Henry H. Hodnett was born around 1841 in Georgia to Lovick and Mary Jane Hodnett. His father was a farmer in Troup County, Georgia, who owned $12,000 of real estate and $20,000 of personal property, including at least 40 slaves. By 1860, Hodnett was working as an overseer on his father’s plantation. He enlisted in the Confederate army on July 8, 1861, and mustered in as a private in Company K of the 13th Georgia Infantry. The regiment took part in the Battles of Antietam, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, and the Wilderness. He was wounded in the shoulder on April 29, 1863, and the army sent him to Richmond to recover. He was injured again in the Battle of Monocacy on July 9, 1864, receiving a gunshot wound to his neck that fractured his vertebrae. Union forces captured him after the battle, and he died on July 14, 1864.