He enlisted in the Union army on September 8, 1862, and he mustered in as a private in Company D of the 52^nd Massachusetts Militia Infantry. He was promoted to corporal, and he served in the regiment’s color guard. The regiment took part in the siege of Port Hudson, and he mustered out on August 14, 1863.

 

In 1864, he published The Color Guard, being a Corporal’s Notes of Military Service in the Nineteenth Army Corps. In the book, he declared his commitment to the Union cause, writing that the “cause of the North, briefly, is, to me, the cause of civilization and liberty.” He opposed slavery, although he explained that “my sympathies go as much or more with the suffering whites than the suffering blacks.”

 

Hosmer married Eliza A. Cutler on October 15, 1863, and they had at least three children: Edward, born around 1866; Ernest, born around 1870; and Josephine, born around 1866. Hosmer worked as a professor at Antioch College from 1866 until 1872. He spent the next two years teaching at the University of Missouri before receiving an appointment at Washington University in St. Louis in 1874. His wife died around 1877, and he married Jenny Garland on November 27, 1878. They had at least two children: Ruth, born around 1879; and Milicent, born around 1884.

 

He served as director of the Minneapolis Public Library from 1892 until 1904, and he was president of the American Library Association from 1902 until 1903. In the early 1900s, he published several histories of the Civil War era: The Appeal to Arms in 1907 and The American Civil War in 1913. He supported reconciliation with former Confederates. As he explained in 1914, "Though I fought on the other side, I hold, and always have held in profound respect, the men who confronted us. I know of no finer type of men than many who were in [Confederate] ranks and shall always bear testimony to their valor and good purpose." He died in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on May 11, 1927.

 

Image: James K. Hosmer (courtesy Wikicommons)