High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Hugh Boyle Ewing, (October 31, 1826 – June 30, 1905), was a diplomat, author, attorney, and Union Army general during the American Civil War. He was a member of the prestigious Ewing family, son of Thomas Ewing, the eldest brother of Thomas Ewing, Jr. and Charles Ewing, and the foster brother and brother-in-law of William T. Sherman. General Ewing was an ambitious, literate, and erudite officer who held a strong sense of responsibility for the men under his command. He combined his West Point experience with the Civil War system of officer election.