| Detail | Information |
|---|---|
| Full Name | Rush Christopher Hawkins |
| Primary Role | Union Army colonel and commander of the 9th New York Infantry (Hawkins’ Zouaves) |
| Key Event or Campaign | Peninsula Campaign and Maryland Campaign (including Antietam), American Civil War |
| Time Period | 1831–1920 |
| Associated Location | New York and the eastern theaters of the American Civil War |
Introduction
Rush C. Hawkins (1831–1920) was a Union Army officer best known as colonel of the 9th New York Infantry, widely referred to as Hawkins’ Zouaves. A lawyer and political figure in New York before the American Civil War, he played a visible role in raising, organizing, and leading one of the Union’s distinctive volunteer regiments. His military career began with early coastal operations in North Carolina and continued through major campaigns in Virginia and Maryland, including the Peninsula Campaign and the Battle of Antietam. Although he never rose to permanent general rank, Hawkins exemplified the Civil War volunteer colonel who translated local influence into battlefield command. He matters historically for his role in shaping and implementing Union volunteer mobilization, his regiment’s participation in key early-war campaigns, and his later prominence as a commentator and collector preserving Civil War and broader historical memory.
Historical Context
Rush C. Hawkins’ military service developed within the specific framework of the Union’s reliance on short-term volunteer regiments during the American Civil War. After the Confederate attack on Fort Sumter in April 1861, President Abraham Lincoln’s call for troops triggered a scramble among northern states to organize units under state authority that would then be mustered into federal service. New York, with its large population and established political networks, became a central hub for these volunteer formations. Men like Hawkins, already active in law and politics, were positioned to raise regiments by leveraging civic connections, party influence, and local patriotic societies.
The 9th New York Infantry, recruited largely in New York City and surrounding areas, reflected a broader mid-19th-century fascination with French North African-inspired Zouave drill and uniforms, which were thought to improve discipline and esprit de corps. The Union high command, still learning to manage mass citizen armies, operated within a fluid system where volunteer colonels often received wide latitude in organization, training, and leadership, but were constrained by federal strategy, War Department regulations, and the seniority of West Point–trained officers. Hawkins’ role unfolded within this hierarchy, at the intersection of state-level initiative and a rapidly professionalizing national war effort, especially in the coastal and eastern theaters where political scrutiny of military performance was intense.
Defining Action or Conflict
The core of Hawkins’ military reputation rests on his command of the 9th New York Infantry from its formation in 1861 through its active service in the coastal and eastern campaigns, culminating in the Maryland Campaign that included Antietam. After organizing the regiment in New York, Hawkins led it to Virginia and then into the Burnside Expedition to the North Carolina coast, a joint army-navy operation aimed at seizing Confederate ports and sounds. In early 1862, his regiment fought at Roanoke Island and New Bern, where disciplined infantry assaults supported by naval firepower secured key positions for the Union and demonstrated the utility of coordinated coastal operations.
Following these successes, Hawkins and his regiment were transferred to the Army of the Potomac for the Peninsula Campaign and later served under Ambrose Burnside in the Ninth Corps. The regiment experienced heavy campaigning and casualties, particularly during the Maryland Campaign in September 1862. At Antietam, the 9th New York was engaged near the Burnside Bridge and in the subsequent advance toward Sharpsburg. Although Hawkins operated under corps and division orders, his handling of the regiment during this intense fighting illustrates the demanding conditions facing volunteer colonels: maintaining formations under fire, adapting to evolving orders, and managing men whose enlistment terms were finite and often nearing expiration.
Conflict over performance, promotions, and volunteer enlistment dynamics also marked Hawkins’ service. He received a brigadier general’s appointment that the U.S. Senate declined to confirm, highlighting the political and institutional scrutiny applied to wartime promotions. Disputes with superiors and the eventual mustering out of the 9th New York in 1863, after its two-year term, underscored the structural challenges of sustaining experienced volunteer regiments. These factors combined to make Hawkins’ Civil War command a representative case of the opportunities and limits imposed on politically connected volunteer officers in the Union war effort.
Long-Term Impact
Hawkins’ direct battlefield influence was confined to the duration and scope of his regimental command, yet his broader impact extended into the postwar era through memory, institutional development, and cultural activities. His leadership of Hawkins’ Zouaves contributed to the early Union success in North Carolina, which provided a foothold for blockading operations and later campaigns in the coastal South. The regiment’s experience on the Peninsula and at Antietam also fed into evolving assessments of volunteer unit effectiveness, tactical doctrine, and officer selection within the Union Army.
After the war, Hawkins became better known in some circles for his work as a book and art collector and as a public figure engaged with veterans’ organizations and historical commemoration. He assembled a significant collection of rare books and incunabula, some of which entered major institutional libraries, thereby influencing historical scholarship well beyond Civil War studies. His writings and public interventions on military and civic issues reflected a former colonel’s perspective on the war, reinforcing certain interpretations of Union volunteer service and command.
Modern historians generally view Hawkins as a competent but not transformative field commander whose significance lies less in tactical innovation than in exemplifying the intertwined military, political, and cultural roles of mid-19th-century American elites. His regiment’s distinct Zouave identity, early-war coastal operations, and documented service at Antietam provide specific reference points for scholarship on volunteer mobilization, eastern theater campaigns, and the social history of Union officers.
Conclusion
Rush C. Hawkins occupied a characteristic yet individually traceable place in the Union war effort as a politically connected New York lawyer who raised and commanded a short-term volunteer regiment. His leadership of the 9th New York Infantry in North Carolina, on the Virginia Peninsula, and during the Maryland Campaign linked local mobilization to major operations of the Army of the Potomac. While he did not emerge as a leading strategist or high-ranking general, his career illustrates the operational realities of volunteer command and the role of state-raised regiments in Union victory. His later activities as a collector and public commentator extended his historical footprint from wartime service into the realm of cultural and documentary preservation.