This is a finding aid. It is a description of archival material held in the Wilson Library at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Unless otherwise noted, the materials described below are physically available in our reading room, and not digitally available through the World Wide Web. See the Duplication Policy section for more information.
Size | 50 items |
Abstract | Daniel Harvey Hill (1821-1889), soldier and educator, was born in York District, S.C. A United States army officer by way of West Point, he participated in all the major battles of the Mexican War. Hill resigned from the military in 1849 to begin an academic career in mathematics that would last until the outbreak of the Civil War. He joined the Confederate Army and saw action in Virginia, North Carolina, and Tennessee, while rising in rank from colonel to lieutenant general. After the war, Hill published a periodical and weekly paper and resumed a career in academia. The collection consists of Civil War and postwar correspondence of General D. H. Hill with high Confederate military and civil officers, with some letters from Robert Lewis Dabney (1820-1890), Virginia theologian and Confederate chaplain. There are also notes by Charles W. Dabney, who assembled the items, circa 1929-1931. Persons represented include Rufus Barringer, P. G. T. Beauregard, John C. Calhoun, Robert Hall Chilton, Robert Lewis Dabney, Jubal A. Early, William A. Graham, Wade Hampton III, Stonewall Jackson, Joseph E. Johnston, Washington Caruthers Kerr, Drury Lacy, James Henry Lane, Alexander Robert Lawton, Robert E. Lee, James Longstreet, Alexander Peter Stewart, Robert Augustus Toombs, Joseph Wheeler, and William Henry Chase Whiting. Also included is a Hill family genealogy and a few other items. Some items are originals and others are photocopies of items in private hands as of 1940 (as noted below). |
Creator | Hill, D. H. (Daniel Harvey), 1821-1889. |
Curatorial Unit | University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Library. Southern Historical Collection. |
Language | English |
The following terms from Library of Congress Subject Headings suggest topics, persons, geography, etc. interspersed through the entire collection; the terms do not usually represent discrete and easily identifiable portions of the collection--such as folders or items.
Clicking on a subject heading below will take you into the University Library's online catalog.
Daniel Harvey Hill (1821-1889), soldier and educator, was born in York District, S.C., to Solomon Hill and Nancy Cabeen Hill. He graduated from West Point in 1842. As a United States army officer, he participated in all the major battles of the Mexican War. Hill resigned from the military in 1849 to become professor of mathematics at Washington College (now Washington and Lee University). In 1854, he accepted the chair of the mathematics department at Davidson College, a position he held until 1859 when he resigned to become superintendent of the North Carolina Military Institute in Charlotte, N.C.
At the outbreak of the Civil War, Hill joined the Confederate Army as a colonel. He led the First North Carolina in battle at Big Bethel, Va., and later fought in the Peninsular campaign of 1862 and at Second Manassas, South Mountain, and Sharpsburg. During that time, he received several promotions. In early 1863, Major General Hill assumed command of operations against New Bern and Washington before being called to defend Richmond during the Gettysburg campaign. He was promoted to lieutenant general in July 1863 and ordered to the Army of Tennessee. This promotion was short-lived. Following the Confederate victory at Chickamauga, Hill called upon President Jefferson Davis to remove Braxton Bragg from his command on grounds of incompetence, a criticism that resulted in Hill's own dismissal and loss of his recent commission. Hill's service was limited thereafter, though he did command a division in Joseph E. Johnston's small force at Bentonville, N.C., in March 1865.
After the war, Hill settled in Charlotte and began publishing a periodical The Land We Love in 1866 and the weekly paper The Southern Home in 1869. He also authored a mathematics textbook, several religious tracts, and numerous articles relating to the Civil War. Hill resumed his career in academia in 1877 as president of Arkansas Industrial University (later University of Arkansas). He held this position until 1884. From 1885 to 1889, he served at the Middle Georgia Military and Agricultural College (later Georgia Military College).
Daniel Harvey Hill died in Charlotte in September 1889.
Adapted from the entry for Daniel Harvey Hill by John G. Barrett in the Dictionary of North Carolina Biography (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1988).
Back to TopThe collection consists of Civil War and postwar correspondence of General D. H. Hill with high Confederate military and civil officers, with some letters from Robert Lewis Dabney (1820-1890), Virginia theologian and Confederate chaplain. There are also notes by Charles W. Dabney, who assembled the items, circa 1929-1931. Persons represented include Rufus Barringer, P. G. T. Beauregard, John C. Calhoun, Robert Hall Chilton, Robert Lewis Dabney, Jubal A. Early, William A. Graham, Wade Hampton III, Stonewall Jackson, Joseph E. Johnston, Washington Caruthers Kerr, Drury Lacy, James Henry Lane, Alexander Robert Lawton, Robert E. Lee, James Longstreet, Alexander Peter Stewart, Robert Augustus Toombs, Joseph Wheeler, and William Henry Chase Whiting. Also included is a Hill family genealogy and a few other items. Some items are originals and others are photocopies of items in private hands as of 1940 (as noted below).
Back to TopArrangement: chronological.
List of the papers:
22 October 1848 | John C. Calhoun to Francis H. Smith, recommending D. H. Hill for a professorship at Virginia Military Institute |
12 October 1859 | D. H. Hill to Messrs. Martin, referring to Crucifixion and ordering books |
9 September 1862 | Copy of Special Order 191, Lee's headquarters, signed by R. H. Chilton, with an affidavit by J. G. Morrison that the copy is in the handwriting of T. J. Jackson; also a typed copy of this and a memorandum on it by Dabney |
30 May 1862 | Joseph E. Johnston to General about picket service (original in Charles W. Dabney Papers #1412) |
2 July 1862 | General Order, Lee's headquarters to Hill, signed by R. H. Chilton |
13 July 1862 | Robert Toombs to Hill, camp near Richmond, Va. |
21 July 1862 | Alexander P. Stewart to Hill, camp near Tupelo, Miss. |
2 December 1862 | Robert E. Lee to Jackson (original in Charles W. Dabney Papers #1412) |
4 December 1862 | Jackson to General, referring to dispatch from the General and to one from Lee (original in Charles W. Dabney Papers #1412, with pencil notation To Genl D. H. Hill?) |
4 January 1863 | Special Order No. 69, General Early to R. N. Wilson |
17 March 1863 | Hill to James Longstreet, Goldsboro, N.C., requesting Ransom's brigade or another be ordered to Goldsboro, N.C., to help fortify Kinston, N.C., while other brigades moved on Greenville, N.C. (original) |
6 May 1863 | W. H. Whiting to Hill |
12 October 1863 | James Longstreet to Hill |
9 March 1864 | Isaac Scherck to Hill, Dalton, Ga. |
24 May 1864 | G. T. Beauregard, circular letter |
12 July 1864 | William Alexander Graham, secretary of the navy and Confederate States of America senator, to Hill, confirming Hill's belief that the President was determined not to assign you to a command suitable to your rank and counseling Hill about possible strategies to use in this situation (original) |
15 July 1864 | Robert Lewis Dabney to Hill |
22 July 1864 | Rufus Barringer to Hill |
20 January 1865 | J. Wheeler to General, Lawtonville |
4 November 1865 | Drury Lacy to Hill, Raleigh, N.C. |
1861-1865 | James A. Seddon to unknown recipient, Richmond, Va., postscript, concerning Major Carter (original is in Charles W. Dabney Papers #1412) |
26 April 1866 | G. W. Ball to Hill, Springwood near Leesburg, Va. |
18 December 1866 | Robert Lewis Dabney to Hill (original) |
21 December 1866 | [G. T. Beauregard] to Hill, New Orleans, La. (signature cut out) |
31 March 1867 | Autograph of Jefferson Davis, Fortress Monroe |
22 June 1867 | R. H. Chilton to General, Columbus, Ga. |
21 February 1868 | Robert E. Lee to Hill, Lexington, Va. |
1 June 1868 | H. Walker Adams to C. L. Anderson, Gadsden, regarding a job for Adams as Keeper of a Reading Room in Baltimore, Md. |
14 September 1868 | Robert Lewis Dabney to Hill (original) |
6 February 1869 | George L. Woodward to Hill, Shreveport, La. |
11 February 1869 | William B. Taliaferro to General, Lancaster Court House |
2 March 1869 | Robert Lewis Dabney to Hill, Hampden Sidney, Va. (original) |
11 October 1869 | Wade Hampton to Hill, Columbia |
27 February 1871 | Jubal Anderson Early to Hill, Lynchburg, Va. |
1 December 1873 | Robert Lewis Dabney to Hill (original; fragment) |
28 April 1876 | Joseph E. Johnston to John P. Nicholson, Savannah, Ga., referring to a letter from Hill |
29 December 1876 | Washington Caruthers Kerr to My Dear Friend, Raleigh, N.C., regarding Kerr's geological work and prospects that Hill may become editor of the Presbyterian |
10 December 1879 | James H. Lane to Hill, Blacksburg, Va. |
1 January 1884 | Robert Lewis Dabney to Hill, Austin, Tex. (original) |
16 January 1885 | Robert Lewis Dabney to Hill (original) |
16 January 1885 | Alexander Robert Lawton to Hill, Savannah, Ga. |
24 March 1885/3 April 1885 | Robert Lewis Dabney to Hill (original) |
23 July 18?? | G. C. Ruffin to Hill, Washington, D.C. |
31 August 18?? | Henry[?] to Dear Sister |
August 1922 | Thomas Jackson Arnold, The Lost Dispatch--A War Mystery, Confederate Veteran, XXX, 317. |
30 September 1931 | Charles W. Dabney to Nancy Hill, Eugenia Hill Arnold (Mrs. Thomas J. Arnold), and Pauline Hill about the Hill papers |
10 October 1931 | Eugenia Hill Arnold (Mrs. Thomas Arnold) to Charles W. Dabney, Elkins, W.Va., about Lost Dispatch (original) |
1951 | Hill genealogy by Pauline Hill |
Undated | Extract from The Land We Love on the Lost Dispatch |
Folder 1 |
1848-1865 |
Folder 2 |
1866-1869 |
Folder 3 |
1879-1951 and undated |