Jacob Hoffman was born on February 7, 1848 in Wolemshein, Bavaria, Southern Germany; on the border of Alsace Lorraine. As a young German immigrant Jacob migrated to America in 1864 and at age 17 enlisted in Company H, 4th. New York Cavalry Regiment in April 1864 as a Private and later served in the 9th New York Cavalry.

The 4th. New York Cavalry, composed largely of German speaking residents of New York and known as “Dickel’s Mounted Rifles”, was organized at New York City on August 10th through November 15, 1861. (Co. "L" in December 1862) It left New York for Washington, D. C. on August 29, 1861, attached to Blenker's Brigade and Division, Army of the Potomac, until March, 1862. It was then attached to Blenker's Division, 2nd Army Corps, Army of the Pot.omac, to April, 1862, the  Blenker's Division, Mountain Dept., to May, 1862. Advance Brigade, Mountain Dept., to June, 1862, to Buford's Cavalry Brigade, 1st Corps, Army of Virginia, until September, 1862, the Cavalry Brigade, 11th Army Corps, Army of the Potomac, to February, 1863, to the 1st Brigade, 2nd Division, Cavalry Corps, Army of the Potomac, to
 
June, 1863, the 1st Brigade, 3rd Division, Cavalry Corps, to June 14, 1863, the 2nd Brigade, 2nd Division, Cavalry Corps, to August, 186, the  2nd Brigade, 1st Division, Cavalry Corps, Army of the Potomac and the Army of the Shenandoah until February 1865.
 
They served in the Defences of Washington, D. C., until April, 1862, then moved to Winchester, Virginia in April, 1862, and to the operations in the Shenandoah Valley until August. The 4th. New York took part in most of the operations in the Eastern Theatre, seeing action continuously during the war, at places like Woodstock, Cross Keys, Cedar Mountain, Bull Run, Ashby’s Gap, the Stoneman’s Raid,  Middleburg, Gettysburg, Bristoe, Brandy Station, the Mine Run Campaign, Richmond, the Furnaces, the Wilderness, Petersburg, the Spottsylvania Courthouse, Deep Bottom and back to the Shenandoah Valley again between August and November 1864. They then consolidated with the 9th New York Cavalry as Companies "B, "E" and "L" on February 27, 1865. Hoffman was still listed as a Private, and they continued operating in the Shenandoah Valley throughout March 1865, was involved in the Appomattox Campaign and witnessed the surrender of General Lee and his Army; until it was discharged from service at Buffalo, New York, in July of 1865.
 
The 4th had lost 5 officers and 39 enlisted men killed and mortally wounded and 3 officers and 54 enlisted men who died by disease. Likewise, the 9th had lost service 6 officers and 84 enlisted men killed and mortally wounded and 7 officers and 126 enlisted men dieing from disease; all toll, the loss of some 334 men.   Hoffman mustered out of service along with his regiment at Washington DC. From 1865 until 1882 he served on the sea aboard the whaling bark “Awashonk” out of new Bedford, Massachusetts under Captain Peleg Wink and aboard the “John Dawson”, as well as the schooners.   “Wm. A. Grosser” and the “Platina” traveling around the world. He was in the Republic of Seychelles, an island nation in the Indian Ocean, some 1,600 km east of mainland Africa and northeast of the island of Madagascar, when he applied for admission into the Masonic Order “Le Grand Orient de France”; as a Captain de Marine. Later he was admitted to a Masonic Lodge under the English Constitution, at Port Louis, Mauritius; an island in the Indian Ocean, east of Madagascar.
 
Hoffman arrived in Australia in 1882 and in 1884 ended up in Beechworth, in North-eastern Victoria. There Jacob worked at Billson’s Brewery and lived in one of the cottages owned by the brewery, at 24 Williams Street, and was also a member of the Beechworth Lodge of St. John. Billson’s Brewery was built in 1865 during the Gold Rush on the site of a natural spring, which continues to provide the pure water sold as such and used in beverages still being made. Known today as the Murray Breweries Historic Museum, they have been trading under the current name since 1916. The Murray Breweries were built in 1865, at which time they were known as Billson's Brewery. They are located in a building constructed of hand-made bricks and oregon beams on a granite base. The brewery building today houses the steam-heated cellars containing old machinery, tools and items used by brewers, coopers tools, an international label collection, a collection of miniature bottles, hand-thrown stone jars, bottles of local origin, a syphon collection, labels and brewery memorabilia; at 29 Last Street in Beechworth, Victoria. Later Jacob  worked as a cooper building barrels at Fred Allen’s “Spring Creek Brewery”. Allen owned a number of brewery’s one known as the “Lion Brewery” in 1894. In total, Jacob worked in the breweries for some fifty-eight years until his health forced his quitting some eight weeks before his death.
 

In 1885 Jacob met and married Sophie Esther, at the Alliance Hotel, owned by her parents. Jacob and Sophie had seven children; Carl Jacob born in 1886, Fredrick William born in 1888, Alfred F. born in 1890, Cyril born in 1893, Hilda D. born in 1895, William George born in 1898 and Anna born in 1899. Jacob’s wife Sophie died in 1902 and he was left to raise all the children by himself. Three of his sons fought in World War I and Alfred participated in the Gallipoli landing in 1915 where he was badly wounded; resulting in his discharge from the military. Frederick survived the ferocious Battle of the Somme, but was later killed in action at Villiers-Brettoneux in August 1918 and buried in France.

 

Upon Jacob’s health failing, he was admitted to the Ovens District Hospital. It is possibly the most photographed landmark in Beechwort today. The only remaining evidence of the grand hospital, the last refuge of Jacob Hoffman, is the stark façade which keeps a silent vigil over the now empty site of Beechworth’s first hospita, built in 1857, at a cost of 2,347 Pounds. Sadly, most of the hospital was demolished in 1940 for salvageable materials during the Second World War. All that remains today is the granite facade and remnants of the once extensive and grand gardens.

 

Jacob Hoffman remained and lived in Beechworth until he died at seventy-four years of age, at the Ovens District Hospital, on October 12, 1920, eighteen years after the death of his wife; survived by four sons, Alfred, William, Carl and Cyril and two daughters, Annie and Mrs. Wyatt. Jacob Hoffman was buried in the Beechworth Cemetery and in 1993, a bronze plaque from the American Veterans Administration in Washington DC was obtained and placed on his gravesite.
Hoffman former home
 
 
 

Travis Sellers, Researcher

4th & 9th New York Volunteer Cavalry Regimental Histories

Beechworth Walking Tour Guide

 Bundesarchiv German National Archive, Coblenz, Germany

 “Compendium of the War of the Rebellion”, Frederick H. Dyer

Library of Congress, Manuscript Division, Awashonk Logbook

National Archives, Washington, D.C.

 “Oven’s and Murray Advertiser”, newspaper, Beechworth, Victoria

 Report of the Adjutant General, Albany, New York State

U.S. Pension Files, Washington, D.C.