by Major Loren Schave

      Major Kinney enlisted as a private in Co. K 13th C. V., refusing a commission, which he subsequently earned on the battlefield. Wounded at Irish Bend, April 1862, he refused to leave the field until the end of the engagement. He was one of the volunteers to lead the "FORLORN HOPE" (a small party of volunteers, which formed the point or vanguard of a storming party. Successful leadership of a forlorn hope was one of the few ways in which an officer could catch the eye of the Commander and thus advance his career), at the storming of Port Hudson in June 1863; was an adjutant in the 13th regiment in the Red River Expedition in 1864, and in August of the same year served as signal officer on Farragut's flag ship the USS Hartford in Mobile Bay.

     In recognition of his services during the Civil War, Major Kinney was given a presentation sword by a few of his friends and leading citizens of Hartford. Among the group making the presentation was Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain).

February 22, 2004

This article was originally printed in "Battalion Review"
Used with permission

This article contains excerpts from
An Honor to the State
and
1902 GFG History