University of Virginia Library

AMBROSE POWELL HILL,
LIEUTENANT-GENERAL CONFEDERATE STATES ARMY.

The name Hill is of early prominence in the annals of Virginia.
The primary ancestor of the subject of this sketch in Virginia it is believed
was Edward Hill, who received a grant of 450 acres of land in
Charles City county, July 25, 1638.[47] (Virginia Land Registry, book
No. 1, p. 579.) In 1644 he appeared with the rank of Captain as Speaker
of the House of Burgesses. In March, 1645, he was sent with Captain
Thomas Willoughby as commissioners to Maryland "to demand the return
of persons who had left the colony." He served as a member of
the House of Burgesses from Charles City county from 1645 to 1654,
the last year as Speaker of the body. In 1656, as commandant with the
rank of Colonel of the Colonial Rangers and the friendly Indians under
Totopotomoi, the Pamunkey Chief, he was disastrously defeated in an
encounter with the Richahecrian Indians from mountains at a point
in the present eastern limits of Richmond, known as Bloody run,
which has its source in a bold spring. The slain were so numerous
(Totopotomoi being among them) that the tradition is that the streamlet
ran with blood, and hence its designation. Such was the indignation
against Hill that he was disfranchised by the Assembly. His
son, Edward Hill, Jr., however, became a man of station in the colony,
serving as County Lieutenant of Charles City county with the
rank of Colonel, and as a member of the council, but he, too, fell under
the ban of the General Assembly, and in May, 1676, was "disabled
from holding office for participating in the patriotic uprising known as
`Bacon's Rebellion.' " Ambrose Powell Hill, a lineal descendant of
Captain Ambrose Powell,[48] a vestryman of Bromfield parish in 1752,
and the son of Major Thomas Hill,[49] was born in Culpeper county
November 9, 1825. He entered West Point Academy July 1, 1842,
and graduated thence July 1, 1847, the fifteenth in merit in a class of

thirty-six, among whom were Generals John S. Mason, O. B. Wilcox,
H. G. Gibson, A. E. Burnside, John Gibbon, R. B. Ayers, Charles
Griffin, Thomas H. Neill, W. W. Barnes, E. L. Viele and L. C. Hunt,
of the United States Army, and General Harry Heth, of the Confederate
Army. Entering the First Artillery as Brevet Second Lieutenant,
Hill became First Lieutenant September 4, 1851. He was engaged
during the Mexican war at Huamantla the 9th of October, and at Atlixas
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 between
the North and South, he was chosen Colonel of the Thirteenth
Virginia Regiment, which, at the first battle of Manassas, with
the remainder of the command of General Joseph E. Johnston, arrived
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 command,
he made the first attack upon McClellan, and in a terrible conflict
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 Hill 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 Northern
Virginia the division of A. P. Hill was sent to reinforce Stonewall
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 Rappahannock
and Manassas. At the second battle of Manassas he repeated
a similar exhibition of valor to that of Fraziers Farm, and with dauntless
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 enemy

before them, capturing two batteries, many prisoners, and resting
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 Botlers
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 simultaneous
charge was made by Hill, and the enemy forced in a confused
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 Division
formed the right of Jackson's force, at Chancellorsville the center,
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, concealed
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 momentous campaign of 1864 General Hill was again conspicuous,
his corps, with that of Ewell, opening the action in the Wilderness.
A few days thereafter his feeble health so gave way that he
was unable to remain on duty, when General Jubal A. Early was assigned
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 intrenchments
and carried his entire lines, capturing seven stand of colors,
2,000 prisoners and nine pieces of artillery.

At the final attack on the Southside Railroad and the defense of
Petersburg, he was restlessly active in his exertions to repel the Federal
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 behind
him in a place of safety, rode forward accompanied by a single
orderly, and soon came upon a squad of Federals who had advanced
along a ravine far beyond their lines. He immediately ordered
them to surrender, which they were on the point of doing, under
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 Hill he must come up," were the last words
of the peerless Lee. What more honorable tribute?