Confederate Military History/Volume 3/Biographical/H
Brigadier-General David Bullock Harris, a distinguished military engineer, was born at Fredericks hall, Louisa county, Va., September 28, 1814. He was graduated at the United States military academy in 1833, with promotion to brevet second lieutenant of First artillery, and a year later was called to the position of assistant professor of engineering at West Point. On August 31, 1835, he resigned from the army and entered the profession of civil engineering, for some time being employed on the James river and Kanawha canal. Subsequently he became a planter and exporter of tobacco and flour. Early in 1861 he was commissioned captain of engineers of the Virginia forces, and was assigned to the staff of General Beauregard, with whom he was associated from that time until the end of the war. He was the first to reconnoiter the line at Bull run, planned and constructed the works for the defense of Manassas Junction, and in the heat of the fight of July 21st, at the critical moment when Elzey led his brigade upon the field, he guided that officer into position. He accompanied Beauregard to the Mississippi valley, and after inspecting the defenses at Columbus, Ky., was intrusted with the construction of works at Island No. 10 and vicinity, to which the artillery was removed from the Columbus fortifications. After the fall of New Orleans he located and constructed fortifications for heavy guns at Vicksburg, and thence he went with Beauregard in 1863 to Charleston, S. C. Of his work here, Beauregard wrote, "My best and almost only assistant for planning the construction of batteries and making the selection of sites on which they were to be erected was Maj. D. B. Harris, the chief engineer of the department, on whom I placed the utmost reliance, and who always thoroughly understood and entered into my views." Early in May, General Beauregard was at Petersburg, in command of the department of North Carolina and Southern Virginia, and here Harris, now promoted colonel, found immediate field for work at Drewry's bluff, where his services and advice contributed greatly to the successful defense of the Confederate lines. He continued on duty in the defense of Petersburg, with promotion to the rank of brigadier-general, until his death, October 10, 1864.
Major-General Henry Heth was born in Chesterfield county, Va., December 16, 1825. He is the son of John Heth, of the Black Heth estate, in that county, who served as a colonel in the volunteer forces of Virginia, and as an officer in the United States navy in the war of 1812, when he was captured with Decatur and taken to Bermuda, whence he escaped with two comrades in an open boat. An uncle of his, Col. William Heth, fought at Quebec under General Montgomery and was distinguished in the revolutionary war. Henry Heth was educated at the United States military academy, and graduated in 1847 with the rank of brevet second lieutenant of the Second infantry. His first service was in the war with Mexico, when he was made second lieutenant of the Eighth infantry. He was engaged in the skirmish at Matamoras and at Galaxara in 1847-48, and in 1848 at the evacuation returned to Jefferson barracks. On the Indian frontier he was on duty at Fort Atkinson, Fort Kearny and Fort Laramie, taking a conspicuous part in many Indian fights, and winning a first lieutenancy in June, 1853, with promotion to adjutant in November, 1854, and to captain, Tenth infantry, in March, 1855. Soon after the latter promotion he led a detached company, mounted as cavalry, in the Sioux expedition under General Harney, which ended in the victory at Bluewater. In 1857 he was assigned to special duty in preparing target practice for the army, and in 1858 he rejoined his regiment in Utah, where he remained until the latter part of i860, when he returned to Virginia on leave of absence. When coercion seemed inevitable he resigned his Federal commission, served on the staff of General Taliaferro at Norfolk, as captain, and accepted the duty of organizing the quartermaster's department at Richmond. He was commissioned major, C. S. A., and soon promoted colonel of the Forty-fifth Virginia regiment, in which capacity he organized General Floyd's command at Wytheville, for the West Virginia campaign, and after participating in the battle of Carnifax Ferry, conducted Floyd's retreat from Cotton Hill. In January, he was promoted brigadier-general, and assigned to the command in West Virginia, where he fought in May of that year the battle of Giles Court House, in which he was opposed to Col. R. B. Hayes, and later the battle of Lewisburg. In June he joined Gen. Kirby Smith at Knoxville, Tenn., and accompanied him in the movement into Kentucky. After reaching Lexington he was given charge of a division of infantry and a brigade of cavalry, and moved against Cincinnati, some of his troops, on September 6th, reaching the suburbs of Covington, but he was withheld from an attack by positive orders. In February, 1863, he joined the army of Northern Virginia, and was assigned to the command of Field's brigade, of which he had charge in the battle of Chancellorsville. On the wounding of A. P. Hill in the first day's fight, he succeeded to command of the division but was himself wounded in the opening of the fight next day, which General Lee noted with regret in his dispatch to President Davis. He was promoted major-general and placed in command of a division of General Hill's corps, consisting of the brigades of Pettigrew, Brockenbrough, Archer and Davis. Engaging in the Pennsylvania campaign, he moved to Cashtown, and thence sent Pettigrew's brigade to Gettysburg to procure a supply of shoes. The brigade returned with information of Federal advance. Heth attacked the Federals under Reynolds the next day, and fought a desperate battle, a worthy opening of the great three days' struggle, in which he lost in twenty-five minutes 2,700 out of 7,000 men, and half his officers, and was himself severely wounded. He was subsequently engaged in the affair at Falling Waters, and in the following October, with two brigades attacked Warren's corps of Meade's army, fighting the battle of Bristoe Station. After wintering at Orange Court House, he commanded the advance of Hill's corps, marching on the plank road to resist Grant's flank movement on May 5th. He replied for three hours to the attacks of General Hancock on the Brock road; was distinguished for intrepid fighting about Spottsylvania on the 10th, 11th and 12th of May, and a few days later engaged General Warren at Nowell's Turnout. June 3d he took part in the battle of Bethesda Church. During the siege of Petersburg he served on the lines from July, 1864, until the evacuation, occupying the extreme right of Lee's lines during September, October and November. He fought gallantly on the Weldon railroad August 18th, 19th and 20th; at Reams' Station captured 2,000 men, 9 pieces of artillery and many flags; at Burgess' Mill in November, 1864, and in all the struggles on the right, and lastly commanded at Burgess' Mill when the Confederate lines were broken. He conducted his division on the retreat and surrendered with the army on April 9th. During the following years he gave his attention to mining for a time, and then engaged in insurance at Richmond, Va.
Brigadier-General Eppa Hunton was born September 23, 1823, in Fauquier county, Va. The Huntons originally settled in New England, but the ancestor of General Hunton removed at an early period to Lancaster county, Va., where his great-grandfather, William Hunton, married Judith Kirk, and afterward made his home in Fauquier county. From him the descent is through his fourth son, James, and through the latter's second son Eppa. The senior Eppa Hunton was in the service of his country during the war of 1812, at Bladensburg and Craney island, and as a brigade inspector of the Virginia militia. His wife, the mother of General Hunton, was Elizabeth Marye, daughter of William Brent, who removed his family from Dumfries to Fauquier county during the revolutionary war, in which he served with distinction as a captain of infantry. The ancestors of this patriot came over with Lord Baltimore; one of his grandsons, Col. George W. Brent, was a gallant Confederate soldier. After the early death of his father, General Hunton was reared by his devoted mother, and aided by his uncle, the distinguished Charles Hunton, for four years president of the State senate, he studied under the Rev. John Ogilvie, and subsequently he taught school for three years, at the same time pursuing the study of law under the guidance of the late Judge John Webb Taylor. Admitted to the bar in 1843, he began practice at Brentsville, the county seat of Prince William county. In this period his military inclinations, doubtless inherited from his father, were manifested by his acceptance of the colonelcy of the Prince William regiment, and four years later of the rank of general, commanding the brigade. In 1848 he married Lucy Caroline, daughter of Robert and Clara B. Weir, through her mother connected with the Wallers of Virginia. The only child of this union surviving is Eppa Hunton, Jr., a distinguished lawyer of the Warrenton bar, who married Erva Winston, daughter of the gallant Gen. William H. Payne. In 1849 General Hunton was elected commonwealth's attorney for Prince William county, and was continued in this office by popular vote until he relinquished it for other duties in 1861. In the campaign of i860 he was an elector on the Breckinridge ticket, and missed success by the mispelling of his name on a few ballots. In the famous Virginia convention of 1861 he took the peculiar position of favoring secession for the sake of the Union, arguing that if all the Southern States promptly withdrew, war would be avoided, and reconstruction on favorable and lasting terms would soon follow. After the passage of the ordinance he was placed upon the military committee, to recommend measures of defense; but feeling that his proper place was in the field, he resigned his commission in the State militia, and as a result of an application drawn up by his friend, Hon. Ballard Preston, and signed by every member of the convention, he was appointed colonel of the Eighth Virginia regiment, which he was ordered to organize and equip. This was rapidly accomplished at Leesburg, where he collected a body of as brave men (as he himself declared) as ever fought for liberty. They won imperishable renown upon every famous field of the army of Northern Virginia. Arriving at Manassas three days before the great battle of 1861, he was able on account of his familiarity with the country, to grasp the importance of the blind road from Centreville to Sudley, and he placed there a picket of five mounted men, from whom he received and transmitted to Beauregard the first intelligence of McDowell's flank movement. In the fight his regiment won special mention for gallantry. Subsequently General Hunton was severely afflicted physically, and underwent several surgical operations. In this condition he was hauled to the battlefield of Ball's Bluff in a spring wagon, and commanded his regiment, selecting a position which he maintained for many hours against five regiments of the enemy, repulsing their assault. Finally charging, with another regiment, he drove the Federals over the bluff and captured their guns and many prisoners. After this his regiment joined the main army at Centreville and was attached to Pickett's brigade, then commanded by Gen. Philip St. George Cocke. In 1862 General Hunton was on sick leave at Lynchburg when Lee was about to attack the Federals before Richmond, and against the protests of his physician he rejoined his beloved regiment and commanded it through the Seven Days, so glorious in the history of the army. At the battle of Gaines' Mill, where Pickett's brigade made a brilliant assault and carried the three fortified lines of the enemy, before the assistance from Jackson came up, Pickett was wounded early in the assault, and Hunton, as senior colonel, carried on the successful action, which was never officially reported, owing to Pickett's severe wounds, and General Hunton's continued ill health, on account of which he was sent back to Lynchburg by General Longstreet. Again with his regiment and Pickett's division, at Gettysburg, he was wounded and his horse killed while leading his command in the charge against Cemetery hill, where his men were nearly all killed or wounded or captured, some of them beyond the stone fence, the first line of the enemy. His promotion to brigadier-general, well deserved and nobly won, but long delayed, as President Davis expressed to him after the war, on account of his reported feeble health, was dated from Gettysburg. His brigade, consisting of the Eighth, Eighteenth, Nineteenth, Twenty-eighth and Fifty-sixth regiments of Virginia infantry, he was ordered to recruit at Chaffin's farm on James river. Early in the spring of 1864 he brought his command into the campaign against Grant, and served with conspicuous gallantry throughout, the brigade suffering particularly heavy losses at Cold Harbor, where General Hunton lost his adjutant-general and warm friend. Captain Linthicum. While Grant was preparing to cross the James, Lee was planning to fight at Malvern hill, and with his cavalry on the north side of the river he was not advised of Grant's movement until Beauregard was compelled to abandon the Howlett house line and Drewry's bluff, and rush to the defense of Petersburg. At this juncture Pickett's division was ordered from Malvern hill to retake Beauregard's position, General Hunton to take the lead toward Drewry's bluff. Making one of the most rapid marches of the war, he found the position still in our hands, and he then marched toward Petersburg with the Eighth deployed as skirmishers, until he struck the enemy, and after a hot fight, drove the Federals across Beauregard's lines to their own. This very important duty was so brilliantly performed as to elicit the enthusiastic praise of General Lee. During subsequent movements in the long siege, Hunton's brigade became separated from its division. On the last of March, 1865, he was ordered with his own and two other small brigades to hold the White Oak road on the left of Five Forks, where Pickett and Fitz Lee confronted Sheridan's cavalry. His line had hardly been formed when a division of Warren's infantry corps advanced and was immediately attacked by Hunton and driven back to Gravelly run. With reinforcements the Federals were able to push Hunton back to the fortified lines, but the delay that had been caused greatly embarrassed Sheridan and led to Warren's unjust suspension from command. Two days later the retreat began, and Hunton's brigade marched with Wise's brigade, and Fitz Lee's cavalry in the rear. On this mournful march it was a continual conflict with the enemy's rapid advance. On one occasion in crossing a bridge. General Hunton found it necessary to form his brigade to meet the enemy from all sides while the cavalry and other troops crossed over, which he did with wonderful skill and courage. Next day he united his command with Pickett's division, and though sick, he remained with his men. At Sailor's creek the division recaptured Huger's artillery and repulsed the assaults of Custer. General Hunton soon comprehended that these charges were to prevent his retreat until the Federal infantry could surround him, but his superior officers were unable to meet the movement. The gallant men fought to the last, and many broke their muskets rather than surrender them, but were soon overpowered. Only eight men of Hunton's old regiment escaped. General Hunton was now suffering severely with physical illness, and was kindly cared for by the gallant Custer at his headquarters. He was thence carried to Petersburg, passed through Washington a few hours before the assassination of President Lincoln, and remained in prison at Fort Warren, where he was kindly treated and won the admiration of his guards, until the latter part of July. During the war his home, at Brentsville, had been destroyed, and his wife and son had taken refuge at Lynchburg, where Federal General Turner took command after the surrender. He had faced General Hunton on the Howlett house lines, and immediately ordered that his former enemy's family should be supplied with every comfort, a courteous act which General Hunton gratefully acknowledged. On his return to civil life, he resumed the practice of law at Warrenton. It was a time of great privation, but he had confidence in his strength. An incident of this period of struggle was his refusing to sell his war-horse, "Old Morgan," for $500, a princely sum just then; but his family sustained him in keeping the faithful horse. With renewed health, and a brave and confident spirit, fortune soon smiled again, and he became independent and prosperous. Before his political disabilities were removed he was elected to Congress from the Eighth Virginia district. By successive re-elections until he voluntarily retired, he sat in Congress eight years, rendering valuable and important services. In the Forty-third Congress, his first, he joined in the memorable struggle under Samuel J. Randall, for two days and two nights, against the passage of a "force bill." In the Forty-fourth, under Democratic control, he was chairman of the committee on revolutionary pensions, second on the judiciary committee, member of other committees, and as chairman of the sub-committee which investigated the famous charges against James G. Blaine, demonstrated his ability and fairness, and had occasion to encounter the highly gifted Republican leader in the committee room and on the floor of the House, and always with credit. During the proceedings in Congress which followed the contested election of Samuel J. Tilden, General Hunton was a member of the special committee that framed the electoral commission bill, but refused his signature to the report until the last moment. He was elected one of the five who represented the House upon that commission, becoming one of the judges of the highest court the world had ever known. He labored earnestly for the success of Tilden before this tribunal, and his anxiety and the disappointment at the result caused him a severe attack of illness. As a member of the District of Columbia committee in the Forty-fifth and its chairman in the Forty-sixth Congress, he and the Hon. J. C. S. Blackburn framed the present form of administration of that district, under which the Federal government bears an equal share of its expenses. Through the wise provisions of Blackburn and Hunton the city of Washington has wonderfully developed, realizing the dreams of its great founder. General Hunton resumed the practice of law after March 4, 1881, forming a partnership with the Hon. Jeff Chandler at Washington city, and enjoyed an extensive and lucrative business. In May, 1892, he was appointed United States Senator for Virginia, by Governor McKinney, to fill the vacancy caused by the death of the lamented Barbour, and this was confirmed by the legislature. He served until March 4, 1895, holding places on the committees on the District of Columbia, postoffices and post roads, and the chairmanship of the committee to establish a State university, a project which he advocated in an elaborate and able speech. While in the Senate he favored earnestly the repeal of the "Sherman silver law," with the understanding that free coinage of silver should follow; and voted for the Wilson tariff bill after an income tax had been added, as the best legislation that could be obtained. He left the Senate with a fine reputation for solid sense, capacity for hard work, and adherence to the tenets of his party. In 1896 he was prominent in the Virginia campaign in behalf of the candidacy of William J. Bryan. In appearance General Hunton is striking and impressive. He is a man of full stature, and a face and head that are indicative of massive strength, which, morally and mentally, is his distinctive characteristic. In the excitement of battle his bearing was superb. In the contests of the forum, the Senate, or the hustings, he was calm, earnest and impressive, and uniformly fair to his opponent. In repartee his play is vigorous, and those who play with him are not unlikely to receive a bruise, but if he knows it, it hurts him more than it does them. Finally, he is a gentleman upon whose integrity and moral character no scrutiny can develop the vestige of a stain.