Richard Josiah Hinton (November 26, 1830 – December 20, 1901) was a journalist, author, abolitionist, and military officer with the rank of colonel.
Born in England, he came to the United States in 1851, and became an important witness to events leading to the Civil War and its aftermath.
[1][2] He wrote about Abraham Lincoln, John Brown, and poet Richard Realf.
He subsequently served in various federal government positions: United States Commissioner of Emigration in Europe in 1867; inspector of U.S. consulates in Europe; special agent to President Ulysses S. Grant to Vienna in 1873; special agent to the Departments of Treasury and State on the frontier and in Mexico in 1883; irrigation engineer to the U.S. Geological Survey from 1889-1890; and special agent in charge of the U.S. Department of Agriculture from 1890 to 1892.
[2] In 1900 he wrote "I am glad also I was able to do other work, both as writer and fighter, in a small way, and, among Kansas soldiers, and many others by far more important than myself, to make the union secure and the whole of the state free from the curse of chattelism."