Ambrose Powell Hill

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General Ambrose P. Hill

Ambrose Powell Hill (born November 9, 1825 in Culpeper , Virginia ; † April 2, 1865 near Petersburg , Virginia) was an officer in the US Army until 1861 and then a general in the Confederate Army .

Life

In 1842 he was called to the Military Academy in West Point , New York , which he graduated in 1847 as the 15th of his class, which consisted of 38 cadets. At West Point he made friends with the following prominent military officials: Darius N. Couch , George E. Pickett , Jesse L. Reno , George Stoneman , Truman Seymour , Cadmus M. Wilcox , George B. McClellan , Henry Heth and Ambrose Burnside

Immediately after graduation he served in the Mexican-American War (1846-48) and was promoted to lieutenant on September 4, 1851 . In the third Seminole War (1855-58) he expanded his combat experience. In 1859 he married Kitty Morgan McClung, becoming the brother-in-law of future Confederate cavalrymen John Hunt Morgan and Basil Wilson Duke .

In March 1861, shortly before the outbreak of the American Civil War , he finished his service in the US Army and was appointed commander of the 13th Virginia Infantry Regiment of the Virginia Army on May 22, 1861 when his home state Virginia separated from the Union and promoted to colonel of the Virginia Army on June 15, 1861.

With the regiment he distinguished himself in the First Battle of the Bull Run and was promoted to Brigadier General on February 26, 1862 . As such, he served during the Peninsula Campaign in the Northern Virginia Army under Joseph E. Johnston and his successor Robert Edward Lee . Due to his performance in the Battle of Williamsburg , he was promoted to major general on May 26, 1862 and took over the Light Division of the Northern Virginia Army, one of the largest divisions in the Army. With the division, Hill was involved in most of the fighting during the Seven Day Battle and suffered heavy losses. Assigned to the Corps of Thomas Jonathan Jackson , Hill and the Light Division fought in the following years in the Battle of Cedar Mountain , in the Second Battle of Manassas and in the attack on Harpers Ferry . After the conquest of this city, the division stayed there to take care of prisoners and booty and was the last to arrive on the battlefield on the Antietam . She arrived there at an extremely critical time for Lee and the Northern Virginia Army and saved the IX with her attack. Corps of the Union the right flank of the army. After Antietam, Hill continued to fight as a division commander under Jackson, for example in the Battle of Fredericksburg . During the Battle of Chancellorsville , he briefly took command of the corps after Jackson's wounding, but was wounded himself and handed over command to James Ewell Brown Stuart . Hill quickly recovered from his wounding and was promoted to lieutenant general following the death of General Jackson on May 24, 1863 . Lee handed him the newly erected III. Corps of the Northern Virginia Army, which he commanded at the Battle of Gettysburg , during the Mine-Run campaign in 1863 and in 1864 during Grant's overland campaign and the Siege of Petersburg . He is reported to have said once that he had no desire to see the Confederation collapse. In fact, he was fatally hit by a bullet from Corporal John W. Mauk of the 138th Pennsylvania Infantry Regiment while riding to the front on April 2, 1865, when Union forces broke through the positions of the Northern Virginia Army outside Petersburg .

Death and appreciation

The AP Hill Monument is in the Hermitage Road Historic District of Richmond (at the intersection of Laburnum Avenue and Hermitage Road). The US Army named a ship and fort after Hill. Fort AP Hill is located in Caroline County, Virginia . During the Second World War , the SS AP Hill was named after him.

Hill's sword is on display at the American Civil War Museum in Appomattox , Virginia.

In art

Hill has been portrayed in Ronald F. Maxwell's films, Gettysburg (1993) and Gods and Generals (2003). In the first by Patrick Falci and in the latter by William Sanderson

See also

literature

  • Warren W. Hassler: AP Hill. Lee's Forgotten General . Reprint, University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill / London 1995 (1957), ISBN 0-8078-0973-X .
  • James I. Robertson, Jr .: General AP Hill. The Story of a Confederate Warrior . Random House, New York 1987, ISBN 0-394-55257-1
  • John H. Eicher, David J. Eicher: Civil War High Commands. Stanford University Press, 2001 ( books.google.de )
  • Hill, Ambrose Powell . In: Encyclopædia Britannica . 11th edition. tape 13 : Harmony - Hurstmonceaux . London 1910, p. 463 (English, full text [ Wikisource ]).

Web links

Commons : Ambrose Powell Hill  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ James I. Robertson, Jr .: General AP Hill: The Story of a Confederate Warrior . Vintage Publishing, New York 1992, ISBN 0-679-73888-6 , pp. 6-12
  2. ^ The Historical Marker Database . In: Biography . Bill Coughlin, The Historical Marker Database. Retrieved April 24, 2012.
  3. ^ Fort AP Hill home page . In: Military . United States Army. Retrieved September 27, 2019.
  4. ^ Liberty Ships built by the United States Maritime Commission in World War II . In: Biography . United States Merchant Marine. Retrieved April 29, 2012.
  5. ↑ scabbard, sword . The American Civil War Museum. Retrieved September 27, 2019.
  6. ↑ Internet Movie DataBase . In: Film . Internet Movie DataBase. Retrieved April 30, 2012.
  7. ↑ Internet Movie DataBase . In: Film . Internet Movie DataBase. Retrieved April 30, 2012.
personal data
SURNAME Hill, Ambrose Powell
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Confederate General
DATE OF BIRTH November 9, 1825
PLACE OF BIRTH Culpeper , Virginia
DATE OF DEATH April 2, 1865
Place of death Petersburg (Virginia)