Isaac G. Hodgen was born on May 9, 1828, in Hardin County, Kentucky, to Jacob and Frances Hodgen. The family eventually moved to Pittsfield, Illinois, and by 1850, Hodgen was working as a merchant. He married Annette Noyes on January 22, 1852, and they had at least two children: Ella, born around 1854; and John, born around 1861.

 

In August 1862, he received a commission as a 1^st lieutenant in the 99^th Illinois Infantry. The regiment took part in the siege of Vicksburg and the Battle of Fort Blakeley. His comrades wrote that he “came up to the highest standards of an officer,” and they praised his “earnest patriotism, his energy and activity.” He was promoted to captain in June 1863, and he mustered out on July 31, 1865.

 

He settled in Benton, Missouri, after the war and earned a living as a farmer. By 1870, he owned $5,000 of real estate and $1,175 of personal property. They moved to Roodhouse, Illinois, in the 1870s and worked as a clerk. He joined the Republican Party, and he supported President Ulysses S. Grant. In the presidential election of 1880, however, he reportedly voted for Democratic candidate Winfield Scott Hancock. He applied for a federal pension in November 1889 and eventually received one. His wife died in January 1893, and he passed away in St. Louis, Missouri, on January 31, 1897.

 

Image: Isaac G. Hodgen (William W. Washburn, photographer, Captain Isaac G. Hodgen of Co. A, 99^th Illinois Infantry Regiment in uniform / Washburn, photographer, 113 Canal St., New-Orleans, United States, available from https://www.log.gov/item/2017659682)

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