Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 1.djvu/725

Rh Lieutenant-General Ambrose Powell Hill, the brilliant Confederate corps commander, was born in Culpeper county, Virginia, November 9, 1825, and was trained for military life at West Point academy where, graduating with distinction in 1847, he began service in the First artillery, in which he was promoted second lieutenant the same year. His studies of the great masters of war gave him early reputation for accurate and extensive acquaintance with the art to which he had devoted his life. His services were required in Mexico during 1847 and afterward in the hostilities with the Seminoles. Detached from field duty by the government he was employed in the position of superintendent of the coast survey, having in the meantime received promotion to the rank of first-lieutenant. In October, 1860, he obtained leave of absence, and in March, 1861, his devotion to the cause of the South as against armed invasion induced him to resign his commission in the United States army. Virginia was beginning at that time to organize its forces for defense against the threatened coercion, and conferred upon the accomplished soldier the rank of colonel, with assignment to the command of the Thirteenth regiment Virginia volunteers, which he industriously drilled and disciplined for the great service it afterwards performed. The regiment thus made effective became distinguished in the army of Northern Virginia. Commissioned brigadier-general February 26, 1862, he acquired especial distinction at the battle of Williamsburg, and was promoted to the rank of major-general May 26, 1862. In the campaigns of this year he was constantly relied on by Lee for services requiring expedition, skill and courage. In the preliminaries to the battle of Mechanicsville, Lee assigned Hill to the duty of crossing the Chickahominy, and without waiting for Jackson ordered him to make an immediate attack. Hill’s guns opened with effect June 26,_i862, and drove the enemy from their position. His command bore a great