USA > Virginia > Virginia and Virginians; eminent Virginians, executives of the colony of Virginia, Vol. I > Part 26
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# A brother of Major Thomas Hill was a prominent politician and repre- sented Culpeper county in the Virginia Assembly for twenty years or more.
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thirty-six, among whom were Generals John S. Mason, O. B. Wilcox, H. G. Gibson, A. E. Burnside, John Gibbon, R. B. Avers, Charles Griffin, Thomas HI. Neill, W. W. Barnes, E. L. Viele and L. C. Hunt. of the United States Army, and General Harry Heth, of the Confed- erate Army. Entering the First Artillery as Brevet Second Lieuten- ant, Hill became First Lieutenant September 4, 1851. He was engaged during the Mexican war at Huamantla the 9th of October, and at At- lixas the 12th of October, 1847, and in Florida against the Seminole Indians in 1849-50, and from 1852 to 1855. He was an assistant on the coast survey from November, 1855, until March 1, 1861, when he resigned his commission. Upon the breaking out of hostilities be- tween the North and South, he was chosen Colonel of the Thir- teenth Virginia Regiment, which, at the first battle of Manassas, with the remainder of the command of General Joseph E. Johnston, ar- rived on the field just in time to secure and complete the victory of that memorable day. Colonel Hill was promoted February 26, 1862, to the rank of Brigadier-General, and by his signal gallantry at the battle of Williamsburg, in May, drew the eyes of the public upon him. He greatly distinguished himself in the sanguinary seven days battles around Richmond, commencing on the 26th of June, in command of one of the largest divisions of the Army of Richmond, and which was composed of the brigades of Anderson, Branch, Pender, Gregg, Field and Archer. At Meadow Bridge, with only a portion of his com- mand, he made the first attack upon MeClellan, and in a terrible con- flict encouraged his troops by a fearless intrepidity which constantly exposed him to the fiercest fire of the enemy. Successful at this point, General Hill was placed first in the line of advance and bore the brunt of the action at Fraziers Farm, where, with his own division and one brigade of that of Longstreet, he fought and overcame a largely superior force which broke the spirit of the enemy and achieved final victory.
In this series of battles the division of Ifill lost 3870 men killed and wounded. Immediately after this battle General Hill was promoted, July 14, 1862, to the rank of Major-General. In the campaign of North- ern Virginia the division of A. P. Hill was sent to reinforce Stone- wall Jackson, who had been despatched to check the advance of Pope. At the battle of Cedar Run, Hill gallantly sustained the prestige he had won. He also bore a conspicuous part in subsequent operations, marching with Jackson in his flank movement towards the Rappa- hannock and Manassas. At the second battle of Manassas he repeated a similar exhibition of valor to that of Fraziers Farm, and with daunt- less abandon met and repulsed at the point of the bayonet six distinct and separate assaults of the enemy, a majority of the men a portion of the time being without cartridges. The next day ( August 30, 1862). his division was again engaged, and late in the evening drove the en-
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emy before them, capturing two batteries, many prisoners, and rest- ing at night on Bull Run. At Sharpsburg the accomplishment of A. P. Hill was in brilliancy not surpassed by any other recorded during the war. With three brigades, numbering scarce 2,000 men, he drove back Burnside's Corps, 15,000 strong.
After the battle of Sharpsburg, when General Lee determined to withdraw from Maryland, Hill was directed with his division to cover the retreat of the army, and in the performance of this duty at Bot- lers Ford, on the 20th of September, 1862, was enacted one of the most terrible episodes of the war. Lee's army was well across the Potomac when it was found that some brigades of the enemy had ventured to cross during the preceding night and were making preparations to hold their position. General Jackson at once ordered A. P. Hill to drive the enemy back. After some preliminary movements, a simul- taneous charge was made by Hill, and the enemy forced in a con- fused mass into the river. " Then," writes General Hill, describing the action with graphic horror, " commenced the most terrible slaughter this war has yet witnessed. The broad surface of the Potomac was blue with the floating corpses of our foe. But few escaped to tell the tale. By their own account they lost 3,000 men killed and drowned from one brigade alone." In this battle Hill did not use a piece of artillery ; but relying upon the musket and bayonet, he punished the enemy beyond precedent. At the battle of Fredericksburg, Hill's Di- vision formed the right of Jackson's force, at Chancellorsville the cen- ter, and participated in the flank movement that crushed Hooker. The death of the illustrious Jackson devolved the command upon Hill, and he was soon after wounded. Upon the reorganization of Lee's army he was made, May 24, 1863, a Lieutenant-General, and placed in command of the third of the three corps into which it was divided. His was the first corps in action at Gettysburg. In Lee's flank movement of the same to get between Meade and Washington City, A. P. Hill sustained the only reverse of his career. Having fallen upon a superior force of the enemy at Bristoe Station, con- cealed by a railroad embankment, in a vain effort to dislodge it he lost several hundred in killed and wounded, and five pieces of artillery. In the momentons campaign of 1864 General Hill was again conspicu- ous, his corps, with that of Ewell, opening the action in the Wilder- ness. A few days thereafter his feeble health so gave way that he was unable to remain on duty, when General Jubal A. Early was as- signed to the command of his corps. After the scenes of Spotsylvania Court House, General Hill reported for duty, resumed command of his corps, and fought with it to the last day in front of Petersburg. August 25, 1864, at Reames Station, he attacked the enemy in his intrench- ments and carried his entire lines, capturing seven stand of colors, 2,000 prisoners and nine pieces of artillery.
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At the final attack on the Southside Railroad and the defense of Petersburg, he was restlessly active in his exertions to repel the Fed- eral attack. On the morning of April 2, 1865, desiring to obtain a nearer view of a portion of the line of the enemy, he left his staff be- hind him in a place of safety, rode forward accompanied by a single orderly, and soon came upon a squad of Federals who bad ad- vanced along a ravine far beyond their lines. He immediately or- dered them to surrender, which they were on the point of doing, un- der the supposition that a column of troops was just behind him. But soon discovering that he was so slightly attended, they fired upon him, and he fell, pierced through the heart by a rifle ball. The following night his body was hastily buried in the cemetery at Petersburg, but was subsequently reinterred in Hollywood Cemetery, Richmond, where his remains are marked by the words, " Lt .- Gen. A. P. Hill," cut into the granite curbing in front of the grave. The trust reposed in A. P. Hill by the illustrious chieftains Lee and Jackson found solemnly impressive exemplification in the dying ejaculation of each, which, too, are remarkable for their semblance. "Tell A. P. Hill to prepare for action," were amongst the words of Stonewall Jackson. "Tell Ilill he must come up," were the last words of the peerless Lee. What more honorable tribute?
ROBERT EDWARD LEE, GENERAL-IN-CHIEF OF THE CONFEDERATE STATES ARMY.
" With faith untouched, spotless and clear his fame, So pure that envy could not wrong the same."
The record of all time with its mighty roll of heroes and patriots presents no more lustrous name than that of the immortal subject of this sketch. His lineage, which has been already traced in this se- rial, was illustrative of the excellencies which marked his own re- splendent career. Robert Edward Lee, the third son of " Light- Horse Harry " and Anne Hill (Carter) Lee, was born at " Stratford," Westmoreland county, Virginia, January 19, 1807. Entering the United States Military Academy July 1, 1825, he was graduated thence second in grade of a class of forty-six, July 1, 1829, and com- missioned Brevet Second Lieutenant, Corps of Engineers. Among his classmates were Generals Joseph Eggleston Johnston, Albert G. Blanchard and Theophilus H. Holmes, of the Confederate States Army, and Generals B. W. Brice, T. A. Davies, A. Cady, T. Swords, Seth Eastman, W. Hoffman, Sidney Burbank, O. M. Mitchell, C. P. Buckingham and James Barnes, of the United States Army. Lieu- tenant Lee served as Assistant Engineer in the construction of Forts Monroe and Calhoun for the defense of Hampton Roads, Virginia, 1829-'34; as Assistant to the Chief Engineer at Washington, D. C.,
CH SACS
GENERAL ROBERT E. LEE,
In Confederate uniform, from life during the war, never before engraved.
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1834-'37; as Assistant Astronomer for establishing the boundary be- tween the States of Ohio and Michigan, 1835; as Superintending En- gineer of the improvement of St. Louis harbor, Missouri, and of the Missouri and Upper Mississippi rivers, 1837-'41, having general charge of the improvement of the Lower Mississippi and of the Ohi > river below Louisville, Kentucky, 1840-'41. He was promoted to First Lieutenant September 21, 1836, and to Captain of the Corps of Engineers July 7, 1838. Had charge of the construction and repairs of the defenses at the Narrows entrance to the New York harbor, 1841-'44, 1844-'46 ; was Member of the Board of Visitors to the Mili- tary Academy, 1844; Assistant to the Chief Engineer at Washington. D. C., 1844; Member of the Board of Engineers for Atlantic Coast de- fenses from September 8, 1845, to March 13, 1848; served in the war with Mexico, 1846-'48, being engaged on the march as Chief Engin- eer of the column commanded by Brigadier-General John E. Wool, and earned the brevets of Major, Lieutenant-Colonel and Colonel for gallant and meritorious conduct in the battles of Cerro Gordo, Con- treras, and Churubusco, and at Chapultepec, where he was wounded. His services as an engineer at Vera Cruz and the subsequent opera- tions in Mexico were highly eulogized by General Winfield Scott. Colonel Lee was on special duty in the Engineer Bureau at Washing- ton, D. C., in 1848; Superintending Engineer of the construction of Fort Carroll, Patapsco river, Maryland, 1848-52; member of the Board of Engineers for Atlantic Coast defenses from July 21, 1848, to April 11, 1853; Superintendent of the United States Military Acad- emy from September 1, 1852, to March 31, 1855; in command at Jefferson Barracks, Missouri, 1855; appointed Lieutenant-Colonel Second Cavalry March 3, 1855; on frontier duty at Camp Cooper, Texas, 1856; with expedition against the Comanche Indians, 1856; at Camp Cooper, Texas, 1836-'57; at San Antonio, Texas (commanding the Second Regiment), 1857; on leave of absence, 1857-59; in com- mand of the forces at Harpers Ferry for suppressing the John Brown raid, October 17-25, 1859; in command of the Department of Texas from February 6 to December 12, 1860, and on leave of absence. 1860-'61; promoted Colonel of the First Cavalry March 16, 1861. Ordered to Washington from his regiment in Texas, Colonel Lee ar- rived at the Federal capital April 1, 1861, three days before the inau- guration of President Lincoln. The political horizon was even then overcast with the portents of the mighty civil war which was soon to convulse the nation. South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia and Louisiana had already seceded from the Union, and the Provincial Government of the Confederate States had been formed at Montgomery. The Virginia Convention, loth to assent to the dissolu :- tion of the Union, was still in solemn deliberation. But all counsels and peaceful overtures failed, and the proclamation of President Lincoln
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calling for 75,000 men to subdue the seceded States forced Virginia with her sisters of the South. The ordinance of secession, which she passed on the 17th of April, determined Colonel Lee. To the Hon. F. P. Blair, who brought him the tender of the supreme command of the United States Army, he replied : " I look upon secession as an- archy. If I owned the four millions of slaves in the South, I would sac- rifice them all for the Union. But how can I draw my sword against Virginia ?" On the 20th he resigned his commission and repaired to Richmond. Governor Letcher immediately appointed him to the Command-in-Chief of the Virginia force, and the convention unani- mously confirmed the nomination. Upon the appearance of General Lee before that body, on the 25th of April, its venerable President John Janney glowingly addressed him, thus concluding :
"Sir, we have by this unanimous vote expressed our conviction that you are at this day among the living citizens of Virginia, 'first in war' We pray to God most fervently, that you may so conduct the operations committed to your charge that it will soon be said of you, that you are first in peace,' and when that time comes you will have earned the still prouder distinction of being ' first in the hearts of your countrymen.' "
General Lee thus replied : "Mr. President and Gentlemen of the Convention : Profoundly impressed with the solemnity of the occa- sion, for which, I must say, I was not prepared, I accept the position assigned me by your partiality. I would have much preferred your choice had fallen upon an abler man. Trusting in Almighty God, an , approving conscience and the aid of my fellow-citizens, I devote my- self to the service of my native State, in whose behalf alone will I ever again draw my sword." Transferred from the State service to that of the Confederacy, with the rank of General, his first service was in the mountains of Northwest Virginia, where with inadequate forces he held the invading column of the enemy in check and restored the confidence which had been shaken by reverses in that department. In the fall of 1861 he was transferred to the command of the South Atlantic States. In March, 1862, he was recalled to Virginia and charged " with the conduct of military operations in the armies of the Confederacy." In the battles before Richmond, General Joseph E. Johnston being disabled by a wound on the 31st of May at the battle of Seven Pines, on the 3d of June, 1862, General Lee was assigned to command in person the Army of Northern Virginia, and thencefor- ward, as has been recorded in preceding pages, to the memorable 9th day of April, 1865, when it finally laid down its arms at Appomattox Court House, he remained at its head. Then, when all was lost save honor, he unmurmuringly took his place as a modest citizen of his scarred and harrowed State, to " abide her fortunes and share her fate." Refusing numerously proffered gratuities and sinecure stations
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which were pressed upon him by loving admirers, he found his meet field ot beneficence in the Presidency of a time-honored seat of learn- ing, Washington College, which had its origin in "The Augusta Academy," the first classical school in the valley of Virginia, founded in 1749 by Robert Alexander, a Scotch-Irish immigrant; and a Master of Arts of Trinity College, Dublin. Under his successor, Rev. John Brown, the Academy was first removed to " Old Providence," and again to " New Providence Church," and just before the Revolution. for the third time, to Mount Pleasant, near Fairfield, in the now county of Rockbridge. In 1776 Rev. William Graham (whose re- mains rest in the church-yard of the venerable St. John's at Rich- mond) baptized it as " Liberty Hall Academy." It was now removed. in 1777, to near the old Timber Ridge Church ; and finally, in 1785. to Lexington. In 1796 it was endowed by General Washington with one hundred shares of the Old James River Company, which had been donated him by the Virginia Assembly, and the trustees of the academy, in honor of the illustrious benefactor, rechristened it Wash- ington Academy. The Assembly soon after gave the institution, which it had already incorporated, the name of " The College of Wash- ington in Virginia." "The Cincinnati Society," of Virginia, on dis- solving in 1813, donated their fund, amounting to nearly $25,000, to the college, and, thus endowed, its career onward for quite seventy years was one of usefulness and honor. The civil war, however, brought grievous disaster. The college was dismantled, its scientific apparatus destroyed, its library sacked, its every apartment pillaged, and with the close of the weary struggle, four professors, a handful of students and the bare buildings, were all that remained.
Accepting the Presidency of the College October 2, 1865, he zeal- ously entered upon its duties, winning the meed of being "the best College President this country has ever produced," and magnifying the college into a university among the first in honor and influence in the nation. In the fulness of his noble mission, General Lee was stricken with a fatal malady, and sank to rest October 12, 1870. General Lee married June 30, 1831, Mary Anne Randolph, born Oc- tober 1, 1808, died November 5, 1873, daughter of George Washington Parke and Mary Lee ( Fitzhugh) Custis, of "Arlington," Virginia. .The issue of this blissful union was three sons and four daughters :
* George Washington Parke Custis, son of John Parke and Eleanor (Calvert) Custis, grandson by her first marriage with Daniel Parke Custis of Martha Dundridge, and the adopted son of General George Washington, whom she married secondly. Daniel Parke Custis was the son of Colonel John and Frances (Parke) Custis. His mother was the eldest of the two daughters of Daniel Parke, Aide to the Duke of Marlborough, Governor of the Leeward Islands, etc. The younger daughter, Lucy, married Colonel William Byrd, of "Westover."
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i. George Washington Custis, Major-General Confederate States Army, succeeded his father in the Presidency of Washington- Lee University.
ii. William Henry Fitzhugh, Major-General Confederate States Ar- my; has been twice married, first to Charlotte, daughter of William Fanning Wickham ; secondly, November 28, 1867, to Mary Tabb, daughter of George W. Bolling, of Petersburg, Virginia. Issue by both marriages.
iii. Robert Edward, Captain Confederate States Army; married Charlotte (died September 22, 1872), daughter of R. Barton Haxall.
iv. Mary, v. Anna (died 1870), vi. Mildred, and vii, Eleanor Agnes- died October 15, 1873.
The remains of General and Mrs. Lee, and of their youngest daughter, rest in a mausoleum annex to the Memorial Chapel erected in the College grounds by the Lee Memorial Association. In a chamber directly over the crypt is the sarcophagus and famed recumbent statue of the great chieftain, executed by the sculptor Valentine.
HERE LEE RESTS.
" He loved not war, but could not well renounce That fealty to his native land first due -
O, countrymen, there was a soldier once From instinct brave, but brave from duty, too! A great self-mastered spirit, who outvied The empty pageants which his age supplied!
* * ** *
* *
Lie still in glory, hero of our hearts, Sleep sweetly in thy vaulted chapel grave!
The splendor of the far excelling star departs -- Not so the lustre of the god-like brave! Thy glory shall not vanish, but increase,
Thou boldest son of war and mildest child of peace!
Lie still in glory! patient, prudent, deep! O, central form in our immortal strife,
With an eternal weight of glory, sleep Within her breast, who gave thee name and life!
Lie very still! no more contend with odds!
Transcendent among men-resplendent with the gods!"
THOMAS JONATHAN JACKSON,
LIEUTENANT-GENERAL CONFEDERATE STATES ARMY.
"A frame of adamant, a soul of fire."
Thomas Jonathan (known during the recent great civil war by the sobriquet of " Stonewall") Jackson was born January 21. 1824, in Clarksburg, Harrison county, Virginia. His great-grandfather, a na-
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tive of England, was an early settler of the western wilds of Virginia, and Edward Jackson, his grandfather, was surveyor of Lewis county, and for some years represented it in the State Assembly. The son of the last, Jonathan Jackson, removed to Clarksburg, where he studied and commenced the practice of law with his cousin, John G. Jackson, and acquired considerable reputation. He married Julia, daughter of Thomas Neal, of Wood county, and these were the parents of the sub- ject of the present sketch. Jonathan became pecuniarily embarrassed, and dying in 1827, left his family penniless. His children were four in number-two sons and two daughters-Thomas, the youngest, being only three years old. The widow remarried in 1830, but died the fol- lowing year of a pulmonary affection. Thomas was thus doubly or- phaned at the early age of seven. After living for a time with some of his relatives in the vicinity of his birth, becoming dissatisfied, he determined to seek the residence of an uncle, Cummins Jackson, the half-brother of his father, distant eighteen miles, which he journeyed alone and afoot. He was kindly received by his uncle and two maiden aunts who lived with him. His elder brother Warren was also an inmate of the family. Cummins Jackson was a man of vigor- ons mind, resolute and of vehement passions. He was a farmer. lumber-getter and miller, and slave owner. He gave his orphaned nephews the advantages of schooling whilst with him, but the eldest. Warren, who was of a restless disposition, persuaded Thomas to accompany him to the home of a relative on Blennerhasset Island. The two lads proceeded down the Ohio river to its mouth and finally located on a lonely island of the Mississippi near the southwestern corner of Kentucky. Here they spent the summer alone in a cabin. earning their living by cutting fire-wood for the river steamers. Our future hero, thus early, at the age of nine years, learned the life lesson of self-reliance. But the malaria of their field of action overcame the adventurous lads, and becoming enfeebled with the ague, they had fain to return home by the charity of a steamboat captain. Thomas again made his residence with his uncle Cummins Jackson, and by his kindness received a plain English education. In arithmetic he surpassed his schoolmates, but in other branches he made his way slowly, and only by dint of persistent application. When not at school he assisted his uncle in the several occupations of the last, a frequent task being the transportation, with an oxen team, of logs from the forest to the saw-mill. While thus early and ardnously engaged, his constitution gave signs of weakness, and a year or two later he suffered a slight attack of paralysis, the effects of which gradually wore away, but he was troubled through life with weak digestive organs.
At the age of sixteen he was elected constable of the extensive county of Lewis. The duties of this office gave him opportunity for the study of men and cultivated his will power and self-possession.
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He became a daring and skillful rider (though he continued through life an exceedingly ungraceful one) and became very fond of horse racing, a sport to which his uncle was addicted. Thomas was his fa- vorite jockey, and it was proverbial among the people of the section that if a horse had any winning qualities in him Tom Jackson was the rider to bring them out. Thomas, indeed, is traditionally transmitted as being at this period an ardent frequenter of races, house-raisings, and country dances. Nevertheless, he was truthful, laborious, modest and self-reliant, scorning everything base. Moreover he was ambitious of preferment and insatiably thirsted for knowledge. In 1842, hearing of a vacancy in the United States Military Academy at West Point, Thomas Jackson, with his accustomed decision and energy, made application for the appointment, and being cordially supported by his friends, waited upon the Secretary of War, dressed in a suit of homespun, his remaining wardrobe being contained in a pair of saddle-bags. The Secretary of War, Hon. John C. Spencer, was so much pleased with Jackson's resolute bearing that although hardly prepared to enter the Academy a warrant for his appointment was ordered to be immediately made out. Young Jackson's zeal and purpose found striking exhibition on this occasion. Being pressed by a friend to remain in Washington for a few days to see the objects of chief interest in that city, he declined, urging that as the studies of the Military Academy were in progress, it was best that he should re- pair there forthwith. He accordingly contented himself with a hasty panoramic view of the city from the top of the dome of the capitol. He entered the Military Academy July 1, 1842. In his studies Cadet Jackson made steady progress. In drawing he never became an adept; his greatest success being in natural philosophy and ethics. He was graduated with the usual rank of brevet Second Lieutenant, July 1, 1846, the seventeenth in grade in a class of fifty-nine members. Among his classmates were Generals George B. Mcclellan, John G. Foster, Jesse L. Reno, D. N. Couch, Truman Seymour, M. D L. Simpson, S. D. Sturgis, George Stoneman, Innis N. Palmer, Alfred Gibbs, George II. Gordon, Frederick Myers, Joseph N. G. Whistler, and Nelson II. Davis of the United States Army, and Generals John A. Brown, John Adams, Dabney HI. Maury, D. R. Jones, Cadmus M. Wilcox, Samuel B. Maxey and George E. Pickett of the Confederate States Army, besides others distinguished in civil life and the walks of literature. The war with Mexico being then in progress, Lieuten- ant Jackson had an opportunity for immediate service, and was or- dered to report himself to the First Regiment of the Artillery, then at New Orleans. Proceeding thither, he soon moved with the troops for Mexico, serving under General Zachary Taylor, until General Win- field Scott took the field. when he was transferred to the command of
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