Hough, Alfred Lacey, 1826-1908

Alfred Lacey Hough (1824-1908) was born into the Southern New Jersey, Quaker, landed gentry on April 23, 1826. In 1853, he joined the artillery corps of the Washington Grays, a Pennsylvania home militia organization. He married Mary Jane Merrill in 1857. On April 18, 1861, Hough went with the Washington Grays into the 17th Pennsylvania Volunteers, but was discharged from that regiment to allow him to take a regular commission as Captain in the 19th U.S. Infantry. As a member of that regiment, Captain Hough served in the Army of the Cumberland in Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi, and Georgia from immediately after Shiloh, in April of 1862, through to the Battles of Chickamauga and Nashville. After the war, Hough decided to stay in the U.S Army at the rank of Captain and was assigned to the Department of the Cumberland in Nashville. In 1866, he was reassigned to Louisville, Kentucky where he was appointed as aide-de-camp to Major General George H. Thomas. Hough proceeded with him to the Military Division of the Pacific in 1869, and remained with General Thomas until the General's death in March of 1870. Captain Alfred Hough was then assigned to the 13th Infantry, in which he was to have a number of missions, serving in Utah Territory, Michigan, Texas and Arizona. Colonel Alfred Lacey Hough retired on April 23, 1890, at the age of 64 after 29 years of active duty. Throughout his service, he corresponded with his wife, Mary Jane Hough, describing the privations of war and the military situation. She, in turn, kept him apprised of the home front, the family news, and her attitudes and views.