VOLUNTEER ENLISTMENT. STATE OF LOUISIANA, CITY OF NEW ORLEANS. I HAMILTON HADEN BORN IN PICKENS COUNTY IN THE STATE OF ALABAMA AGED TWENTY FOUR YEARS, AND BY OCCUPATION A FARMER DO HEREBY ACKNOWLEDGE TO HAVE VOLUNTEERED THIS TWENTY-FIFTH DAY OF MARCH 1864, TO SERVE AS A SOLDIER IN THE ARMY OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, FOR THE DEFENCES OF NEW ORLEANS..

New Orleans, 1864. 8" x 10." Printed broadsheet [several type fonts and styles], completed in manuscript. Old folds for recording and filing. Very Good plus.

Haden [also spelled Hayden, on the verso] pledges his allegiance to the United States, and signs with his mark on 25 March 1864 at Fort Pike, Louisiana. A physician certifies him as "free from all bodily defects and mental infirmity." Lieutenant Charles Boothby, of the 1st Regiment of New Orleans Volunteers, certifies that Haden was "entirely sober when enlisted." He was mustered into 'D' Company of the Louisiana Union First New Orleans Infantry, and discharged in April 1865.
Hamilton Haden [born c.1837-1840 in Alabama] was the son of William M. and Mary [McGowan] Haden of Mississippi. Oddly, Haden served with the Confederacy before his Union enlistment. In May 1861, he enlisted as a private with Captain John P. McGowan's Company, 14th Regiment Mississippi Volunteers, Confederate; McGowan was his cousin. The entire company surrendered at Fort Donelson, Tennessee, on 16 February 1862. They were exchanged at Vicksburg in September 1862, and quickly re-organized. Haden deserted on May 14, 1863; returned to his unit in 1863; and deserted again on February 3, 1864. Some time during his final year with the 14th Mississippi, Haden faced court-martial, but the details are vague.
After his second desertion, he evidently decided to join the Union Army. Reasons for his switch are unclear, but his extended family in the South were split between the sides. Our research confirms that Hamilton Haden and Hamilton Y. Haden, as listed in Union and Confederate records, are indeed the same person.