Hill, D. H. (Daniel Harvey), 1821-1889

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).

From the guide to the D. H. Hill Papers, 1848-1951, (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Library. Southern Historical Collection.)