D. H. Hill

[JerryD]

Unmentioned thus far was the criticism of Hill as a defeatist. Of course, he was right about that...

I'm not aware of this. What did he say?

 

[Bruce Vail]

I'm not aware of this. What did he say?

There are numerous examples -- I'll refresh my memory with Hal Bridges' book to make sure I have all my details correct.

One example that stands out in my memory was his criticism of Lee's Pennsylvania invasion of 1863. He felt it was extremely risky and prone to failure.

 

[Bruce Vail]

When you get to be my age your memory sometimes loses its staying power. The great Gary Gallagher wrote this in his 1991 introduction to the DH Hill bio Lee's Maverick General:

"...(Gen.) Bragg averred that his frequent "croaking" harmed morale. The Oxford English Dictionary offers a nineteenth-centry definition of croaking: "to speak in dismal accents, talk despondingly, forbode evil (like the raven)." Beyond question, Harvey Hill stood guilty of croaking not only during his time with Bragg and the Army of Tennessee, but throughout the rest of his Confederate career....The cumulative effect of such gloomy letters, together with oral statements of a similar nature, led civilians and fellow officers to dismiss even Hill's valid criticisms as nothing more than tedious carping."

 

[JerryD]

When you get to be my age your memory sometimes loses its staying power. The great Gary Gallagher wrote this in his 1991 introduction to the DH Hill bio Lee's Maverick General:

"...(Gen.) Bragg averred that his frequent "croaking" harmed morale. The Oxford English Dictionary offers a nineteenth-centry definition of croaking: "to speak in dismal accents, talk despondingly, forbode evil (like the raven)." Beyond question, Harvey Hill stood guilty of croaking not only during his time with Bragg and the Army of Tennessee, but throughout the rest of his Confederate career....The cumulative effect of such gloomy letters, together with oral statements of a similar nature, led civilians and fellow officers to dismiss even Hill's valid criticisms as nothing more than tedious carping."

I found a quote where Lee also referred to him as a croaker. Not sure that is the same as defeatist, though.

 

[Jamieva]

DH Hill told Lee not to attack at Malvern Hill

 

[Pollaco]

Sometimes complaining may do some good and just might possibly save lives. I read that Hill complained about the poor quality of artillery pieces. In his April 24, 1862 complaint Hill opened with "There must be something very rotten in the Ordinance Department...."

 

[C.W. Roden]

The Life And Legacy Of Major General D. H. Hill C.S.A. (1821 - 1889)

Common sense views of Southern cultural heritage and other subjects from the point of view of a small-town country writer from South Carolina.

southernfriedcommonsense.blogspot.com

Daniel Harvey Hill was born at Hill's Iron Works on Thursday, July 12, 1821 in York District (now York County, South Carolina) to Solomon and Nancy Cabeen Hill. His maternal grandfather was a native of Scotland.

Hill's paternal grandfather, William "Billy" Hill, was a native of Ireland and local Revolutionary War hero who made cannon for the Continental Army and served as a colonel of militia in various campaigns under Patriot General Thomas "Gamecock" Sumter during the summer and fall of 1780 -- probably best known for his role in the events leading up to the Battle of Huck's Defeat (Wednesday, July 12, 1780).

He entered the West Point U.S. Military Academy in 1838 at age 17 and graduated 28th in his class of 56 fellow cadets in the Class of 1842. Included among his classmates were several future American Civil War generals: Earl Van Dorn, William Starke Rosecrans, Abner Doubleday, and fellow South Carolinian, James Longstreet, whom he maintained a life-long friendship with.

Following his graduation, Hill was assigned to the 1st U.S. Artillery at the rank of 2nd Lieutenant. He was later transferred to the 3rd Artillery on Tuesday, October 20, 1843, then later to the 4th U.S. Artillery. He was promoted to 1st Lieutenant on Wednesday, March 3, 1847.

During the Mexican-American War (1846-1848) Hill served under U.S. Major General Winfield Scott. He first saw action with the 4th U.S. Artillery at the Siege of Veracruz (March 9-29, 1847) then later at Cerro Gordo (Sunday, April 18, 1847). During the war, Hill was promoted twice; first to captain for bravery at the Battles of Contreras and Churubusco (August 19-20, 1847), then to major also for bravery at the Battle of Chapultepec (September 12-13, 1847).

In 1848, Hill married Isabella Sophia Morrison, with whom he would have seven children: Robert Hall (1850-1857). Mary Eugenia Arnold (1852-1934), Willie Morrison (1855-1856), Nancy Lee (1857-1938), Daniel Harvey Jr. (1859-1924), James Irwin (1864-1866), and Joseph Morrison (1864-1950).

After the war ended, Hill resigned his commission in 1849 and became a professor of mathematics at Washington College (now Washington and Lee University) in Lexington, Virginia. Later in 1854, he joined the faculty at Davidson College near Charlotte, North Carolina.

In 1857, Hill's sister-in-law, Mary Anna Morrison, married fellow artilleryman and Mexican War veteran and future Confederate Lieutenant General Thomas Johnathan Jackson, a teacher at the Virginia Military Institute (VMI) next to Washington College in Lexington where Hill previously taught mathematics. The two men had struck up a close friendship while Hill was in Lexington. Jackson, a devout Christian, was also the founder of a Sunday School for both enslaved and free African-Americans in Lexington.

Like his brother-in-law, Daniel Harvey Hill also had a history of teaching black children -- notably one of the freed slaves on his family's Iron Works as a young boy. The child, Elias Hill, was taught to read and write by Daniel, and would later become a black minister in York County before the upcoming War Between The States (1861-1865) and during the Reconstruction Era (1867-1876).

In 1858, seeing the need for a "Southern West Point" Hill founded the North Carolina Military Institute in Charlotte becoming its superintendent with fellow educator and future Confederate General James Henry Lane, the later founder of the Virginia Tech Corps of Cadets. The school based its academic and disciplinary structures on the West Point model. The school did not last long with the start of the American Civil War and the cadets taking up arms for the Southern Confederacy when North Carolina seceded from the United States on Monday, May 20, 1861.

Hill immediately offered his services to the State of North Carolina and was appointed the rank of colonel of the 1st North Carolina Infantry Regiment where, less than a month later, he fought in the first land battle of the war at the Battle of Big Bethel, near Newport News, Virginia on June 10, 1861 -- a Confederate victory. For his quick action and courage, on July 10, 1861, he was promoted to the rank of brigadier general and given command of Confederate troops guarding the new Confederate capitol of Richmond, Virginia.

By the spring of 1862, Hill was a major general and division commander in the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia. He participated in the Peninsula Campaign in the spring of 1862. Hill led his division with great distinction in the Battle of Seven Pines (May 31-June 1, 1862) and later at Malvern Hill (Tuesday, July 1, 1862) during the Seven Days Battles.

At Malvern Hill, he unsuccessfully urged General Robert E. Lee not to attack what would prove to be an impregnable Federal position. One of his brigades would loose over 40 percent of its strength as casualties in the battle as a result. This would be the beginning of Hill's outspoken wartime criticisms of the famous Southern general which eventually resulted in his expulsion from the Army of Northern Virginia.

Following the Seven Days Battles, Hill's division was left behind to defend Richmond from Union forces still in the area while the rest of the Army of Northern Virginia marched north to engage another Union Army at the Second Battle of Manassas (Bull Run) on August 29-30, 1862).

During this time in Richmond, Hill developed a system for prisoner of war exchanges with Union Major General John A. Dix. On Tuesday, July 22, 1862, the agreement known as the Dix-Hill Cartel was established. The cartel worked well for a few months, but broke down when the Confederate government insisted on treating captured black Union prisoners as fugitive slaves and returning them to their previous owners. This would largely lead to many Union and Confederate prisoners of war suffering and needlessly dying long-term harsh conditions -- both unintentional and otherwise -- in the horrid prisoner of war camps throughout eastern America.

Hill and his division returned to the Army of Northern Virginia in time for its first invasion of the Northern States in September of 1862.

During the Maryland campaign, Hill was mistakenly sent two copies of Lee's Special Orders No. 191, which detailed the divided positions of Confederate forces as it attempted to march north towards Pennsylvania. One of these copies was accidentally left (likely never delivered) in a field near Frederick, Maryland wrapped around three cigars, where a Union soldier, Corporal Barton W. Mitchell of the 27th Indiana Volunteers (who would later be wounded at the subsequent Battle of Sharpsburg), discovered it on September 13th. The copy of Lee's order was sent up the chain of command and delivered to the commander of the Army of the Potomac Union Major General George B. McClellan.

Hill would later claim that he was only given one copy of what would later be known as Lee's Lost Order.

Realizing that Lee's divided army was now vulnerable, McClellan pursued the Confederates with uncharacteristic speed.

Hill's division fought to slow down the Union advance at the Battle of South Mountain (or Boonsboro Gap) on Sunday, September 14, 1862. Scattered as far north as Boonsboro, Maryland when the fighting began, but for the entire day Hill's vastly outnumbered division fought with distinction, slowing down McClellan and buying Lee's army enough precious time to concentrate at nearby Sharpsburg, Maryland.

General D.H. Hill and his now 2,500 man division took part in some of the bloodies fighting during the Battle of Sharpsburg (near Antietam Creek) on Wednesday, September 17, 1862 holding the center of the Confederate lines against waves of Union assaults on the Sunken Road (also known as "Bloody Lane") He rallied a few detached men from different brigades to hold the line at the critical moment and later allowing the Confederates to withdraw in good order.

After the battle, Lee's army retired back across the Potomac River into Virginia, giving the Union army its first major victory of the war and Abraham Lincoln the moment he needed to issue his famous Emancipation Proclamation, expanding the war to preserve the Union into a crusade to end slavery in the eyes of European and other foreign powers that might have come to the aid of the young Confederate States.

Hill's division also participated in the Battle of Fredericksburg on December 12-13, 1862.

James Wylie Ratchford, a South Carolinian on Hill's staff, wrote that Stonewall Jackson said of Hill: "there was not another man in the Southern army superior in his military genius than D.H. Hill."

Although General D.H. Hill was widely recognized as a superb combat leader, he also had a tendency to make powerful enemies. One Confederate official described Hill's personality as: "harsh, abrupt, often insulting in the effort to be sarcastic."

According to his friend, General James Longstreet, Hill's cause was furthermore undermined by the fact that he was a North Carolinian in an army of Virginians -- though this fact is in dispute since many of the best division-level officers of the Army of Northern Virginia were from States other than Virginia.

Hill was an outspoken critic of decisions made by Lee and Braxton Bragg, two men highly favored by Confederate President Jefferson Davis. In addition to his old classmate, Longstreet, Hill was also a good friend to Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston, a fact which also didn't earn him any points with Davis.

Nonetheless, Hill had an excellent reputation on the battlefield.

In the spring of 1863, Hill was detached from the Army of Northern Virginia to help defend North Carolina and Southern Virginia. He never rejoined Lee's army.

After helping defend Richmond during Lee's 1863 invasion of Pennsylvania and the Gettysburg Campaign, D.H. Hill was sent west to command a corps in Braxton Bragg's Army of Tennessee along with General Longstreet. Hill led his corps in some of the heaviest fighting in the bloody victory at the Battle of Chickamauga (September 19-20, 1863). After the battle, however, tensions with Bragg over his failure to properly exploit the victory led to Hill being sidelined and to the cancellation of his formal promotion to lieutenant general.

Hill would not command troops in a significant engagement again until the Battle of Bentonville (March 19-21, 1865) in the final weeks of the war. Hill was again a division commander when he, along with General Johnston, surrendered the Confederate Army of Tennessee on Wednesday, April 26, 1865 to Union Major General William T. Sherman at Bennett Place in Durham, North Carolina.

Following the war, Hill sought to document Southern history by establishing two literary publications: The Land We Love and My Southern Home, both of which included coverage of literature, history, and agriculture. He edited the journal from 1866 to 1869.

From 1877 to 1884, Hill was elected to serve as the first president of the University of Arkansas.

In 1885 he became president of the Military and Agricultural College (Georgia Military College) of Milledgeville, Georgia. He held the post for four years until August of 1889 when he resigned due to failing health and returned to Charlotte, North Carolina, where he died on Tuesday, September 24, 1889 at age 68.

Daniel Harvey Hill is buried with his wife, Isabella, in the Davidson College Cemetery in Davidson, North Carolina.

 

[GilbertFarney]

Lee's opinion of Hill went south - pun intended - after Harvey had the temerity to criticize the general in his after-action report on the fight at South Mountain. Writing "Had Longstreet's division been with mine at daylight in the morning, the Yankees would have been disastrously repulsed," Hill implied that Lee's delay in returning to South Mountain led to the disaster at Boonsboro, the Confederate name for the battle. Lee did not take kindly to this, even though Hill's comment was accurate. Lee did indeed delay Longstreet's and Shanks Evans's return to South Mountain until the gunfire erupted on Hill's front shortly after 8:00 a.m. on September 14. It then took six to eight hours for reinforcements to reach Hill.

The connection of Hill's transfer out of the ANV by Lee to the loss of Special Orders No. 191 is inaccurate. Lee himself stated in a letter to Hill in February 1868, "I do not know how the order was lost, nor until I saw McClellan's published report after the termination of the war did I know certainly that it was the copy addressed to you." In short, while Lee may have heard rumors that the copy of the orders had been addressed to Hill, he did not have confirmation of that fact while Hill was still with the ANV. In fact, Lee did not know at all until well after the campaign that a copy of his orders had gone astray.

 

[GilbertFarney]

The Life And Legacy Of Major General D. H. Hill C.S.A. (1821 - 1889)

Common sense views of Southern cultural heritage and other subjects from the point of view of a small-town country writer from South Carolina.

southernfriedcommonsense.blogspot.com

Daniel Harvey Hill was born at Hill's Iron Works on Thursday, July 12, 1821 in York District (now York County, South Carolina) to Solomon and Nancy Cabeen Hill. His maternal grandfather was a native of Scotland.

Hill's paternal grandfather, William "Billy" Hill, was a native of Ireland and local Revolutionary War hero who made cannon for the Continental Army and served as a colonel of militia in various campaigns under Patriot General Thomas "Gamecock" Sumter during the summer and fall of 1780 -- probably best known for his role in the events leading up to the Battle of Huck's Defeat (Wednesday, July 12, 1780).

He entered the West Point U.S. Military Academy in 1838 at age 17 and graduated 28th in his class of 56 fellow cadets in the Class of 1842. Included among his classmates were several future American Civil War generals: Earl Van Dorn, William Starke Rosecrans, Abner Doubleday, and fellow South Carolinian, James Longstreet, whom he maintained a life-long friendship with.

Following his graduation, Hill was assigned to the 1st U.S. Artillery at the rank of 2nd Lieutenant. He was later transferred to the 3rd Artillery on Tuesday, October 20, 1843, then later to the 4th U.S. Artillery. He was promoted to 1st Lieutenant on Wednesday, March 3, 1847.

During the Mexican-American War (1846-1848) Hill served under U.S. Major General Winfield Scott. He first saw action with the 4th U.S. Artillery at the Siege of Veracruz (March 9-29, 1847) then later at Cerro Gordo (Sunday, April 18, 1847). During the war, Hill was promoted twice; first to captain for bravery at the Battles of Contreras and Churubusco (August 19-20, 1847), then to major also for bravery at the Battle of Chapultepec (September 12-13, 1847).

In 1848, Hill married Isabella Sophia Morrison, with whom he would have seven children: Robert Hall (1850-1857). Mary Eugenia Arnold (1852-1934), Willie Morrison (1855-1856), Nancy Lee (1857-1938), Daniel Harvey Jr. (1859-1924), James Irwin (1864-1866), and Joseph Morrison (1864-1950).

After the war ended, Hill resigned his commission in 1849 and became a professor of mathematics at Washington College (now Washington and Lee University) in Lexington, Virginia. Later in 1854, he joined the faculty at Davidson College near Charlotte, North Carolina.

In 1857, Hill's sister-in-law, Mary Anna Morrison, married fellow artilleryman and Mexican War veteran and future Confederate Lieutenant General Thomas Johnathan Jackson, a teacher at the Virginia Military Institute (VMI) next to Washington College in Lexington where Hill previously taught mathematics. The two men had struck up a close friendship while Hill was in Lexington. Jackson, a devout Christian, was also the founder of a Sunday School for both enslaved and free African-Americans in Lexington.

Like his brother-in-law, Daniel Harvey Hill also had a history of teaching black children -- notably one of the freed slaves on his family's Iron Works as a young boy. The child, Elias Hill, was taught to read and write by Daniel, and would later become a black minister in York County before the upcoming War Between The States (1861-1865) and during the Reconstruction Era (1867-1876).

In 1858, seeing the need for a "Southern West Point" Hill founded the North Carolina Military Institute in Charlotte becoming its superintendent with fellow educator and future Confederate General James Henry Lane, the later founder of the Virginia Tech Corps of Cadets. The school based its academic and disciplinary structures on the West Point model. The school did not last long with the start of the American Civil War and the cadets taking up arms for the Southern Confederacy when North Carolina seceded from the United States on Monday, May 20, 1861.

Hill immediately offered his services to the State of North Carolina and was appointed the rank of colonel of the 1st North Carolina Infantry Regiment where, less than a month later, he fought in the first land battle of the war at the Battle of Big Bethel, near Newport News, Virginia on June 10, 1861 -- a Confederate victory. For his quick action and courage, on July 10, 1861, he was promoted to the rank of brigadier general and given command of Confederate troops guarding the new Confederate capitol of Richmond, Virginia.

By the spring of 1862, Hill was a major general and division commander in the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia. He participated in the Peninsula Campaign in the spring of 1862. Hill led his division with great distinction in the Battle of Seven Pines (May 31-June 1, 1862) and later at Malvern Hill (Tuesday, July 1, 1862) during the Seven Days Battles.

At Malvern Hill, he unsuccessfully urged General Robert E. Lee not to attack what would prove to be an impregnable Federal position. One of his brigades would loose over 40 percent of its strength as casualties in the battle as a result. This would be the beginning of Hill's outspoken wartime criticisms of the famous Southern general which eventually resulted in his expulsion from the Army of Northern Virginia.

Following the Seven Days Battles, Hill's division was left behind to defend Richmond from Union forces still in the area while the rest of the Army of Northern Virginia marched north to engage another Union Army at the Second Battle of Manassas (Bull Run) on August 29-30, 1862).

During this time in Richmond, Hill developed a system for prisoner of war exchanges with Union Major General John A. Dix. On Tuesday, July 22, 1862, the agreement known as the Dix-Hill Cartel was established. The cartel worked well for a few months, but broke down when the Confederate government insisted on treating captured black Union prisoners as fugitive slaves and returning them to their previous owners. This would largely lead to many Union and Confederate prisoners of war suffering and needlessly dying long-term harsh conditions -- both unintentional and otherwise -- in the horrid prisoner of war camps throughout eastern America.

Hill and his division returned to the Army of Northern Virginia in time for its first invasion of the Northern States in September of 1862.

During the Maryland campaign, Hill was mistakenly sent two copies of Lee's Special Orders No. 191, which detailed the divided positions of Confederate forces as it attempted to march north towards Pennsylvania. One of these copies was accidentally left (likely never delivered) in a field near Frederick, Maryland wrapped around three cigars, where a Union soldier, Corporal Barton W. Mitchell of the 27th Indiana Volunteers (who would later be wounded at the subsequent Battle of Sharpsburg), discovered it on September 13th. The copy of Lee's order was sent up the chain of command and delivered to the commander of the Army of the Potomac Union Major General George B. McClellan.

Hill would later claim that he was only given one copy of what would later be known as Lee's Lost Order.

Realizing that Lee's divided army was now vulnerable, McClellan pursued the Confederates with uncharacteristic speed.

Hill's division fought to slow down the Union advance at the Battle of South Mountain (or Boonsboro Gap) on Sunday, September 14, 1862. Scattered as far north as Boonsboro, Maryland when the fighting began, but for the entire day Hill's vastly outnumbered division fought with distinction, slowing down McClellan and buying Lee's army enough precious time to concentrate at nearby Sharpsburg, Maryland.

General D.H. Hill and his now 2,500 man division took part in some of the bloodies fighting during the Battle of Sharpsburg (near Antietam Creek) on Wednesday, September 17, 1862 holding the center of the Confederate lines against waves of Union assaults on the Sunken Road (also known as "Bloody Lane") He rallied a few detached men from different brigades to hold the line at the critical moment and later allowing the Confederates to withdraw in good order.

After the battle, Lee's army retired back across the Potomac River into Virginia, giving the Union army its first major victory of the war and Abraham Lincoln the moment he needed to issue his famous Emancipation Proclamation, expanding the war to preserve the Union into a crusade to end slavery in the eyes of European and other foreign powers that might have come to the aid of the young Confederate States.

Hill's division also participated in the Battle of Fredericksburg on December 12-13, 1862.

James Wylie Ratchford, a South Carolinian on Hill's staff, wrote that Stonewall Jackson said of Hill: "there was not another man in the Southern army superior in his military genius than D.H. Hill."

Although General D.H. Hill was widely recognized as a superb combat leader, he also had a tendency to make powerful enemies. One Confederate official described Hill's personality as: "harsh, abrupt, often insulting in the effort to be sarcastic."

According to his friend, General James Longstreet, Hill's cause was furthermore undermined by the fact that he was a North Carolinian in an army of Virginians -- though this fact is in dispute since many of the best division-level officers of the Army of Northern Virginia were from States other than Virginia.

Hill was an outspoken critic of decisions made by Lee and Braxton Bragg, two men highly favored by Confederate President Jefferson Davis. In addition to his old classmate, Longstreet, Hill was also a good friend to Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston, a fact which also didn't earn him any points with Davis.

Nonetheless, Hill had an excellent reputation on the battlefield.

In the spring of 1863, Hill was detached from the Army of Northern Virginia to help defend North Carolina and Southern Virginia. He never rejoined Lee's army.

After helping defend Richmond during Lee's 1863 invasion of Pennsylvania and the Gettysburg Campaign, D.H. Hill was sent west to command a corps in Braxton Bragg's Army of Tennessee along with General Longstreet. Hill led his corps in some of the heaviest fighting in the bloody victory at the Battle of Chickamauga (September 19-20, 1863). After the battle, however, tensions with Bragg over his failure to properly exploit the victory led to Hill being sidelined and to the cancellation of his formal promotion to lieutenant general.

Hill would not command troops in a significant engagement again until the Battle of Bentonville (March 19-21, 1865) in the final weeks of the war. Hill was again a division commander when he, along with General Johnston, surrendered the Confederate Army of Tennessee on Wednesday, April 26, 1865 to Union Major General William T. Sherman at Bennett Place in Durham, North Carolina.

Following the war, Hill sought to document Southern history by establishing two literary publications: The Land We Love and My Southern Home, both of which included coverage of literature, history, and agriculture. He edited the journal from 1866 to 1869.

From 1877 to 1884, Hill was elected to serve as the first president of the University of Arkansas.

In 1885 he became president of the Military and Agricultural College (Georgia Military College) of Milledgeville, Georgia. He held the post for four years until August of 1889 when he resigned due to failing health and returned to Charlotte, North Carolina, where he died on Tuesday, September 24, 1889 at age 68.

Daniel Harvey Hill is buried with his wife, Isabella, in the Davidson College Cemetery in Davidson, North Carolina.

Respectfully, pieces of this need correction. To wit ...

"During the Maryland campaign, Hill was mistakenly sent two copies of Lee's Special Orders No. 191, which detailed the divided positions of Confederate forces as it attempted to march north towards Pennsylvania."

Incorrect. There is no evidence that two copies of the orders were sent to Hill. Hill himself said he never received a second copy sent by army HQ, and he retained the copy sent to him by Jackson. It is available online in fact. Secondly, the ANV was no longer headed to Pennsylvania as of noon on Sept. 8. Toward it, yes. Into it, no. Reports that Federal troops still occupied Harpers Ferry and that the Army of the Potomac had begun marching toward Frederick stymied that part of Lee's plan. Even before the lost orders were lost, McClellan was moving faster than Lee found convenient. Whereas Lee had anticipated being able to operate on the Confederacy's "norther frontier" until winter, he now found that he needed to engage the Federals within days.

"One of these copies was accidentally left (likely never delivered) in a field near Frederick, Maryland wrapped around three cigars, where a Union soldier, Corporal Barton W. Mitchell of the 27th Indiana Volunteers (who would later be wounded at the subsequent Battle of Sharpsburg), discovered it on September 13th."

Correct - the copy was never delivered. This contradicts the previous statement about two copies sent to Hill.

"Realizing that Lee's divided army was now vulnerable, McClellan pursued the Confederates with uncharacteristic speed."

Incorrect. McClellan had marched portions of his army as far as 40 miles in order to put troops in between the ANV and Washington. McClellan then began advancing on September 8, while covering the route to Baltimore and DC, with some brigades making 15 miles per day. As of the morning on September 13, Lee knew McClellan had occupied Frederick City. What he did not know, because Jeb Stuart failed to tell him, is that McClellan had also pushed an entire army corps into Middletown Valley. D. H. Hill reported this after dark on that day.

 

[Pollaco]

History books make way to much about the "Lost Orders".
I don't see where McClellan capitalized on them or utilized the information on them.They may as well been just "cigar wrappers".Other than making for a good story, so what?

 

[treebie2000]

For a good read on D.H. Hill try "Lee's Maverick General" by Hal Brooks.

 

[Bruce Vail]

Lee's opinion of Hill went south - pun intended - after Harvey had the temerity to criticize the general in his after-action report on the fight at South Mountain. Writing "Had Longstreet's division been with mine at daylight in the morning, the Yankees would have been disastrously repulsed," Hill implied that Lee's delay in returning to South Mountain led to the disaster at Boonsboro, the Confederate name for the battle. Lee did not take kindly to this, even though Hill's comment was accurate. Lee did indeed delay Longstreet's and Shanks Evans's return to South Mountain until the gunfire erupted on Hill's front shortly after 8:00 a.m. on September 14. It then took six to eight hours for reinforcements to reach Hill.

The connection of Hill's transfer out of the ANV by Lee to the loss of Special Orders No. 191 is inaccurate. Lee himself stated in a letter to Hill in February 1868, "I do not know how the order was lost, nor until I saw McClellan's published report after the termination of the war did I know certainly that it was the copy addressed to you." In short, while Lee may have heard rumors that the copy of the orders had been addressed to Hill, he did not have confirmation of that fact while Hill was still with the ANV. In fact, Lee did not know at all until well after the campaign that a copy of his orders had gone astray.

It's unclear to me when Lee's opinion of Hill went south. When Lee assumed command of the ANV in June 1862 Hill was already in place as a divisional commander. Several high ANV officers were removed from their positions post-Seven Days, but Hill was not one of them, so it seems logical to conclude that Hill remained in Lee's good graces at the outset of Maryland campaign in Sept. 1862.

There was bungling by Hill at the Battle of South Mountain, but it was not disastrous and hardly the cause of the failure of the Maryland campaign. Hill's resignation from his ANV command (for "health reasons") came in January 1863 and was apparently welcomed by Lee. Easy to conclude then that it was the Lost Order affair that destroyed Lee's confidence in Hill....

 

[nc native]

For now, at least, the library at North Carolina State University is still named after D. H. Hill. Hill was an excellent commander who would have gone to greater heights if he didn't have the same problem another famous American General during World War II had, letting his mouth get in his way. He wasn't as profane like George S. Patton but his criticisms of superior officers and his speaking his mind too often were the reason that he never got a command above divisional level. D. H. Hill was more often right than he was wrong, however his negativity and constant complaining got on the nerves of many of his fellow commanders.

 

[Bruce Vail]

For now, at least, the library at North Carolina State University is still named after D. H. Hill. Hill was an excellent commander who would have gone to greater heights if he didn't have the same problem another famous American General during World War II had, letting his mouth get in his way. He wasn't as profane like George S. Patton but his criticisms of superior officers and his speaking his mind too often were the reason that he never got a command above divisional level. D. H. Hill was more often right than he was wrong, however his negativity and constant complaining got on the nerves of many of his fellow commanders.

I believe the Hill Library at NC State is named for Daniel Harvey Hill Jr (1859-1924), a son of Gen. D.H. Hill.

 

[Jamieva]

I believe the Hill Library at NC State is named for Daniel Harvey Hill Jr (1859-1924), a son of Gen. D.H. Hill.

Correct he was one of the early chancellors of NC State

 

[GilbertFarney]

History books make way to much about the "Lost Orders".
I don't see where McClellan capitalized on them or utilized the information on them.They may as well been just "cigar wrappers".Other than making for a good story, so what?

McClellan capitalized on the orders by using them to develop an en echelon attack on the gaps of South Mountain. The northern attack - the main one, if you will - was intended to pin Longstreet and Hill to the gaps near Boonsboro while Franklin's attack punched a hole through the center of the Rebel position at Crampton's Gap. The overall objective was to relieve Harpers Ferry. These attacks had the knock on effect of inflicting serious casualties on Lee's dispersed force. They also ended Lee's dream of fighting the Federals on the heights 5 miles north of Boosnboro - on ground Lee specifically chose for that purpose. Finally, Lee retiring in the direction of Virginia forced him to stand at Sharpsburg to save his campaign and ensure a "military success" in Maryland encouraged the state's secessionists to rise up in rebellion. The Sharpsburg position was a bad one - Lee knew it too. It offered too much territory to defend on the left, which McClellan took advantage off. Standing at Sharpsburg also forced Lee to bring his army back together faster than he had planned. Forced marches caused tremendous straggling that weakened the ANV. This, in turn, gave an even more decided battlefield advantage to McClellan. To recapitulate, McC reading the Lost Orders

1. Forced Lee to abandon a favorable defensive position in favor of a less favorable one
2. Force Lee to fight at South Mountain, which he had never planned to do.
3. Inflicted heavy casualties on Lee's army even before Sharpsburg.
4. Weakened the ANV before the Battle of Antietam.
5. Gave the AoP more favorable terrain to fight on at Antietam.

 

[Bruce Vail]

It's unclear to me when Lee's opinion of Hill went south. When Lee assumed command of the ANV in June 1862 Hill was already in place as a divisional commander. Several high ANV officers were removed from their positions post-Seven Days, but Hill was not one of them, so it seems logical to conclude that Hill remained in Lee's good graces at the outset of Maryland campaign in Sept. 1862.

There was bungling by Hill at the Battle of South Mountain, but it was not disastrous and hardly the cause of the failure of the Maryland campaign. Hill's resignation from his ANV command (for "health reasons") came in January 1863 and was apparently welcomed by Lee. Easy to conclude then that it was the Lost Order affair that destroyed Lee's confidence in Hill....

So when was it that Lee turned against Hill? and what was the reason? I've read Bridges' book and it doesn't provide a definitive answer. Thoughts?

 

[Yankeedave]

Perhaps with his personality and issues within the command structure that Hill does take his division back to North Carolina. He does do a good job replacing the previous commander.

 

[MWood1841]

Hill was also the one who recommended Jackson to VMI as a professor, I think before they were related.

Francis Taylor who taught cavalry horsemanship at West Point, later Captain of First Artillery, Co. K and 2nd Lieut Jackson's first assignment during the beginning of the Mexican War. When Taylor retired from the Army he went to teach at Washington College and he recommended Jackson to VMI superintendent Francis H Smith, who wanted a "Virginian". Taylor most likely also taught DH Hill at West Point as well, Hill graduated a few years before Jackson.

 

[Jamieva]

Lee was not upset about the lost orders.

Someone can correct me but I thought for the south mountain battle, Hill left Ripley in charge of one of the gaps, or of part of the division, while he stayed personally in the valley below. Ripley was well known to be his worst brigadier and Lee judged that decision post campaign as part of his evaluation of Hill, again someone correct me but I think I am on the right trail.