Daniel Harvey Hill

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Hill, Daniel Harvey (1821–89) educator; U.S. and Confederate army officer. Born in York District, South Carolina. Hill was graduated from West Point in 1842. He subsequently served on the frontier and in the Mexican War (1846–48). In 1849, Hill resigned his U.S. Army commission to teach mathematics at Washington College (1849–54) and later at Davidson College (1854–59). He was also Superintendent of the North Carolina Military Institute (1859–61). With the coming of the Civil War, Hill led the 1st North Carolina Infantry Regiment at the Battle of Big Bethel Church on June 10, 1861, being promoted to brigadier general the same day. He was subsequently promoted to major general in early 1862 and to lieutenant general in 1863. Hill served for the first two years of the war in the eastern theater and participated in the Peninsular campaign (1861–62) and the battles of Second Bull Run, South Mountain, and Antietam, all in 1862. In 1863, he was transferred to the Confederate Army of Tennessee and contributed to the defeat of Union forces at Chickamauga. Shortly after Chickamauga, Hill was relieved of his command and subsequently commanded troops only twice, at Petersburg and at Bentonville, in 1865. Certainly the smartest, and perhaps the best all-around, general officer in the Confederate Army, Hill did not forebear to criticize his commanders, particularly Robert E. Lee and then Braxton Bragg, a fault which led to his exclusion from greater responsibilities after 1863.

Daniel Harvey Hill 1821-89, Confederate general in the American Civil War, b. York District, S.C. He served in the Mexican War but resigned from the army in 1849. He was professor of mathematics at Washington College (now Washington and Lee Univ.; 1849-54) and at Davidson College (1854-59) and superintendent of the North Carolina Military Institute (1859-61). At the beginning of the Civil War, Hill commanded the 1st North Carolina Regiment and soon became Confederate major general. His division rendered distinguished service at Fair Oaks in the Peninsular campaign , in the Seven Days battles , and at South Mt. in the Antietam campaign (1862). In 1863, Hill commanded the Dist. of North Carolina, defended Richmond when Robert E. Lee was conducting the Gettysburg campaign, and fought under Braxton Bragg at Chickamauga in the Chattanooga campaign. With others of Bragg's subordinates he petitioned Jefferson Davis to remove that general from command, but Davis, favoring Bragg, removed Hill himself. He then had no active command until the last days of the war, when he fought at Bentonville, N.C. After the war he settled in Charlotte, N.C., where he established a monthly magazine and a weekly newspaper. He was president of the Univ. of Arkansas (1877-84) and of the Middle Georgia Military and Agricultural College (1886-89).

Bibliography: See D. S. Freeman, Lee's Lieutenants (3 vol., 1942-44); biography by L. H. Bridges (1961).