Hults, Ellsworth, 1841-1902

Ellsworth Holman Hults, son of David and Deborah Phillips Hults, was born in August 1841, in Mount Holly, Burlington, New Jersey. By 1850, the family had moved to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In November 1863, he enlisted in the United States Navy and was paymaster's clerk aboard the U.S. Steamer Galena during the Battle of Mobile Bay in August 1864.

After the war, on 1 December 1869, Hults married Ann Eliza Bullock in Philadelphia. The couple had two children, Jessie Bullock Hults and Ellsworth Hults II. His career after the war was primarily as an insurance broker. Hults died on 6 February 1902.

U.S. Steamer Galena was a wooden-hulled broadside ironclad built for the United States Navy during the American Civil War. The ship was initially assigned to the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron and supported Union forces during the Peninsula Campaign in 1862. She was damaged during the Battle of Drewry's Bluff because her armor was too thin to prevent Confederate shots from penetrating. Widely regarded as a failure, Galena was reconstructed without most of her armor in 1863 and transferred to the West Gulf Blockading Squadron in 1864. The ship participated in the Battle of Mobile Bay and the subsequent Siege of Fort Morgan in August. She was briefly transferred to the East Gulf Blockading Squadron in September before she was sent to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania for repairs in November. They were completed in March 1865 and Galena rejoined the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron in Hampton Roads the following month. After the end of the war, the ship was decommissioned at Portsmouth, New Hampshire in June. She was transferred to Hampton Roads in 1869, condemned in 1870, and broken up for scrap in 1872.

From the guide to the Ellsworth Hults diary aboard the U. S. S. Galena, February 1864-November 1864 mss. 3735., 1864 February - November, (University Libraries Division of Special Collections, The University of Alabama)