Thursday, August 30, 2012

Benjamin James Hawthorne, student 1858-1861

Hawthorne enlisted as 2nd lieutenant in Co. G of the 38th VA Infantry on December 11, 1861. He was wounded in the left arm in the Battle of Gettysburg during Pickett's Charge. He was promoted to captain on November 15, 1863, although he had previously served as captain from March-June 1863 int he absence of his captain. He was detailed from late November 1864 to early January 1865 as an enrolling officer. He surrendered at Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865.

Afte the war, he moved to Baton Rouge, LA and taught at Collegiate Institute. He went to West Tennessee College in 1869 and served as its president in 1872. In 1873, Hawthorne moved to Corvallis, OR to teach at Corvallis College at the request of the college's president, Benjamin Lee Arnold, also an R-MC alumnus and veteran of the 38th VA Infantry. Corvallis College later became Oregon State University. Hawthorne moved to the University of Oregon in Eugene, OR in 1884, where he founded the psychology department. During his years as a college professor he taught numerous subjects including Latin and Greek, agriculture, English literature, psychology, mathematics, and chemistry. He retired from the university in 1908 and became a lawyer, passing the bar in 1911 and practicing nearly until his death at age 90. He died on February 3, 1928 and is buried in Masonic Cemetery in Eugene, OR.

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