Samuel G. Hodnett was born around 1842 in Georgia to William Hodnett and Caroline Finley. His father was a farmer who owned $6,000 of real estate and $8,000 of personal property. The family lived in Troup County, Georgia, and Hodnett attended school there. He enlisted in the Confederate army on May 1, 1862, and mustered in as a private in Company K of the 13th Georgia Infantry. He was captured by Union forces in June 1865 and spent the next several months as a prisoner of war. He surrendered as part of General Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia on April 9, 1865. He was admitted to the Georgia State Sanitarium on November 12, 1868. He died on September 24, 1906.