The Birthday of Eternity

A.P. Hill, died April 2, 1865

Ambrose Powell Hill, Jr. known to his family as Powell (and to his soldiers as Little Powell) was once engaged to Ellen B. Marcy, the future wife of Hill's West Point roommate, George McClellan, before her parents pressured her to break off the engagement. During the Civil War, a rumor spread that Hill always fought harder if he knew McClellan was present with the opposing army, because of Ellen's rejection. 

George McClellan and wife, Ellen Marcy

He met Kitty Morgan McClung, a young widow, at a party in the Willard Hotel in Washington, D.C. in 1857, and fell instantly in love. 

John Hunt Morgan and wife, Mattie

She was the sister of John Hunt Morgan, and her sister, Henrietta, would later marry Basil Duke.

Catherine "Kitty" Morgan McClung

On July 18, 1859, he married Kitty at her mother's home outside Lexington, Kentucky, becoming the brother-in-law of future Confederate cavalry generals Morgan (Hill's best man at the wedding) and Duke.  

Basil Duke

Hill wrote to his old classmate McClellan to invite him to the wedding: "If you would come down from Chicago, you know there is no one whose presence would delight me more."

A.P. Hill

Four children were born to the couple, all girls: Henrietta born in Washington in 1860, died during the war; Frances Russell (1861-1917); Lucy Lee (1863-1931); A. P.  (Ann Powell) Hill (1865-1871).

When Virginia left the Union in the spring of 1861, Hill resigned as First Lieutenant in the U.S. Army.  He was quickly made colonel and chosen to take command of the 13th Virginia Regiment. Kitty Hill used the silk from her wedding gown to make a battle flag for the regiment.

Battle Flag made by Kitty Hill

Hill was thirty-five years old when the Civil War began, and stood around the average height of the day, between 5'8" and 5'9" and when well weighed 150 to 160 pounds. He was narrow-chested and frail, and his health was often fragile. Hill's frequent illnesses and the stress of being in the field would drop his weight to 125 pounds by the end of the war.

He dressed with an eye for the picturesque, and was particularly remembered for the fireman-red wool hunting shirt he occasionally wore when fighting was expected.  He called it his "battle shirt," and when his men saw it they would pass the word down the line, "Little Powell's got on his battle shirt!"

Hill fought at Yorktown and Williamsburg during the Peninsula Campaign in the spring of 1862. Recommended for promotion, in a mere 90 days he jumped from Colonel to Major General. Seeing action in the series of battles around Richmond known collectively as the Seven Days, he established a reputation for great bravery, skill and aggressiveness.

Hill's performance at Antietam in September 1862 was particularly noteworthy. While Lee's army was enduring strong attacks by the Union Army, Hill's Light Division had been left behind to process Union prisoners. Responding to an urgent call for assistance from Lee, Hill marched his men at a grueling pace and reached the battlefield just in time to counterattack a strong forward movement by the corps of General Ambrose Burnside, which threatened to destroy Lee's right flank. Hill's arrival neutralized the threat, bringing an end to the battle with Lee's army battered but undefeated.

Hill's division initially formed part of  James Longstreet's command, but after an argument between Hill and Longstreet, which nearly resulted in a duel, Hill was transferred to Stonewall Jackson's Second Corps. Hill and Jackson argued as well. During the invasion of Maryland, Jackson had Hill arrested and after the campaign charged him with eight counts of dereliction of duty. During the lull in campaigning following the Battle of Fredericksburg, Hill repeatedly requested that Lee set up a court of inquiry, but the commanding general did not wish to lose the effective teamwork of his two experienced lieutenants and so refused to approve Hill's request.  Their feud was put aside whenever a battle was being fought and then resumed afterward, a practice that lasted until the Battle of Chancellorsville in May 1863. There, Jackson was accidentally shot by infantry of Hill's division. Hill briefly took command of the Second Corps and was wounded himself in his legs. 

Stonewall Jackson on his deathbed deliriously called for A.P. Hill to "prepare for action." Some histories have recorded that Lee also called for Hill in his final moments ("Tell Hill he must come up."),

After Jackson's death, Hill was promoted on May 24, 1863, to lieutenant general (becoming the Army of Northern Virginia's fourth highest-ranking general) and placed in command of the newly created Third Corps of Lee's army, which he led in the Gettysburg Campaign of 1863.  His division fought in the unsuccessful second day assaults against Cemetery Ridge. On the third day, two thirds of the men in Pickett's Charge were from Hill's corps, but Robert E. Lee chose James Longstreet to be overall commander of the assault. Of all three infantry corps of the Army of Northern Virginia, Hill's suffered the most casualties at Gettysburg.

Shortly before the Wilderness Campaign in 1864, the Hills decided to have their baby daughter, Lucy Lee, christened. General Robert E. Lee stood as godfather and held the child in his arms. Cannonading was heard in the distance, and Lee and his corps commander rushed to their saddles and galloped to the front.

During the Siege of Petersburg of 1864–65, Hill and his men participated in several battles during the various Union offensives: during the Crater, he fought against his West Point classmate Ambrose Burnside. 

A.P. Hill

Hill was ill several times that winter; in March 1865, his health had deteriorated to the point where he had to recuperate in Richmond, Virginia until April 1, 1865.

Worried about his lines, Hill had ridden along them during the night of April 1. He then tried to settle down to get some sleep at his headquarters at the Venable cottage. The sound of fire from Petersburg prevented him from obtaining any rest and at about three a.m. on Sunday morning, April 2, wearing a white shirt his wife had made him, he left the house he shared with his wife and daughters and walked a short distance to his headquarters tent at Widow Knight's.

When he arrived at headquarters, Hill met his chief of staff, Colonel William H. Palmer.  Hill told Palmer that when he was finished seeing Lee, he would return. Mounted on his favorite steel gray mount, Champ, Hill rode away. Palmer never saw him again.  

At the Trumbull House on Cox Road, Hill met with Robert E. Lee. Around 4 in the morning, James Longstreet, joined them.  It was not long before the conference between Lee, Hill, and James Longstreet was interrupted. Colonel Charles Venable, an aide on Lee's staff, rushed into the room with bad news: enemy troops had been spotted in the rear, and the lines were breaking.  Before Lee could even say a word, Hill mounted his horse, and with two couriers George Tucker and William Jenkins, galloped toward the breach in his line. 

Coming upon two Federal soldiers, they were ordered to surrender. The soldiers laid down the weapons and Hill ordered Jenkins to take them to General Lee. With only Tucker now as his escort, Hill continued southwest towards his right, trying to get in touch with General Heth.  They rode on quietly, and then Hill said to Tucker, "Sergeant, should anything happen to me, you must go back to General Lee and report it."

The end was quick and painless. Pennsylvania Corporal William Mauk's aim rang true: a .58 caliber bullet struck Hill. It passed through his gauntlet and cut off his left thumb, then continued it's way into his chest, through his heart, and tore through his back. Hill fell to the ground, motionless. Tucker caught Champ's bridle, and raced for cover. The time was between 6:55 and 6:45 am. He was 39 years old.

Tucker, remembering Hill's words that he should tell General Lee if anything should happen, started back to headquarters riding Champ. 

Tucker met James Longstreet on his way and blurted out what had happened, and he also told Hill's chief of staff, Colonel Palmer. Palmer attempted to explain what had happened to Lee, but broke down in tears. Tucker finished the account. Lee, with tears in his eyes and with great emotion, said, "He is at rest now, and we who are left are the ones to suffer." He turned to Palmer and told him to inform Kitty Hill, who lived in the cottage nearby.  Sadly, Lee added, "Colonel, break the news to her as gently as possible."

By General Lee's order, a charge was made and Hill's body was recovered.

Kitty, who was seven months pregnant at the time, was busy doing small tasks and was singing.  Hearing boots, she spotted Palmer. She threw up her hands in anguish and cried, "The General is dead! You would not be here if he had not been killed!" Palmer tried to temper his news that he didn't know if Hill was indeed dead or not only that he had been shot, but a few minutes later soldiers came back carrying his lifeless body. 

Captain Frank Hill, aide de camp and nephew to General Hill, accompanied Kitty and her two little girls rode with Hill's remains in a rickety wagon headed to Richmond.  They had hopes of an interment in Hollywood Cemetery, but with the collapse of the Confederacy and occupation by Union forces, getting permission for a burial was not possible at the time.  The family then decided to take Hill's body home to his beloved Culpeper, Virginia.  However, the body had not been embalmed, and the early April heat made that impractical. 

At 2 o'clock on the 4th of April, A.P. Hill was buried in the old Winston Family Cemetery in Chesterfield County, Virginia, without fanfare or any religious ceremony.

The war ended a week after Hill's death with the surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia at Appomattox.

Two months later, Kitty gave birth to a girl who was christened Ann Powell Hill.  Kitty was left embittered by the war that killed her husband and her brother, John Hunt Morgan.

During the late 1880s, several former comrades raised funds for a monument to Hill in Richmond. Hill's remains were transferred to the base of the bronze state when it was dedicated on May 30, 1892. The A.P. Hill Monument is located in the center of the intersection of Laburnum Avenue and Hermitage Road. This monument is the only one of its type in Richmond under which the subject is actually interred.

A.P. Hill Monument

There is a marker noting the location where Hill was killed near the Petersburg Battlefield.