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As promised, here is William Preston Hix's 1874 account, along with some additional information, provided for context.
William Preston Hix, the son of Edward and Mary Hix, was enumerated on the 1860 US Census for Laurensville, Laurens County, SC as 22 yo (b. @1838). His occupation is listed as "portrait painter."
In 1859, Richard Wearn established the Premium Photograph and Ambrotype Gallery in Columbia, SC. By 1860, portrait painter and colorist William Preston Hix was in partnership with Wearn under the name Wearn & Hix. The pair worked together for the next 15 years (excepting the time that Hix was serving in the 3rd SC.) Besides painting portraits, Hix likely utilized his artistic talents in the hand-tinting of photographs.
The firm of Wearn & Hix is probably best known for the 1865 series of nineteen images illustrating the destruction of Columbia, SC and the 1868 portrait of Robert Smalls.
The Daily Phoenix. (Columbia, SC), April 21, 1874, page 2.
William Preston Hix painted a portrait of Maj Gen Joseph B Kershaw in 1873. It is evidently not the one at the South Carolina State House or the one in the collection of the Museum of the Confederacy. He is also reported to have painted a portrait of Maj Gen Matthew C Butler (1871); a full-length post-war portrait of PGT Beauregard; and a large oil-on-canvas entitled "The Women of the South Decorating the Graves of the Confederate Dead" (1866.) I have been unable to locate any of the paintings.
The Wearn & Hix partnership ended suddenly in January 1874, when Richard Wearn committed suicide. Afterwards, W. P. Hix & Co. continued to work in carte vista, cabinet cards, and stereographs, while giving "much attention to the tinting of photographs" and to "producing paintings in oils and water colors."
A BEAUTIFUL WORK OF ART -- A correspondent of the Louisville (Ky.) Ledger thus speaks of a picture which is being executed by Capt. W. P. Hix, of this city [Columbia, SC]. The figures will be life size:
"The sudden death of Mr. Wearn will not deter Capt. Hix [William Preston Hix] one of the finest and most famous portrait and landscape painters in the South, from carrying out his announced determination to undertake the execution of a great national work, based on a heroic incident which took place at the fierce battle of Fredericksburg...." [The Daily Phoenix. (Columbia, SC), January 18, 1874, page 2.]
William Preston Hix and his three brothers (Edward Melville, Willis Dickie, and Clarence Eugene) all enlisted in Company A of the 3rd SC, which was part of Kershaw's brigade.
William P. Hix joined for duty April 14, 1861 and was enlisted June 1, 1861 at Columbia, SC into Captain B C Garlington's Company, which became Company A, 3rd South Carolina Infantry. Company Muster Roll dated June 30, 1861 lists his age as 25. He was discharged February 13, 1862 on Surgeon's certificate of disability for a fistula in his arm.
His older brother Edward M. Hix served as a Corporal in A/3rd SC and later as Sergeant Major of the regiment. His younger brother Willis Dickie Hix also served in A/3rd SC, as did C E (Eugene) Hix who was killed at Fredericksburg. William P Hix filed the claim for Eugene's arrears pay on their father's behalf.
So while W P Hix, the artist, was not a direct witness to the incident, his older brother and one of his younger brothers would have been witnesses - and both of them survived the war.
Sources:
Yorkville Enquirer. (Yorkville, SC), October 25, 1866, page 2.
William Preston Hix, the son of Edward and Mary Hix, was enumerated on the 1860 US Census for Laurensville, Laurens County, SC as 22 yo (b. @1838). His occupation is listed as "portrait painter."
In 1859, Richard Wearn established the Premium Photograph and Ambrotype Gallery in Columbia, SC. By 1860, portrait painter and colorist William Preston Hix was in partnership with Wearn under the name Wearn & Hix. The pair worked together for the next 15 years (excepting the time that Hix was serving in the 3rd SC.) Besides painting portraits, Hix likely utilized his artistic talents in the hand-tinting of photographs.
The firm of Wearn & Hix is probably best known for the 1865 series of nineteen images illustrating the destruction of Columbia, SC and the 1868 portrait of Robert Smalls.
The Daily Phoenix. (Columbia, SC), April 21, 1874, page 2.
William Preston Hix painted a portrait of Maj Gen Joseph B Kershaw in 1873. It is evidently not the one at the South Carolina State House or the one in the collection of the Museum of the Confederacy. He is also reported to have painted a portrait of Maj Gen Matthew C Butler (1871); a full-length post-war portrait of PGT Beauregard; and a large oil-on-canvas entitled "The Women of the South Decorating the Graves of the Confederate Dead" (1866.) I have been unable to locate any of the paintings.
The Wearn & Hix partnership ended suddenly in January 1874, when Richard Wearn committed suicide. Afterwards, W. P. Hix & Co. continued to work in carte vista, cabinet cards, and stereographs, while giving "much attention to the tinting of photographs" and to "producing paintings in oils and water colors."
A BEAUTIFUL WORK OF ART -- A correspondent of the Louisville (Ky.) Ledger thus speaks of a picture which is being executed by Capt. W. P. Hix, of this city [Columbia, SC]. The figures will be life size:
"The sudden death of Mr. Wearn will not deter Capt. Hix [William Preston Hix] one of the finest and most famous portrait and landscape painters in the South, from carrying out his announced determination to undertake the execution of a great national work, based on a heroic incident which took place at the fierce battle of Fredericksburg...." [The Daily Phoenix. (Columbia, SC), January 18, 1874, page 2.]
William Preston Hix and his three brothers (Edward Melville, Willis Dickie, and Clarence Eugene) all enlisted in Company A of the 3rd SC, which was part of Kershaw's brigade.
William P. Hix joined for duty April 14, 1861 and was enlisted June 1, 1861 at Columbia, SC into Captain B C Garlington's Company, which became Company A, 3rd South Carolina Infantry. Company Muster Roll dated June 30, 1861 lists his age as 25. He was discharged February 13, 1862 on Surgeon's certificate of disability for a fistula in his arm.
His older brother Edward M. Hix served as a Corporal in A/3rd SC and later as Sergeant Major of the regiment. His younger brother Willis Dickie Hix also served in A/3rd SC, as did C E (Eugene) Hix who was killed at Fredericksburg. William P Hix filed the claim for Eugene's arrears pay on their father's behalf.
So while W P Hix, the artist, was not a direct witness to the incident, his older brother and one of his younger brothers would have been witnesses - and both of them survived the war.
Sources:
- 1850 US Census Laurens, Laurens County, South Carolina.
- 1860 US Census Laurensville, Laurens County, South Carolina.
- Partners with the Sun: South Carolina Photographers, 1840-1940, Harvey S. Teal, University of South Carolina Press, 2001, pp. 144-145.
- Yorkville Enquirer. (Yorkville, SC), October 25, 1866, page 2.
- The Crescent Monthly, Volume 2, Issue 9, William Evelyn Publisher, 1867, page 73.
- Portrait - Robert Smalls https://npg.si.edu/object/npg_NPG.2011.76
- Ron Field, "Palmetto Faces: South Carolina at War; Portrait by a Photographer of Post-Destruction Columbia," Military Images Magazine, Autumn 2015. https://militaryimages.atavist.com/palmetto-faces-autumn-2015
- Hix-Blackwell House Link
- Newspaper article: The Daily Phoenix. (Columbia, SC), January 18, 1874, page 2
Yorkville Enquirer. (Yorkville, SC), October 25, 1866, page 2.
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