Charles Hopkins won the Medal of Honor for gallantry under fire during the Civil War. He served as mayor, freeholder and assemblyman during a long life that ended in 1934 at age 92. He was an active veteran, campaigning for monuments to soldiers who died in the notorious Andersonville Prison and to a beloved general who commanded the 1st New Jersey Volunteer Infantry.
Hopkins kept many items from the war, including a diary in which he recorded his experiences daily. The artifacts were sold more than 100 years later. A heartwarming story in the Daily Record of Morris County, New jersey tells how some of Charles Hopkins' descendants were able to purchase several of the items at auction and return them to the family.
You can read the entire story at http://www.dailyrecord.com/news/articles/news2-civilvet.htm.
My thanks to Kent Wellington for alerting me to this story.
