Henry Hitchcock (Jr.) was the great grandson of Ethan Allen, American Revolutionary hero. Henry was also my paternal 6th cousin, 5 x removed. His father was Henry Hitchcock (Sr.) and he was the Secretary of the Alabama Territory, then Attorney General of Alabama and finally Chief Justice of the State of Alabama.

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Henry attended the University of Nashville and Yale University. He studied law in the office of Willis Hall, Corporation Council for New York City and the office of William F. Cooper who later became Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Tennessee. Henry was admitted to the bar in St. Louis, Missouri.

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Henry was an active opponent to slavery and was part of the Missouri provisional government at the start of the US Civil War. He volunteered for duty and was made Judge Advocate on the personal staff of General William Tecumseh Sherman. Henry accompanied General Sherman on his famous "March to the Sea" which helped the Union Army cut off significant supply, transportation and communication lines of the Confederate Army in Georgia.

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Henry later wrote "Marching With Sherman" which was the best documentation of Sherman's activities from the time he and his troops left Atlanta until they arrived at Savannah. 

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Henry was an early president of the Bar Association of Metropolitan St. Louis and was a co-founder of the American Bar Association (1878).