Lieutenant-General Wade Hampton
Hampton was born in Charleston, South Carolina, March 28, 1818. He was one of the largest slave-owners in the South. At the outbreak of the Civil War, he raised and equipped, in part, Hampton's South Carolina Legion, of which he was colonel. He was wounded at Fair Oaks, as brigadier-general at the head of a brigade, and thrice at Gettysburg, where he commanded a cavalry brigade. In August, 1863, he was made major-general with a division in the cavalry, and after the death of Stuart, he became head of the Cavalry Corps, Army of Northern Virginia. He made a famous raid on General Grant's commissariat, capturing some twenty-five hundred head of cattle. In February, 1865, he was made lieutenant-general, and commanded the cavalry in the Army of Tennessee, as well as a division of that of the Army of Northern Virginia. After the war, he strongly advocated the policy of conciliation. In 1876, he was governor of South Carolina; from 1878 to 1891, United States senator, and from 1893 to 1897, United States commissioner of railroads. He died in Columbia, South Carolina, April 11, 1902. |
