As a Lieutenant-Colonel, Edward Cooper Hodge commanded the 4th (Royal Irish) Regiment of Dragoon Guards at the Battle of Balaclava. He was subsequently placed in command of the 5th Dragoon Guards, and later rose to the rank of General.
Hodge was the author of a diary, edited by the Marquess of Anglesey and published as Little Hodge: Being Extracts from the Diaries and Letters of Colonel Edward Cooper Hodge Written During the Crimean War, 1854-1856