HOLLYWOOD FOREVER CEMETERY

Benjamin Franklin Hilliker

 

 

 

Noted Civil War veteran and Medal of Honor recipient

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By Allan R. Ellenberger

 

Benjamin Franklin Hilliker was born in Golden, Erie County, New York on May 23, 1843. As a young man he traveled to Wisconsin and lived in Waupaca when the Civil War broke out. When the 8^th Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry, famous as the “Old Eagle Regiment” started forming, eighteen year-old Hilliker attempted to enlist. However, with the number of “green” men trying to join, the younger recruits were not admitted. Hilliker was persistent, and finally was enrolled as drummer boy of Co. A.

 

The actual drum used by Hilliker

during the Civil War

 

Throughout the war, Hilliker drummed his comrades to victory, always keeping as far in front of the fighting line as possible. During the Vicksburg campaign, on June 4, 1863, at a skirmish near Mechanicsburg, Mississippi, every available man was needed, so Hilliker laid down his drum for a rifle and proceeded to the front of the Confederate line. As to what followed is told by Hilliker himself:

 

“During the skirmishing near Mechanicsburg, I was still company drummer, but I exchanged my drum for a gun, as I had done on former occasions, and went into the fight with my company. Fear in battle never seemed to unnerve me. I felt better at the front in the heat of the fight than I did at the rear.

 

“When the fight I mention was becoming interesting, I, with comrade John Horton, advanced about eight rods in front of our line to get a clear view of the Confederate line, and in this we were satisfied, for when we reached the top of a low hill, we were within six or eight rods of the Confederates. My comrade was near my side when we came within this range of the enemy, and we both raised our rifles together to fire. Horton’s gun rang out sharply, but mine snapped or missed fire, which placed me in an awkward position. Horton covered himself to the right behind a tree and I jumped into a surface sand pit to the left. While recapping my gun, something occurred that seemed to me like a terrific explosion.

 

“It proved to be a Minie ball passing through my head. It entered at the base of the mastoid process, tore through my head, and passed out at the left nostril. The first words I heard after that unpleasant incident were: ‘Lay him in the shade over there – he won’t last long.’

 

“The surgeon left me on the field for dead, but I recovered consciousness and was taken to the hospital only to live a miserable existence since, being in constant pain from either dyspepsia, neuralgia of the right shoulder, or piles; dyspepsia caused from the total loss of use of jaws, for I have never opened them one-sixteenth of an inch since 1863. I have to take my food by sucking it into my mouth by the aid of forcing it with the fingers. Can not partake of any solid food at all; and soup, how I hate the thought of it.

 

“But I have lasted, though I have to carry around a bad looking face where good looks might have served me better.”

 

At the close of the war, Hilliker returned to Wisconsin, and later to Michigan where he met and married Lydia Lamb. They had three sons, E.P., Harley and William Hilliker. In the early 1880s, Hilliker moved his family to Los Angeles and became active in the Grand Army of the Republic (G.A.R.).

 

Hilliker’s Medal of Honor

 

The Congressional Medal of Honor was awarded to Hilliker on December 17, 1897. The medal reads: “The Congress to Musician Hilliker, Co. A., Eighth Wisconsin Volunteers. For most conspicuous gallantry at the battle of Vicksburg, Miss., June 4, 1863.”

 

Only months before his death, he participated in Memorial Day services, proudly beating the same drum that he had carried during the war.

 

B. F. Hilliker’s home (on the right), at 426 Broadway, on Fort Moore Hill

 

On his death bed, with his family gathered around, he spent his remaining moments instructing his children how to preserve his beloved drum and his cherished Medal of Honor. Benjamin Franklin Hilliker died on October 18, 1916 at his residence at 426 North Broadway. Services were in charge of Stanton Post No. 55, G.A.R. on Fifth Street, between Main and Spring.

  

 

 

Hilliker was interred at Hollywood Cemetery in Section 12 (now known as the Chandler Gardens), about 50 steps west of the J. Ross Clark mausoleum.

 

Thanks to the generosity of Dorothy Cornitius (a descendant of Hilliker) of Auburn, California, B. F. Hilliker’s Medal of Honor and drum from the Civil War have been donated to the Lincoln Memorial Shrine in Redlands, California, where they are on display.

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