Question of the Week: 3/7-3/13/16

Question-Header

Confederate Lieutenant General Daniel Harvey "D.H." Hill
Confederate Lieutenant General Daniel Harvey “D.H.” Hill

Where would you rank D.H. Hill in the pantheon of Confederate generals?



6 Responses to Question of the Week: 3/7-3/13/16

  1. Having failed to suppress my chuckle as I read Ms. Groeling’s comment…D. H. Hill was an adequate battlefield commander of a division-sized force, a less-than adequate departmental administrator, a hopeless corps commander, a poor colleague and
    subordinate.

  2. Ashamed to say I don’t know enough about him to have a strong opinion. Though I’ve always had a suspicion (unjust perhaps) that he might have lost the orders during the Antietam Campaign? I guess I need to read some biographies of this commander to be more informed…

  3. D. H. Hill was a competent general who was probably too grouchy to earn inclusion in anybody’s pantheon. But I admire his postwar career as a chronicler of both the war and of reconstruction-era Southern life. While working on a project last year I became more aware than anybody ought to be of his work in The Land We Love, the magazine he edited for three years just after the war. Between the bad poetry (some really bad) and reviews of Southern ladies’ novels of the war were some very useful (and very early) memoirs and battle reports. Hill was also quite early to recognize the potential for damage in Pollard’s Lost Cause thesis.

  4. Hello
    I think Hill was very competent at division level, but anything more was outside his abilities. I think the same thing could be said for A.P. Hill, Ewell and other southern generals that were promoted to Corps Command.

    Don

  5. D.H. Hill was a very intelligent man.Teaching mathematics at Washington College and later at Davidson College before accepting the Superintendent of North Carolina Military Institute in 1859. Prior to this he was awarded brevet ranks for gallantry in the Mexican War.
    Responsible for org.N.C. CAMP OF INSTRUCTION. in 1861
    APPT. BRIG GENERAL AT Big Bethal.. Tnen Mag General and cited for excellent conduct by Gen. Lee in following battles.
    His down fall was to criticize Gen. Bragg to Pres.Davis. who relived him of command till the battle at Bentonville N. C.
    AFTER THE WAR HE REMAINED ACTIVE IN EDUCATION AND THE SOUTHERN CAUSE.
    i WOULD RANK HIM IN THE TOP TEN.

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