Hometown: Shoreham, VT 
Branch: U.S. Marine Corps
Unit: Provisional U.S. Marine Batallion 
Date of Sacrifice: July 21, 1861 - KIA near Manassas, Virginia 
Age: 21
Conflict: Civil War, 1861-1865

The son of Dr. William and Emily (Hunsdon) Hitchcock, Robert Emmet Hitchcock was born among the farms and orchards of Shoreham, Vermont, on September 29, 1839. Shoreham was a small country town on the banks of Lake Champlain, directly across from New York’s Fort Ticonderoga.

Robert had an older half-brother named William, and four younger sisters: Agnes, Augusta, Jane, and Antoinette.

As a young man, Robert attended Newton Academy in Shoreham. In 1856, he entered Norwich University—the oldest private military college in the United States—located 60 miles to the east of his hometown. He was a member of the university’s Parthenon Society and the Alpha Sigma Pi Fraternity, graduating with a Bachelor of Science degree in 1859.

Two years later, Hitchcock was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the United States Marine Corps on June 5, 1861.

Tensions over slavery & secession

After decades of tension between northern and southern states over the issue of slavery, the first shots of America’s costliest war were fired at South Carolina’s Fort Sumter. South Carolina had seceded from the union after the 1860 election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States. Lincoln was the candidate of the new, anti-slavery Republican Party.

Undersupplied and outnumbered, the 80 Union soldiers stationed at Fort Sumter were forced to surrender after heavy bombardment from 500 Confederate troops on April 12, 1861. Miraculously, there were no casualties in that first battle of the Civil War—apart from one soldier, Daniel Hough, who was killed in an accidental powder explosion during the American flag lowering ceremony, after the battle.

Although Fort Sumter marks the first official battle of America’s Civil War (1861-1865), the first full-scale clash involving large numbers of troops took place three months later, near Manassas, Virginia. With the war now on, both sides rushed to recruit and train large numbers of fighting men.

After receiving his commission in the Marine Corps in early June 1861, 2ndLt Hitchcock was stationed and trained at the Marine Barracks in Washington, D.C. for just a few weeks. In July, his company was assigned to join the newly formed Army of the Potomac in Virginia.

In a July 14, 1861, letter to his parents, Hitchcock wrote:

Last night, after I passed down the line to receive the reports of the companies, I was met by Capt. Jones, who said to me, “Mr. Hitchcock, prepare to take the field on Monday morning.” So tomorrow morning will see me and five other Lieuts. with 300 Marines, raw recruits in every sense of the term, on our way to Fairfax Court House to take part in a bloody battle which is to take place, it is thought, about Wednesday.

This is unexpected to us, and the Marines are not fit to go into the field, for every man of them is raw as you please, not more than a hundred of them have been here over three weeks. We have no camp equipage of any kind, not even tents, and after all this, we are expected to take the brunt of battle. We are to be commanded by Major Reynolds, I suppose. We shall do as well as we can under the circumstances: just think of it, 300 raw men in the field! We shall drill all day and work hard.

I have been very busy all day thus far but have taken a little time to write you. I have left my things with Lieut. Wm. H. Parker, and my watch also. He has my address and will take good care of my clothes, watch, etc. By writing to him you can find out about my matters. In case anything happens to me, he will send my things to you, and you can do as you like with them. Lieuts. Baker, Burrough and Parker will be left here at the Barracks, and any of them would be pleased to give you information in regard to me or my matters.

I hope the God of Battles will give me strength and wisdom to act wisely, and do my duty well. I am not prepared to die, but I am prepared to serve my country, and stand by the Stars and Stripes till the last. I am well and in good spirits. May God bless you all, is the wish of your Affectionate Son, Robt.

The next day, in the sweltering mid-July heat, Hitchcock’s battalion of inexperienced Marines under the command of Major John G. Reynolds marched into Virginia. As they approached Fairfax Court House, the Confederate Army defending it fled.

Bull Run/Manassas

The Confederates gathered in force near the small village of Manassas, Virginia. Hitchcock’s Marines were ordered to support an Army brigade commanded by Col. Andrew Porter, along a small creek known as Bull Run.

When the two armies met on July 21, 1861, Second Lieutenant Robert E. Hitchcock led his company into the battle. At the age of 21, he was killed instantly by a cannonball. He was the first Vermonter killed for the Union cause, and the first Marine killed in the Civil War.

That first major clash of forces in the Civil War would result in a Confederate victory and nearly 5,000 casualties—2,896 Union, 1,982 Confederate. The heavy losses tested the resolve of the North and made clear that hostilities between the states had erupted into what would become a long and bloody conflict.

The first Battle of Bull Run, as the Union Army called it, was known to Confederate forces as the Battle of First Manassas.

Sources
Norwich University, 1819-1911: Lieutenant Robert Emmet Hitchcock, U.S.M.C., B.S.
Warfare History Network: U.S. Marines in the Civil War
Marine Corps University: Understanding Battlefield Performance of U.S. Marines Ashore During the Civil War
American Battlefield Trust: Bull Run – First Manassas
The Historical Marker Database: The Marines of ‘61
National Museum of the Marine Corps: Federal Marines at First Bull Run
Bull Runnings A Journal of the Digitization of a Civil War Battle: 2nd Lt. Robert Hitchcock, USMC to His Parents on the Eve of Battle
Emerging Civil War: The Marines at First Manassas
Burial Site: Find a Grave

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