Henry Washington Hilliard

Henry Washington Hilliard
Circa 1892
Born	August 4, 1808 Fayetteville, North Carolina
Died	December 17, 1892 (aged 84) Atlanta, Georgia
Buried at	Oakwood Cemetery, Montgomery, Alabama
Allegiance	Confederate States of America
Service/branch	Confederate States Army
Years of service	1861–1862
Rank	Brigadier General (CSA)
Battles/wars	American Civil War

Henry Washington Hilliard (August 4, 1808 – December 17, 1892) was a U.S. Representative from Alabama and a general in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War.^[1][2]

Early life

Hilliard was born in Fayetteville, North Carolina and graduated from South Carolina College (now the University of South Carolina) at Columbia in 1826. While at South Carolina College, he was active in the Euphradian Society.^[3] He studied law and moved to Athens, Georgia, where he was admitted to the bar in 1829. He was a professor at the University of Alabama from 1831 to 1834, when he resigned to practice law in Montgomery, Alabama.^[4]

He served as member of the state house of representatives in 1836–1838, as member of the Whig National Convention at Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, in 1839, Whig presidential elector in 1840 and was an unsuccessful candidate for election to the Twenty-seventh Congress in 1840.^[2] He was chargé d'affaires to Belgium from May 12, 1842, to August 12, 1844.^[5] Hilliard was elected as a Whig to the Twenty-ninth, Thirtieth, and Thirty-first Congresses (March 4, 1845 – March 3, 1851) but he was not a candidate for renomination in 1850.

In 1856, he served as presidential elector on the National American ticket.^[4]

Civil War service

In 1861 he was appointed by Jefferson Davis Confederate commissioner to Tennessee. During the Civil War, he served as Brigadier General in the Confederate States Army.^[1][4]

Hilliard's Legion was organized at Montgomery, Alabama in June, 1862, and consisted of five battalions; one of these, a mounted battalion, was early detached and became part of the Tenth Confederate cavalry. The Legion proceeded to Montgomery nearly 3,000 strong, under the command of Col. H. W. Hilliard, and was placed in McCown's Brigade. It took part in the siege of Cumberland Gap, and spent the fall and winter in Kentucky and east Tennessee.

Postbellum

He moved to Augusta, Georgia, in 1865 and resumed the practice of his profession.^[4] He was an unsuccessful Republican candidate for election in 1876 to the Forty-fifth Congress.

He resumed the practice of law in Augusta, Georgia, moving later to Atlanta. He was Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to Brazil from July 31, 1877 to June 15, 1881.^[5]

He died in Atlanta, Georgia, December 17, 1892 and was interred in Oakwood Cemetery, Montgomery, Alabama.

See also

• List of American Civil War generals

Notes

1. "Henry W. Hilliard". Encyclopedia of Alabama. Retrieved 4 August 2016.
2. "Hilliard, Henry Washington, (1808 - 1892)". United States Congress. Retrieved 4 August 2016.
3. Durham, David. A Southern moderate in radical times: Henry Washington Hilliard, 1808-1892 (Baton Rouge: LSU Press, 2008), 13–14.
4. "Hilliard, Henry Washington". State Library of North Carolina. Retrieved 4 August 2016.
5. "Henry Washington Hilliard (1808–1892)". United States Department of State. Retrieved 4 August 2016.

References

• Hilliard, Henry Washington. Politics and Pen Pictures at Home and Abroad G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1892.

• United States Congress. "Henry Washington Hilliard (id: H000622)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress. Retrieved on 2009-04-16
• This article incorporates facts obtained from: Lawrence Kestenbaum, The Political Graveyard
• Durham, David R. (2008). A Southern Moderate in Radical Times: Henry Washington Hilliard, 1808-1892. Louisiana State University Press. ISBN 978-0-8071-3328-6
• Evans, Clement A. ed., Confederate Military History, Vol. VII, p. 234, Confederate Pub. Co., Atlanta, 1899.

External links

• "Henry Washington Hilliard". Find a Grave. Retrieved 2009-04-16.
• Hilliard's Legion Ohio State University

 This article incorporates public domain material from the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress website http://bioguide.congress.gov.