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Hamilton D. Coleman

Confederate Army soldier and American politician (1845-1926)

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
People and ideasInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJul 18, 2026
Entity authorityQ1682882
Source-derived summary

Hamilton Dudley Coleman (May 12, 1845 – March 16, 1926) was a businessman and politician who served one term between 1889 and 1891 in the United States House of Representatives representing Louisiana's 2nd congressional district (New Orleans).

Coleman served in the Washington Artillery in the Army of Northern Virginia during the American Civil War and was part of the Confederate Army that surrendered at Appomattox, Virginia.

He returned to New Orleans and became a manufacturer and dealer of farm equipment, and an organizer of New Orleans's first electric lighting company. He was elected as a Republican to Congress in 1888, but lost his bid for reelection in 1890 to Matthew D. Lagan, the previous holder of the seat. Coleman was the last Republican to represent Louisiana in Congress until David C. Treen in 1973. Coleman was the last Republican to represent New Orleans in the House until Joseph Cao was elected in 2008.

Coleman also ran for governor and lieutenant governor, losing both races. From 1899 to 1905, he was the melter and refiner for the New Orleans Mint. He died in Biloxi in 1926 and is interred at Metairie Cemetery in New Orleans.

United States Congress.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Hamilton D. Coleman” is confederate Army soldier and American politician (1845-1926). The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Hamilton, Coleman and Confederate, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewStrongest as a route into the people, institutions and dated events that shaped the subject’s public record. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1845, 1926, 1889, 1891—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1845-05-12. For this dossier, Hamilton, Coleman and Confederate is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “confederate Army soldier and American politician (1845-1926)” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 18, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1682882. VIAF identifies the subject as 61411493. The Library of Congress control number is nr92036030. 2 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1845, 1926, 1889 and 1891.

Critical limits

Later biographies can compress uncertainty and repeat inherited reputations, so apparently settled claims may still require comparison. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Hamilton D. Coleman”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Hamilton D. Coleman primary sources, Hamilton D. Coleman archive and Hamilton research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Hamilton D. Coleman”?
  2. Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
  3. Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Hamilton D. Coleman” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.