Fish was son of diplomat and banker
Nicholas Fish and Clemence Smith (Bryce) Fish. He was the nephew of namesake
Hamilton Fish II, the former speaker of the
New York State Assembly, and grandson of the 26th
United States Secretary of State,
Hamilton Fish. Fish attended
Columbia University as a member of the class of 1895 and was a member of
St. Anthony Hall. To prepare for a career as a railroad executive, he was employed through family connections by the
Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad in
Salt Lake City, where he worked in the maintenance and repair shops, as a
brakeman, and in other
blue collar positions within the company. During the Spanish-American war, he joined the
United States Army's 1st Volunteer Cavalry Regiment, known as the
Rough Riders, where he held the rank of sergeant, and was considered by
Theodore Roosevelt "one of the best non-commissioned officers we had". Fish was a member of "L" troop commanded by Captain
Allyn K. Capron Jr. He was not the only soldier from a prominent family in the unit, which contained a number of
Ivy Leaguers from wealthy Eastern families. In citing their qualifications for active duty, Roosevelt touted their athletic accomplishments: Hamilton Fish was "the ex-captain of the Columbia crew"; Dudley Dean was "perhaps the best quarterback who ever played on a Harvard elevan";
Bob Wrenn was "the champion tennis player of America." Other college athletes included Yale high-jumper Edward C. Waller,
steeplechase rider
Craig Wadsworth, and polo-player Joe Stephens. The journalist
Burr McIntosh, who was present at the battle, saw his body shortly after his death and observed that "there was no sign of pain, only the faint suggestion of the old smile of victory, which I had so often seen". Fish's death was widely covered in the press: his youth, his famous family, and his untimely end made him one of the popular heroes of the war. McIntosh, who had taken the last photograph of Fish alive, resisted the temptation to photograph the face of the man in death, but he nevertheless took photographs of the covered body, alongside that of another fallen American soldier. First published in ''Leslie's Weekly'' on July 28, 1898, and often reproduced, these were among the very few published photos of American war dead, and became "one of the most enduring images of the Spanish-American war". ==References==