Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 21.djvu/123

 L[fc n<l (''fat meter of Lt.-General D. H. /////. 115

pride, evinced in his going up under a heavy fire to congratulate and praise a member of the Palmetto regiment, who was behaving under fire most gallantly. For his services on that day he received honor- able mention from his immediate commanders and also from Colonel McGruder, commanding a light battery, which battery Lieutenant Hill offered to support when it was menaced by a body of Mexican lancers. He received the brevet appointment of major, and was con- sidered a loss to the service when he resigned. " Your obedient servant,

" BERNARD BEE, "Captain U. S. Army."

From the scores of her surviving heroes of the Palmetto regiment and in the regular army the committee appointed by the State au- thorities selected Hill to receive one of the three swords awarded, and it is still preserved by his family.

After the close of the late war a Federal soldier wrote to General Joseph E. Johnston asking the name of a Confederate officer who, on the right of our army at Seven Pines, had made himself most conspicuous for his daring and indifference to danger. The only mark of distinction which he could give General Johnston was that he thought the officer rode a white horse. General Johnston replied that he supposed the officer referred to must have been General D. H. Hill. In writing to General Hill about the matter, General John- ston said : " I drew my conclusion that your horse might very well have been taken for white, and that no man was more likely to expose himself than you. Do you know that in Mexico the young officers called you the bravest man in the army? "

MARRIAGE AND LIFE AS TEACHER.

When the war with Mexico ended Major Hill resigned his place in the army to accept the professorship of mathematics in Washington College, at Lexington, Va. Before assuming the duties of that place he was happily married, November 2, 1852, to Isabella, oldest daughter of Rev. Dr. R. H. Morrison, and grand-daughter of Gen- eral Joseph Graham, who was a distinguished soldier of the Revolu- tion, and the father of Governor William A. Graham. Six years later he was invited to take the same professorship at Davidson Col- lege, where for five years he was looked upon as the leading spirit amongst a corps of able and learned professors.