Hawley grew up and attended school in New Haven, Vermont, and by 1850, he was working as a farmer. He married Sylvia Wooster in Charlotte, Vermont, on February 8, 1860. They remained in his father’s household in New Haven, and Sylvia died on March 18, 1861.

 

Hawley enlisted in the Union army on August 27, 1861, and he mustered in as a corporal in Company F of the 5^th Vermont Infantry on September 16. The regiment took part in the Siege of Yorktown, the Battle of Williamsburg, the Battle of Antietam, the Battle of Fredericksburg, and the Battle of Chancellorsville. He was wounded near Fredericksburg on June 5, 1863, and he probably spent the following months recovering.

 

He was promoted to sergeant on December 15, 1863. Then, on March 3, 1864, he was promoted to 1^st lieutenant in Company E of the 23^rd USCT Infantry. His new regiment fought in the Battle of Cold Harbor and the siege of Petersburg. He supported Abraham Lincoln in the election of 1864. As he explained that July, “Our people are more than ever united in support of the President & his policy & the determination of every friend of the government to continue him in office another term shows conclusively that the intelligence people of the free north are not to be dictated to by traitors at home or enemies abroad.” He was wounded again near Petersburg on July 30, 1864, and he mustered out on September 30, 1864.

 

Hawley returned to Vermont after leaving the army. He applied for a federal pension in November 1864 and eventually secured one. He enlisted again on November 30, 1864, and mustered in as a 1^st lieutenant in the 18^th Veteran Reserve Corps. He mustered out for the final time on December 10, 1867.

 

By November 1868, he was working as a Freedmen’s Bureau agent in Goldsboro, North Carolina. He probably returned to Vermont soon afterward, and he married Caroline Wooster in Middlebury, Vermont, on September 7, 1869. They had at least two children: Caroline, born around 1870; and Ava, born around 1872. They lived in New Haven, and by 1870, they owned $5,000 of real estate and $1,450 of personal property.

 

By 1880, Hawley was suffering from gout. He was admitted to the local National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers in December 1882, suffering from “chronic rheumatism” and the lingering effects of a “gun shot through [the] face.” He transferred to the National Home in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, soon afterward, and he died of “La Grippe” in Dayton, Ohio, on December 5, 1891.

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