Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1892, volume 3).djvu/231

Rh was made, and his body recovered and buried in Chesterfield county. Afterward it was removed to Hollywood cemetery, Richmond, Va. Gen. Hill married a sister of Gen. John Morgan, the Confederate cavalry leader, and left two daughters.

HILL, Benjamin Dionysius, clergyman, b. at Watton Underwood, Bucks, England, 4 Nov., 1842. His father was chaplain to the Duke of Buckinghamshire, and Vicar of Watton. The son received his education at the grammar-schools of Tunbridge and Shrewsbury, at Lincoln college, Oxford, and afterward at St. John's college, Cambridge, where he united with the Roman Catholic church in 1866. He then studied medicine for a year at the University of Aberdeen, Scotland, and, coming thence to New York, entered the Paulist order in January, 1868. Here he studied for the priesthood, and was ordained, 25 March, 1871. He continued with the Paulists until 1879, when he entered the PassionAte novitiate and received the habit of St. Paul of the Cross on 31 May of that year, making his profession in June, 1880. He is at present (1887) stationed at Notre Dame university, Ind. While with the Paulist fathers he acted as assistant editor of the " Catholic World." Father Hill published a volume of poems (New York, 1877), and is preparing a second volume for the press. He is a freSuent contributor to the "Ave Maria," a Roman atholic magazine, published at Notre Dame, Ind.

HILL, Benjamin Harvey, statesman, b. in Jasper county, Ga., 14 Sept.. 1823; d. in Atlanta, Ga., 19 Aug., 1882. He was graduated at the University of Georgia in 1844 with the first honors, studied law, and within a twelvemonth was admitted to the bar, beginning to practise at La Grange, Ga. He advanced rapidly in his profession, and early took an active part in politics. In 1851 he was elected to the legislature, and from that time was a recognized leader of the Whig party. In 1856 he was nominated an elector for the state at large on the American or Know-Nothing ticket, and in his support of Millard Fillmore his reputation as an orator was greatly enhanced. In 1859 Mr. Hill was elected to the state senate as a Unionist. In 1860 his name was on the Bell and Everett electoral ticket. He was a Unionist member of the State secession convention, which met at Milledgeville, 16 Jan., 1861, and made a speech of great power against the secession ordinance, but afterward, with many other friends of the Union, thinking it best to avoid a division at home, voted for it. He was a member of the Confederate provisional congress of 1861, and shortly afterward was elected to the Confederate senate, in which he continued to serve until the close of the civil war. He was arrested in May, 1865, and confined in Fort Lafayette, New York harbor, but was reneed on parole in July, and returned to his home. For some years afterward he held no Pfijce, but took an active part in politics, denouncing the reconstruction acts of congress, especially in a speech that he delivered at a mass meeting in Atlanta, and that became famous in the state. His " Notes on the Situation," opposing the reconstruction measures, attracted wide attention. Mr. Hill supported Horace Greeley for the presidency in 1872, and was a member of the convention that was held at the Fifth Avenue hotel, New York, by the friends of that gentleman. In 1875 he was elected to fill a vacancy in congress as a Democrat, and by his speech in the debate on the amnesty bill made a great impression. Mr. Hill was re-elected in 1876, and made a speech on 17 Jan., 1877, in support of the electoral commission bill, insisting that it was wholly constitutional, wise in its provisions, and patriotic in its purpose. Before the close of his term in the house he was elected by the legislature of Georgia to a seat in the U. S. senate, where he served till his death. In the senate he made some of his finest speeches, among them that in denunciation of Mr. Mahone's coalition with the Republican party. In the midst of his career Mr. Hill's health gave way. In 1878-'9 a slight pimple on the left side of his tongue developed into a cancer, and he was operated upon three times from 21 July, 1881, till 20 March, 1882. For a month before his death his power of articulation was almost gone, and he used a writing-pad to make know r n his wishes. His funeral in Atlanta was attended by an immense concourse of people, by the state officials, a delegation from both houses of congress, and by the chancellor and faculty of the University of Georgia. Since Mr. Hill's death, a monument has been erected to him in Atlanta; it is a life-size statue of white marble, representing him as looking down from the pedestal on which he stands, and is placed at the junction of two of the finest streets of the city, in full view of his former residence.

HILL, Daniel Harvey, soldier, b. at Hill's Iron- Works, York district, S. C., 12 July, 1821; d. in Charlotte, N. C, 25 Sept., 1889. His ancestor came from Ireland and settled in York, Pa.; his grandfather removed to South Carolina, and established " Hill's Iron-Works " in connection with his friend, Col. Isaac Hayne. Solomon Hill, Gen. Hill's father, joined with Edmund Hayne, son of Col. Isaac Hayne, in reviving the iron-works (destroyed during the Revolutionary war), which they conducted for some years, until Mr. Hill's death. The son was graduated at the U. S. military academy in 1842, and went immediately to Maine to serve on the frontier during the troubles with England in reference to the boundary-line. He was in nearly every important battle in the Mexican war, and was a member of the storming party at Chapultepec, where he and Lieut. James Stewart had a foot-race for the honor of being the first to enter a strongly occupied Mexican fort. For service in this battle, Capt. Hill was brevetted major, as he had been previously brevetted captain for " gallant and meritorious conduct " at Contreras and Churubusco. Just after the Mexican war he resigned his commission, and was elected professor of mathematics in Washington college, Lexington, Va. He held this place for six years, and for five years filled the same chair in Davidson college, N. C, and went thence to be superintendent of the North Carolina military institute at Charlotte. At the beginning of the civil war he was made colonel of the 1st North Carolina regiment, in command of which he fought and won the battle of Big Bethel, 10 June, 1861, soon after which he was made brigadier-general and sent to command the extreme left of Gen. Joseph E. Johnston's armv at Leesburg, Va. He was promoted to major-general, 26 March, 1862, and distinguished himself in the seven days' battles on the peninsula. During the first Maryland campaign Gen. Hill made