As another Lame Cherry exclusive in matter anti matter.
It is certainly worthy of note that this fighting zeal is so frequently combined with a high degree of spiritual religion.
- Robert Stiles
In the study of the Americans of the Civil War, everyone has a professed favorite or a repressed favorite. Most gravitate to a dictator like Abraham Lincoln or a man who refused the offer of dictatorship in Robert E. Lee.
For myself, I admire a gentleman, who is lost in the fray of battle, and cast aside by Southern caste in General D H Hill, who was the anchor in the severest fighting in General Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia at Sharpesburg and in the Tennessee with General James Longstreet.
DH Hill was second only to General Longstreet as the finest officer in the war, surpassing all on the Union, and surpassing Robert E. Lee and Thomas Jackson.
DH Hill was as fervent of Christian as Stonewall Jackson, and in that General Jackson was his brother in law. The following is thee essence of Daniel Harvey Hill as a gentleman, an officer and an American. He was the best of men and there never breathed no better Christian American than Mr. Hill.
Early in December, '61, General Evans was relieved of the command at Leesburg and sent, I think, to South Carolina, his native State, to take charge of some troops there, and Gen. D. H. Hill, of North Carolina, was put in his place. He was a brother-in-law of Stonewall Jackson and, like him a thorough Christian and thorough Calvinist. That he was likewise a thorough soldier may be inferred, as the logicians would say, "a-priori and a-posteriori," from the two facts, that he was a graduate of West Point, and that he attained the rank of lieutenant-general in the Confederate service. He was, moreover, a man of intellect and culture, with a decided taste for scholarship and letters, and was, both before and since the war, connected with educational institutions of high grade and a writer of books, both scientific and religious.
Like Jackson he was, too, a born fighter--as aggressive, pugnacious and tenacious as a bull-dog, or as any soldier in the service, and he had a sort of monomania on the subject of personal courage.
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It is certainly worthy of note that this fighting zeal is so frequently combined with a high degree of spiritual religion.
Almost countless stories are told of the grim courage and grit of General Hill. In the first Maryland campaign he held the pass at Boonsboro for many hours with a mere handful of troops against McClellan's overwhelming numbers, thus giving time for Jackson to complete his capture of Harper's Ferry and join Lee at Sharpsburg. It is said that, toward the close of the Boonsboro fight, as he rode down his short line, his men reported that they were out of ammunition, and the stern old North Carolina Puritan replied: "Well, what of it? Here are plenty of rocks!"
His habit was, when his skirmishers were firing wildly, to ride out among them, and if he noticed a man lying down or behind protection and firing carelessly, he would make him get right up and come and stand out in the open, by his horse, and load his musket and hand it to him. Then he would crane his neck until he saw a Federal skirmisher, when he would point him out to his man, but would fire at him himself, not only taking long, portentous aim before pulling trigger, but making equally long examination afterwards to determine whether he had hit him; and he would continue and distribute these blood-curdling object-lessons until his men settled down to a style of firing that suited him.
Very amusing accounts passed around the army about "old D. H." every now and then "treating" the non-combatant officers of his staff--the quartermasters, commissaries, and doctors--to what he called "a little airing in a fight," when he thought they stood in need of it, or heard that they had been "airing," a little freely, their own martial experience and prowess.
General MacArthur once stated that there was not a bullet made to kill him. General Patton stated that once he got over the fear of a bullet coming at his nose, that there was nothing to fear.
There is the account of General Hill on a horse, taking fire that General Longstreet knew would arrive, as General Lee stood in the midst, and a cannon ball blew the legs off his horse, and Hill was unaffected. There is a point in being a Christian that either one believes you are saved and a better place awaits, so you do not fear death or you of little Faith, hang onto a life you are going to lose anyway.
There is never a reason save God, that tornadoes blow down houses and leave Bibles open, or 500,000 men die in a war, and a DH Hill or George Custer in constant battle live for God's purpose.
They are tearing down the monuments to these Christian Americans. I repeat Christian Americans and it is for that they are being targeted.
DH Hill the Christian Confederate, Hero, American.
As early in the drama as the Leesburg campaign he had begun to indulge and exhibit these rather peculiar notions and habits. Soon after taking command, desiring to know the number, calibre, and character of the Federal guns across the river, he gathered a large escort and rode up and down the river bank in a manner calculated to attract the fire of artillery, and when the enemy accepted his invitation and the shell came singing over and buried itself in the earth hard by, he called for a pick and shovel, dismounted and dug it up with his own hands, apparently unconscious that other shells were shrieking and bursting about him and is improvised and somewhat nervous staff. Of course this impressed us no little; exactly how, it would be difficult to say. One thing, however, was clear--that this apparent unconsciousness of personal peril was in no degree "put on," that our general was undoubtedly "to the manner born."
Nuff Said
agtG
