Ambrose Powell Hill

Hill, Lt Gen Ambrose Powell (1825-65), Confederate general and corps commander in the Army of Northern Virginia. Hill was born in Virginia and educated at the US Military Academy at West Point. He was commissioned into the US army just in time to see action in the final battles of the Mexican war. When the American civil war broke out Hill joined the Confederacy. Hill was an aggressive and sometimes impetuous commander, as epitomized by his performance as a brigade commander during the Seven Days battles in 1862, and by the red hunting shirt he liked to wear in battle. Hill was promoted to command of a division in 1862, and his timely arrival after an epically fast march from Harper's Ferry saved Lee at Antietam. He was promoted lieutenant general in 1863 and rose from his sickbed to lead his corps at Gettysburg. In the last two years of the war Hill was dogged by illness, but remained one of the most tenacious officers under Lee's command, fighting at the Wilderness, Spotsylvania, and Cold Harbor. He was killed on 2 April, while trying to rally his troops and stem the Federal breakthrough south of Petersburg. The Army of Northern Virginia surrendered one week later.

— Andrew Haughton

Born in Culpeper County, Virginia, Hill graduated from West Point in 1847, fifteenth in a class of thirty‐eight. While still a cadet he contracted gonorrhea, which caused recurrent prostatitis that afflicted him physically and psychosomatically for life. Hill served in the Mexican War and the Seminole Wars; his 1859 marriage to Kitty Morgan was a happy one that produced four daughters. After Virginia seceded in 1861, Hill resigned; he was appointed Confederate colonel of the 13th Virginia Infantry and fought at First Manassas. Promoted to brigadier general in February 1862, and major general in May 1862, Hill's Light Division became deservedly renowned during the Civil War for its fighting abilities; his energetic leadership distinguished him at the Seven Days' Battle, as well as the Battle of Fredericksburg, and the Battle of Antietam, where his timely arrival saved Robert E. Lee's right flank. In May 1863, he was promoted lieutenant general after “Stonewall” Jackson's death at Chancellorsville, assigned command of the Army of Northern Virginia's new III Corps, and led it from Gettysburg to the Wilderness. After 1863, repeated illnesses and quarrels with superiors marred Hill's temperamental leadership, especially during the 1864–65 Wilderness to Petersburg Campaign. Shortly after returning from sick leave, he was killed on 2 April 1865 at Petersburg by a Union infantryman while attempting to reconnoiter lines and rally his troops.

[See also Civil War: Military and Diplomatic Course.]

Bibliography

• William W. Hassler, A. P. Hill: Lee's Forgotten General, 1979.
• James I. Robertson, Jr., General A. P. Hill: The Story of A Confederate Warrior, 1987

(1825-65) Confederate army officer, born near Culpeper, Virginia. His success in leading a brigade into battle at Williamsburg (1862) led to his being given command of the largest division of the Army of Northern Virginia. Later successes at Cedar Mountain (1862) and Second Bull Run (1862) further cemented his reputation, but he proved less successful as a corps commander at Gettysburg (1863). Though seriously ill due to complications from gonorrhea contracted in his youth, Hill continued to fight at the Battle of the Wilderness (1864) and brilliantly commanded a small corps at Petersburg (1864-65), where he was killed.

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