George W. Hoag was born around 1842 in New York to Erastus and Eliza Catherine Hoag. His father was a gardener and farm laborer. The family moved to Cuyahoga County, Ohio, sometime in the late 1840s, and George attended school there. His mother later testified that his father had “wholly abandoned the support of his family,” and that they were “wholly dependent” on George’s labor. He enlisted in the Union army on December 24, 1861, and mustered in as a private in Company H of the 54^th Ohio Infantry later that day. Throughout the war, he sent most of his salary home to help support his mother and siblings. His regiment took part in the Battles of Shiloh, Corinth, and Chickasaw Bayou, and the Siege of Vicksburg. Hoag fell gravely ill in the winter of 1864-1865, and the army sent him to Chestnut Hill Hospital near Philadelphia to cover. He remained there from February 22, 1865, until March 15, 1865. Army officials then sent him home to Ohio, where he mustered out in March 22, 1865.

 

He returned home in broken health, and a doctor who examined him the following day reported “much emaciation from chronic diarrhea.” Another witness testified that he was “literally skin and bones.” His mother confirmed that he was “very sick when he got home and was so feeble that he was unable to tell where he had been.” He died on May 28, 1865, in Cuyahoga County, and count officials listed his cause of death as “starved in Rebel Prison.” His mother secured a federal pension soon afterward to help support the family.

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