Hoback, John W

John W Hoback

NPS Photo

Quick Facts

Significance:

Company F, 15th Kentucky Infantry

Place of Birth:

Hardin County, Kentucky

Date of Birth:

1843

Place of Death:

Murfreesboro, TN

Date of Death:

December 31st, 1863

Place of Burial:

Murfreesboro, TN

Cemetery Name:

Stones River National Cemetery

John W Hoback was born in 1843 in Hardin County, Kentucky. He had a sister named Mary C Beard who was his next of kin. Hoback enlisted as a private on September 27th, 1861 in Camp Pope, Kentucky. He later mustered in on December 14th, 1861 into Company F of the 15th Kentucky Infantry Regiment for the Union Army.

The 15th Kentucky Infantry was organized in New Haven, Kentucky. They had duty in Kentucky, Tennessee, and Alabama through 1861 and 1862. Their first major battle was the battle of Perryville in Kentucky on October 8th, 1862. After Perryville, they marched to Nashville, Tennessee and remained there until December 1862. On the 26th of December they were ordered to march south to Murfreesboro in pursuit of Bragg.

They arrived in Murfreesboro on December 30th and were positioned on Asbury Lane. They remained there through the night and into the early morning hours on December 31st as the battle began to rage just south of their position. Around 9am, they began to move towards an area along the Wilkinson Pike and Van Cleve Lane later known as the "Slaughter Pen."Confederate forces were driving the right flank of the Union's line towards the position of the 15th Kentucky, and before they knew it they were caught in some of the most gruesome fighting of the battle. The Confederates began to push them into a V-shaped position that became vulnerable and unsustainable for the Union troops to remain. They began to retreat towards the cedar woods behind the Slaughter Pen, unsure what to find on the other side.

The remnants of the 15th Kentucky regrouped on the other side of the railroad tracks where they remained until the end of the battle. Private Hoback lost his life on this first day of fighting, December 31st, 1862.

John W Hoback is buried in the Stones River National Cemetery in plot B-717.