Loyal P. Hulburd was born around 1844 in Vermont to Daniel and Mary Hulburd. His father was a master carpenter who owned $1,200 of real estate and $200 of personal property by 1860. He grew up and attended school in Waterville, Vermont, and by 1860, he was working as a farm laborer.

 

He enlisted in the Union army on May 7, 1861, and he mustered in as a corporal in Company H of the 2^nd Vermont Infantry on June 20. The regiment took part in the First Battle of Bull Run, the Battle of Antietam, the Battle of Fredericksburg, the Battle of Gettysburg, and the Overland Campaign. He was promoted to sergeant on September 1, 1862. He fiercely supported General George B. McClellan, writing in December 1862 that “ever[y] man dearly loved McClellan and was ready to die for him there is no man in America that can handle this Army like him.” He was wounded in the Battle of Spotsylvania Court House on May 12, 1864, and he mustered out on June 29, 1864.

 

Hulburd moved to Cleveland, Ohio, after the war. He married a woman named Emily on January 22, 1867, and their daughter May was born around 1871. His wife died of meningitis on September 13, 1883, and he married Minerva A. Gale on October 3, 1888. Their son Fred was born around 1893. He applied for a federal pension in September 1890 and eventually secured one. By 1910, they were living in Fort Wayne, Indiana. He was admitted to the Soldiers’ Home in Los Angeles, California, in 1929. He died there of arteriosclerosis on July 14, 1929.

SOURCES