Book Review: Joshua Hill of Madison: Civil War Unionist & Georgia’s First Republican Senator, 1812-1891

Joshua Hill of Madison: Civil War Unionist & Georgia’s First Republican Senator, 1812-1891. By Bradley R. Rice. Macon, Ga.: Mercer University Press, 2025. Hardcover, 472 pp., $45.00.

Reviewed by Brian S. Wills

Bradley R. Rice has undertaken a thorough biographical examination of Joshua Hill, who rose to prominence as an outspoken Unionist during the sectional crisis and Civil War and became a well-known and highly regarded Republican in the Reconstruction period in Georgia. The author navigates the complexities of Hill’s place in the turmoil of Georgia politics that took him from the House of Representatives before the war to serve as the first Republican Senator. The native of Madison continued to be involved in the life and welfare of his community until his death in 1891, although he largely excluded himself from politics after serving as a delegate to the Georgia Constitutional Convention in 1877.

Rice’s study reveals the degree to which the ambitious prewar Whig and Know-Nothing Party member transformed himself into a resolute, albeit conservative, Republican, all the while retaining widespread respect from friend and foe alike. Sensing the increasing level of extremist rhetoric in the election year of 1860, Hill promoted the moderate Constitutional Union party as a middle ground choice, only to watch as Republican Abraham Lincoln secured victory. Even so, the Madison native and slave owner refused to be swept along the current of secession that eventually brought Georgia out of the Union. In the conflict that followed, he remained a staunch Unionist and opposed the incumbent Joseph Brown for the governorship in 1863. The author covers this dynamic period well and depicts the able politician who, nevertheless, frequently fell short of attaining his goals.

Particularly of interest to readers for the Civil War period was Hill’s connection with Union general William T. Sherman. He became part of a probe initiated by Sherman to determine the desire for a peace proposal that would bring Georgia back into the Union and spare the citizens from further suffering and property damage. When the effort proved elusive, Hill also endured the destructive effects of Union troops crossing through Morgan County on Sherman’s march to Savannah. The author suggests that the Madisonian did not hold the Union general responsible for the loss, using a letter requesting compensation Hill wrote shortly after the war to underscore the point, without noting that ingratiating himself to the Union general made sense in this instance. Hill may have played a more successful role in helping Madison avoid the wrath of the Union troops passing through the town, except for public property that benefited the Confederate war effort.

The reader leaves the volume with an understanding of the distinct sense of frustration that accompanied the efforts of the Madison, Georgia, native to remain relevant as events swirled around him, in every period of his life. Rice also ably conveys the personal losses of one son during the war and the other three under tragic circumstances afterwards, as well as the struggles of a reclusive wife who preceded him in death. Throughout, Hill comes across as a sincere and principled individual who refused to accommodate himself to more popular positions and sought no solace in religion. However, at various points, the manuscript suffers from contradictory spellings (Breckenridge/Breckinridge, Hershel/Herschel, Akerman/Ackerman) and choppy organization that occasionally distract from the flow of the narrative.

This caveat aside, Joshua Hill of Madison is a significant contribution to the ways in which a prominent Unionist steered his way through a grueling era in Georgia’s and the nation’s history.  Readers will benefit from this illustration of the complications and complexities that faced those individuals in the South who did not associate themselves with secession and the Confederacy and sought to reconcile themselves with the outcome of the war and its ramifications.

Brian S. Wills is the former Director of the Center for the Study of the Civil War Era and Emeritus Professor of History at Kennesaw State University.  He is the author of numerous award-winning works and lives in Wise, Virginia.