Hicks, Stephen G.

Born: 1809-02-22 Jackson County, Georgia

Died: 1869-12-14 Salem, Illinois

Hicks moved to Illinois as a young man, working in Springfield and Galena before settling in Jefferson County where, in 1829, he married Eliza R. Maxey. During the Black Hawk War in 1832, Hicks enlisted in the Illinois militia and received the rank of first sergeant. During the Mexican War, he served as a captain, receiving promotion to lieutenant colonel in August 1847. Hicks represented Jefferson County in the Illinois House of Representatives, from 1840 to 1846. During that time, he also studied law, was admitted to the bar, and he worked as an attorney until the outset of the Civil War. By 1860, he had moved his family from Jefferson County to Marion County, where he was a practicing attorney in Salem. In July 1861, he recruited the 40th Illinois Infantry and was made colonel of the regiment. He saw active duty throughout the war and in 1863, he was placed in command of the Union post at Paducah, Kentucky.

Ellen M. Whitney, comp., The Black Hawk War, 1831-1832: Illinois Volunteers, vol. 35 of Collections of the Illinois State Historical Library (Springfield: Illinois State Historical Library, 1970), 1:287; Wm. Hugh Robarts, Mexican War Veterans: A Complete Roster of the Regular and Volunteer Troops in the War Between the United States and Mexico, from 1846 to 1848 (Washington, DC: Brentano's, 1887), 45, 46; William Henry Perrin, ed., History of Jefferson County, Illinois (Chicago: Globe, 1883), 172, 195, 246, 249-50; Illinois Statewide Marriage Index, Jefferson County, 22 October 1829, Illinois State Archives, Springfield, IL; U.S. Census Office, Seventh Census of the United States (1850), Jefferson County, IL, 398; U.S. Census Office, Eighth Census of the United States (1860), Marion County, IL, 121; Illinois Civil War Muster and Descriptive Rolls, Illinois State Archives, Springfield, IL; Gravestone, East Lawn Cemetery, Salem, IL.