Edward Henry Hobson was born in Greensburg, Kentucky, on July 11, 1825, and was educated in the common schools of Greensburg and Danville, Kentucky. He worked for his father, a successful merchant in Greensburg, and in 1846 enlisted for service in the war with Mexico, serving in Company A of the 2nd Kentucky Infantry. During that war he was promoted to 1st Lieutenant for bravery. After returning home, he went into banking in the 1850s. At the outbreak of the Civil War, he enlisted in the Union army and began recruiting soldiers in the Green River area for what became the 13th Kentucky Infantry, of which he became colonel. The 13th moved south with Gen. Don Carlos Buell and fought at the Battle of Shiloh. In November 1862, Abraham Lincoln made Hobson a brigadier general. After service in Mississippi and Tennessee, he returned to Kentucky. On July 6, 1863, Hobson was ordered to leave Munfordville, where he had been training troops, to find Gen. John Hunt Morgan. After a skirmish at Marrowbone, Kentucky, he pursued Morgan through Kentucky, Indiana, and Ohio from July 6 to 26, 1863. On July 26, Hobson’s force defeated Morgan at Buffington Island, Ohio, ending Morgan’s Great Raid into the North. On June 11, 1864, Hobson and Morgan met again at Cynthiana, Kentucky, and after a spirited resistance Hobson’s outnumbered force of 900 was captured. It is said that when Morgan approached Hobson, he smiled and said, “General, we meet again!” as Hobson handed over his pistols. Though Hobson was defeated, his defense allowed Union soldiers to catch up and defeat Morgan the following day. Hobson was mustered out of service in September 1865, returned home to Greensburg to engage in business, died at a Grand Army of the Republic Reunion in Cleveland, and was buried at the family cemetery in Greensburg.