Gentleman And Soldier : A Biography of Wade Hampton III

Rating:
Summary: Hampton finally gets the respect he is due.
Review: Edward G. Longacre has written many books dealing with subjects relating to the Civil War and has added greatly to the accumulated knowledge of that era. In this biography of General Wade Hampton, the author has again contributed to general Civil War knowledge but he has also accomplished much more. With this, the first full biography of Hampton since 1949, Longacre has rescued the name of this great soldier from anonymity and introduced him to a new generation of Civil War readers.

Longacre points out, early and often that Hampton's reputation has suffered the fate of many other highly successful Confederate leaders who weren't from Virginia. This bias against non-Virginians has been a major topic in some of Longacre's other books and the author may well be on a crusade to rectify this situation. It is a crusade that is long overdue in both academic and popular history.

Most of this book is concerned with Hampton's war career so his antebellum and post-war life is kind of skimmed over. Still, the subject's forward looking and enlightened views regarding race are relatively well covered, as is his political career. Still, his war service is the center of the book and it is handled very well. The reader will follow Hampton as he rises in rank and proves himself to be one of the best fighters in the Confederate Army. Longacre describes the General's tactics and campaigns thoroughly but without resorting to the tedious details many other authors use. Also covered is the discrimination suffered by Hampton and his non-Virginia command at the hands of J.E.B. Stuart and Robert E. Lee. The author takes great pains to point out Hampton's disgust with this discrimination and his later reconciliation with Lee after the Confederate commander finally began to recognize Hampton's vast abilities.

One escapade of Hampton's that I found very interesting was his raid on General Grant's beef herd during the siege of Petersburg. Hampton's scouts alerted him to the presence of the lightly guarded herd and according to Longacre, Hampton couldn't resist the temptation to steal all of those steaks on the hoof for the hungry Rebel Army. This raid was made famous in an old William Holden movie, but until I read this account I never knew it really happened. Anecdotes like this help Longacre bring his subject to life for the reader and as I read this story I could almost see the sly grin on Hampton's face.

Thanks to his excellent writing style and his in depth research, Longacre has turned out a fine book that deserves a place on every Civil War reading list. Readers from Virginia may be a little miffed at times but sometimes the truth hurts. Wade Hampton of South Carolina has long deserved a good biographical treatment and now, thanks to Edward Longacre, he has one.

Rating:
Summary: Hampton finally gets the respect he is due.
Review: Edward G. Longacre has written many books dealing with subjects relating to the Civil War and has added greatly to the accumulated knowledge of that era. In this biography of General Wade Hampton, the author has again contributed to general Civil War knowledge but he has also accomplished much more. With this, the first full biography of Hampton since 1949, Longacre has rescued the name of this great soldier from anonymity and introduced him to a new generation of Civil War readers.

Longacre points out, early and often that Hampton's reputation has suffered the fate of many other highly successful Confederate leaders who weren't from Virginia. This bias against non-Virginians has been a major topic in some of Longacre's other books and the author may well be on a crusade to rectify this situation. It is a crusade that is long overdue in both academic and popular history.

Most of this book is concerned with Hampton's war career so his antebellum and post-war life is kind of skimmed over. Still, the subject's forward looking and enlightened views regarding race are relatively well covered, as is his political career. Still, his war service is the center of the book and it is handled very well. The reader will follow Hampton as he rises in rank and proves himself to be one of the best fighters in the Confederate Army. Longacre describes the General's tactics and campaigns thoroughly but without resorting to the tedious details many other authors use. Also covered is the discrimination suffered by Hampton and his non-Virginia command at the hands of J.E.B. Stuart and Robert E. Lee. The author takes great pains to point out Hampton's disgust with this discrimination and his later reconciliation with Lee after the Confederate commander finally began to recognize Hampton's vast abilities.

One escapade of Hampton's that I found very interesting was his raid on General Grant's beef herd during the siege of Petersburg. Hampton's scouts alerted him to the presence of the lightly guarded herd and according to Longacre, Hampton couldn't resist the temptation to steal all of those steaks on the hoof for the hungry Rebel Army. This raid was made famous in an old William Holden movie, but until I read this account I never knew it really happened. Anecdotes like this help Longacre bring his subject to life for the reader and as I read this story I could almost see the sly grin on Hampton's face.

Thanks to his excellent writing style and his in depth research, Longacre has turned out a fine book that deserves a place on every Civil War reading list. Readers from Virginia may be a little miffed at times but sometimes the truth hurts. Wade Hampton of South Carolina has long deserved a good biographical treatment and now, thanks to Edward Longacre, he has one.

Rating:
Summary: PLANTER-CSA GENERAL-STATESMAN
Review: In the preface, the author notes that although Hampton's life story is inherently interesting, book writers have neglected Confederate General Wade Hampton III. The author addresses this problem writing a biography that concentrates on Hampton's Civil War activities telling the story of a remarkable and fascinating general. Born into a wealthy family in antebellum South Carolina, he was active in the family's business affairs, was an accomplished horseman and inherited from his paternal grandfather a sense of duty. While a slaveholder, Hampton he remained a moderate and supported preserving the Union.

When South Carolina seceded Hampton wrote the governor offering to recruit, organize and finance a combat unit. Hampton was made a colonel in command of his unit. The text gives an interesting account of Hampton and his unit's baptism under fire at the First Battle of Manassas. Hampton was a military amateur, however, the author notes his first combat "... was a performance that would have done credit to a twenty-year veteran of the regular service."

Hampton was promoted to brigadier general but was wounded at Fair Oaks and invalided to Richmond. When his unit was reorganized, Hampton was offered a command in J.E.B. Stuart's cavalry. The author notes Hampton's critical opinion of cavalry units in general and Stuart's flamboyant style in particular. Throughout the book, these criticisms of cavalry, J.E.B Stuart, and R.E. Lee are a most interesting. However, the author writes "The criticism that Hampton leveled at Stuart from time to time was not always accurate or fair." Nevertheless, Hampton was a quick-learn on operations and cavalry tactics and received praise from Stuart and Lee.

His first dose of cavalry combat was at Second Manassas followed by Lee's Maryland campaign. He called the Maryland invasion a strategic miscalculation apparently ignoring its strategic potential. The author provides interesting narratives of Hampton's cavalry experience with Stuart. The cavalry operations as Lee moved north into Pennsylvania. are described culminating with the July 2, 1862 cavalry engagements north of Gettysburg where Hampton received two serious head-wounds.

After recovering from his wounds, Stuart assigned Hampton a division where he participated in the Mine Run campaign. The spring of 1864 saw the Grant/Meade campaign from the Wilderness to Petersburg. The text describes the several cavalry actions in which Hampton was engaged. Following J.E.B. Stuart's death at Yellow Tavern although Hampton and his command often received praise from Lee, Hampton was not formally made commander of the Cavalry Crops for three months. Hampton cavalry operations a Petersburg are well described. As commander Hampton was often praised and showed a "preference for dismounted fighting, a stark departure from his successor's reliance on mounted warfare with saber and pistol." In an action that even Stuart would have been proud, Hampton and his cavalry rustled 2,486 Union cattle that helped to relieve the chronic hunger pangs of the Petersburg defenders.

Convinced that he could stop Sherman who was headed for South Carolina after capturing Atlanta and northern Georgia, Hampton applied to R.E. Lee and received permission to go to South Carolina "to oversee his commands rehabilitation and then lead it against Sherman...." Before leaving, Hampton was promoted to the rank lieutenant general, making him the highest-ranking cavalry commander of the war. However, as Columbia's local commander he made several mistakes trying to save the city and was accused by Sherman as being responsible for the fire that ravaged Columbia. When Joe Johnston was reinstated as overall commander in the western theater Hampton reported to him. The text describes Hampton's involvement in the military actions leading up to Johnston's surrender to Sherman. While his men were bound by the surrender, Hampton was unsure of his own status and proposed to fight on with Jefferson Davis.

However, because of the wretched state of his family's finances he returned home to Columbia where he took an oath to abide by the constitution and was pardoned by President Andrew Jackson on November 13, 1865. The story of Hampton's postwar experiences is fascinating. His debts were enormous and his assets were destroyed so that he was forced to declare bankruptcy in December 1868. He took a position in the life insurance industry, and in 1876 was elected governor of South Carolina. The author notes "His repeated calls for patience and restraint won him much favorable publicity not only locally but on the national level." He continued to support and argue for fair and just treatment of black citizens. Less than six weeks after election to a second term he was elected to the US Senate where he served for 12 years. During his Senate terms, political enemies in South Carolina gained control ultimately ending his political activities. Still beloved by the people, when his home burned down in 1899, his neighbors built him a new and larger house. On April 11, 1902, surrounded by loved ones, at age eighty-four he died uttering the words "God bless all my people, black and white."