son at once ordered A. P. Hill to take his division and drive the enemy back. The Federals had lined the opposite hills with some seventy pieces of artillery; and the infantry, who had crossed, lined the crest of the high banks on the Virginia shore. Hill's lines advanced simultaneously and soon encountered the enemy. The advance was made in the face of a tremendous fire of artillery. The infantry opposition in front of Gregg's centre and right was but trifling and soon brushed away. The enemy, however, massed in front of Pender, and, extending, endeavoured to turn his left. Gen. Pender became hotly engaged, and informing Archer of his danger, he (Archer) moved by the left flank, and, forming on Pender's left, a simultaneous daring charge was made, and the enemy driven pell-mell into the river. "Then," writes Gen. Hill, describing the action with graphic pen, "commenced the most terrible slaughter that this war has yet witnessed. The broad surface of the Potomac was blue with the floating bodies of our foe. But few escaped to tell the tale. By their own account they lost 3,000 men killed and drowned from one brigade alone!" In this battle Gen. Hill did not use a piece of artillery; but, relying on the musket and bayonet, he punished the enemy beyond precedent, and repaid, in one triumphant hour, all the suffering and injuries of a campaign.

The subsequent career of Gen. Hill is so merged in the general record of the Army of Northern Virginia as scarcely to claim particular notice. In May, 1863, he was made Lieutenant-General, and commanded one of the three corps into which Gen. Lee's army was then divided. In the Pennsylvania campaign his was the first corps in action at Gettysburg. In Gen. Lee's flank movement of the same year to get between Meade and Washington city, A. P. Hill sustained the only reverse of his career, and experienced his first defeat; he having fallen upon a superiour force of the enemy at Bristoe Station, concealed by the railroad embankment, and in a vain effort to dislodge it losing several hundred killed and wounded, and five pieces of artillery. It is said that in the 27th North Carolina infantry, out of 464 officers and men who went into this battle, upwards of 300 were killed and wounded, in a less time than fifteen minutes. In the momentous campaign of 1864, Gen. Hill was again conspicuous, his corps, with that of Ewell, opening the action in the Wilder

ness. A few days thereafter his feeble health gave way completely, and he was unable to remain on duty, when Gen. Early was assigned to the command of his corps. It was then composed of Heth's, Wilcox's and Mahone's (formerly Anderson's) divisions of infantry, and three battalions of artillery under Col. Walker; the infantry numbering about 13,000 muskets for duty.

After the scenes of Spottsylvania Court-House, Gen. Hill reported for duty, resumed command of his corps, and fought it to the last day in front of Petersburg. His next important service of this period was the battle of Ream's Station, where, on the 25th August, 1864, he attacked the enemy in his intrenchments, and at the second assault carried his entire line. Seven stands of colours, 2,000 prisoners, and nine pieces of artillery were taken; and the thanks of Gen. Lee were obtained for the gallant action. The command of Hill engaged in this assault was Cook's and McRea's North Carolina brigades, under Gen. Heth, and Lane's North Carolina brigade of Wilcox' division, under Gen. Connor, with Pegram's artillery.

In the last battle of Petersburg, Gen. A. P. Hill fell in the flower of his youth and at the summit of his fame, having achieved a name wholly identified with the Army of Northern Virginia, and terminating his career with melancholy fitness in the closing scenes of that army's existence. He had desired to obtain a nearer view of a portion of the enemy's line during the attack of the 2d April, 1864, and leaving his staff behind in a place of safety, rode forward, accompanied by a single orderly, and soon came upon a squad of Federals, who had advanced along a ravine far beyond their lines. He immediately ordered them to surrender, which they were on the point of doing, under the sup position that a column of troops were at his heels. They soon discovered he was nearly unattended, and shot him through the heart. In the following night his body was hastily buried in the cemetery of Petersburg; and while the darkness was rifted with explosion after explosion of magazines taken up all along the line to Richmond, and while through pillars of fire the retreating army took its way into the great hollowness of the night, and while conflagrations and horrid sights streamed on the troubled air, a few men tarried around the dead form of the warriour and made him a grave in peaceful and consecrated ground.

Gen. Hill was of slender frame and delicate health, but of a handsome person and strangely fascinating manners. He had a quick and retentive intellect, a cordial and affectionate disposition, and sensibilities of rare refinement. Of his untiring devotion to the cause of the South, and able services in the field, it is unnecessary to speak. To his ceaseless care of his men, every veteran of his command will testify; and to his honour be it said, in every position he held, the health, comfort and safety of his brave comrades were considered as inferiour only to the imperative call of the country. His own life was held no more sacred than a private's; and at Williamsburg, where he commanded so ably, and won a Major-General's wreath, he twice saved, by his own hand, an unknown private who was struggling in personal combat. During many campaigns, Gen. Hill was too feeble to continue on horseback, and was dragged from field to field, yet unwilling to be absent from the post of duty and danger. In the campaign of the last year of the war, this was the case, though his attending physicians were then urging his family to use their influence to save his services to his country, by inducing him to rest. But no entreaty could avail; the iron will of the brave man spared not his feeble frame. He had returned from a furlough coerced by his Commanding General, in the hope of recruiting his health, on Friday before the fatal Sunday on which he fell. In his death, the South lost a noble defender, and the State of Virginia not the least of her many military ornaments in the war.

LIEUT.-GEN. DANIEL H. HILL.

CHAPTER XXXIX.

"Bethel " Hill a curiosity as well as celebrity of the war.-His Revolutionary ances try. Services in Mexico.-His adventures as a Professor and literateur.-Curiosi ties of "Hill's Algebra."-The affair of Bethel and its exaggeration.-Gen. Hill's account of McClellan's retreat from Richmond.-His most memorable and heroic service at South Mountain Pass.-Gen. Hill's criticism of the battle of Sharpsburg.Heroic record of a North Carolina regiment.-Gen. Hill at Chickamauga.-Removed from command.-His literary exploits and eccentricities.

THE name of Daniel H. Hill-"Bethel" Hill, as he was sometimes called in the camp-a native of South Carolina, but an ardent citizen of North Carolina, a devoted lover of his adopted State, belongs to the curiosities as well as to the celebrities of the

war.

His personal eccentricities, his literary whims, and his adventures in the English language, furnished a stock of curiosity and amusement in the war. He had the somewhat equivocal reputation of a man who "had peculiar notions"; he was frequently charged with insubordination; but doubtful as were some of the parts of his military career, he was a grim and obstinate fighter, and on one occasion, as we shall see, he was engaged in one of the most brilliant and critical actions of the war, which saved the campaign in Maryland, made his reputation, and entitled him to at least one conspicuous record in history. Whatever the adverse criticism or unpleasant remark that may be made upon the commander, the splendid service is not to be forgotten, when he held McClellan's whole army in check at South Mountain Pass, covered the capture of Harper's Ferry, and saved Gen. Lee's army from an attack that would have divided it, and perhaps have destroyed it in detail.

D. H. Hill was born about the year 1820, in York District, South Carolina, at a place called Hill's Iron Works, owned by Hill & Hayne-the latter of whom was brother of the revolu tionary hero of Charleston fame. The British troops burned these works in a spirit of revenge, especially on account of the active participation in the Revolutionary war of the grandfather of the subject of our sketch, who was then a rebel colonel, and, besides other titles to fame, obtained the credit of having planned the famous battle of King's Mountain. D. H. Hill was the youngest of six sons. All of them obtained distinction in different careers, and furnish an uncommon example of social and professional success in an entire family. Graduating at West Point with honour, in 1842, D. H. Hill entered the United States Army, and remained in it until after the close of the Mexican War. He was brevetted captain for gallant and meritorious conduct in the battles of Contreras and Churubusco. He afterwards obtained another brevet, that of major, at the storming of Chapultepec; and here it is recorded of him that he was the second. man on the American side that mounted the ramparts. In 1849 he resigned his position in the army to accept a professorship in Washington College, Virginia, where he filled for six years the chair of Mathematics and Military Tactics, a place honoured by the special endowment of George Washington, and called the "Cincinnati Chair." His failing health compelled a change of climate, and he accepted a professorship in Davidson College, North Carolina, where he continued several years. He left this position to become the President of the North Carolina Military Institute, located at Charlotte; and from this flourishing school was culled much of the generous youth that perished in the war.

The associations of Professor Hill at Washington College, Virginia, was the occasion of his advice being sought by the visitors of the adjoining Military Institute in filling the vacancy of one of the chairs of that school; and he strongly recommended "Stonewall" Jackson, and probably his influence secured his appointment over the claims of several more pretentious and persistent candidates. The relations of these two men were very affectionate and honourable. Their attachment commenced at West Point; they served together in Mexico in many and varied scenes of danger; they were brothers in feeling and affection long