Daniel Harvey Hill

Daniel Harvey Hill (born July 12, 1821 in York District , South Carolina , † September 24, 1889 in Charlotte , North Carolina ) was an officer in the US Army and general in the Confederate Army .

Life

Hill successfully graduated from the West Point Military Academy in 1842 as the 28th of his class and was transferred to the 1st US Artillery Regiment. With this regiment he took part in the Mexican-American War (1846-1848), in which he stood out particularly. For his bravery in Contreras and Churubusco , he was appointed captain and for his contributions in Chapultepec for Major transported. On February 28, 1849, he left the army and became professor of mathematics at Washington College (now Washington and Lee University ) in Lexington , Virginia , Virginia . In 1854 he moved to Davidson College , NC and in 1859 he became director of the North Carolina Military Institute in Charlotte, NC

When the civil war broke out , he was promoted to commander in the rank of colonel of the 1st North Carolina Infantry Regiment, fighting on the Confederate side . With this he decided the battle at Big Bethel on June 10, 1861 for himself. Shortly afterwards he was promoted to brigadier general. From March 1862 he took part in the Peninsula Campaign under General Joseph E. Johnston and fought at Yorktown and Williamsburg , among others .

Promoted to major general - March 26, 1862 - he distinguished himself as division commander in the Battle of Seven Pines and in the Seven Day Battle . He also took part in the second battle of the Bull Run and the Battle of Antietam . Earlier, Hill's stubborn resistance at the South Mountain crossing enabled General Robert Edward Lee to remove the flank threat posed by the garrison at Harpers Ferry . The Hills Division made a significant contribution to the battles at Antietam and Fredericksburg .

As the war progressed, the number of Prisoners of War also grew and a plan for their exchange was resolved by a cartel. On July 22, 1862, General John Adams Dix of the Union and General Daniel H. Hill of the Confederate met to negotiate the release of the prisoners of war. The following agreement was reached: If one side or the other made a “surplus” of prisoners, they should be released on parole against the condition (on parole) not to touch a weapon, while prisoners could return to military service in exchange.

When the Northern Virginia Army was reorganized after the death of General Thomas J. Jackson , Hill was given no command of a corps . A little later, on July 14, 1863, he was finally promoted to lieutenant general and replaced General William Joseph Hardee as commanding general under General Braxton Bragg . Hardee was replaced because he had often criticized Bragg. Hill also had problems with Bragg and repeatedly criticized him. Hill also fought under General Bragg in the Battle of Chickamauga . Hill was so enraged by the lack of pursuit and the many chances Bragg had missed that he proposed to President Jefferson Davis that he replace Bragg. Davis, however, favored Bragg, so Hill was ultimately dropped. Hill lost his command and his rank was never confirmed by the Confederate Senate as Davis never passed the required papers.

Daniel H. Hill returned to Virginia and volunteered on the staff of General PGT Beauregard . He later assumed command of a division in North Carolina and then General Stephen Dill Lee's former corps. On April 26, 1865, he finally surrendered along with General Joseph E. Johnston .

From 1866 to 1869 Hill published the magazine The Land We Love in Charlotte, which dealt with social and historical issues that had great influence in the south. From 1870 to 1877 he published the magazine The Southern Home . He became president of the University of Arkansas in 1877 , a post he held until 1884. In the same year he was named President of the Military and Agricultural College of Milledgeville , Georgia .

literature

Hal Bridges: Lee's Maverick General, Daniel Harvey Hill . Bison Books, Lincoln, Neb. 1991, ISBN 0-8032-6096-2 (reprinted New York 1961 edition).
Nathaniel C. Hughes (Ed.): A fighter from way back. The Mexican war diary of Lt. Daniel Harvey Hill, 4th artillery, USA . University Press, Kent, Ohio 2002, ISBN 0-87338-739-2 .

Web links

personal data
SURNAME	Hill, Daniel Harvey
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Confederate General in the Civil War
DATE OF BIRTH	July 12, 1821
PLACE OF BIRTH	York District , South Carolina
DATE OF DEATH	September 24, 1889
Place of death	Charlotte , North Carolina