Henry Washington Hilliard (August 4, 1808 – December 17, 1892) was a unionist

U.S. Representative The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the Senate being the upper chamber. Together they c ...

from Alabama and a general in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War. In later life, he became a proponent of

abolitionism Abolitionism, or the abolitionist movement, is the movement to end slavery. In Western Europe and the Americas, abolitionism was a historic movement that sought to end the Atlantic slave trade and liberate the enslaved people. The Britis ...

in Brazil.''See generally'', David I. Durham, ''A Journey in Brazil: Henry Washington Hilliard and the Brazilian Anti-Slavery Society'' (2017).

Early life

Hilliard was born in

Fayetteville, North Carolina Fayetteville () is a city in and the county seat of Cumberland County, North Carolina, United States. It is best known as the home of Fort Bragg, a major U.S. Army installation northwest of the city. Fayetteville has received the All-America C ...

, and graduated from South Carolina College (now the University of South Carolina) at Columbia in 1826. While at South Carolina College, he was active in the Euphradian Society.Durham, David. A Southern moderate in radical times: Henry Washington Hilliard, 1808-1892 (Baton Rouge: LSU Press, 2008), 13–14. He studied law and moved to Athens, Georgia, where he was admitted to the bar in 1829. He was a professor at the University of Alabama from 1831 to 1834, when he resigned to practice law in Montgomery, Alabama. He served as member of the state house of representatives in 1836–1838, as member of the Whig National Convention at

Harrisburg, Pennsylvania Harrisburg is the capital city of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Dauphin County. With a population of 50,135 as of the 2021 census, Harrisburg is the 9th largest city and 15th largest municipality in Pe ...

, in 1839, Whig presidential elector in 1840 and was an unsuccessful candidate for election to the Twenty-seventh Congress in 1840. He was

chargé d'affaires A ''chargé d'affaires'' (), plural ''chargés d'affaires'', often shortened to ''chargé'' (French) and sometimes in colloquial English to ''charge-D'', is a diplomat who serves as an embassy's chief of mission in the absence of the ambassador ...

to Belgium from May 12, 1842, to August 12, 1844. Hilliard was elected as a Whig to the Twenty-ninth, Thirtieth, and Thirty-first Congresses (March 4, 1845 – March 3, 1851) but he was not a candidate for renomination in 1850. In 1856, he served as presidential elector on the National American ticket.

Civil War service

In 1861 he was appointed by Jefferson Davis Confederate commissioner to Tennessee. During the Civil War, he served as a colonel in the Confederate States Army. Hilliard's Legion was organized at Montgomery, Alabama in June, 1862, and consisted of five battalions; one of these, a mounted battalion, was early detached and became part of the Tenth Confederate cavalry. The Legion proceeded to Montgomery nearly 3,000 strong, under the command of Col. H. W. Hilliard, and was placed in McCown's Brigade. It took part in the siege of Cumberland Gap, and spent the fall and winter in Kentucky and east Tennessee. Hilliard resigned from the army December 1, 1862 to take care of personal affairs and because he had not been promoted to brigadier general.

Postbellum

He moved to Augusta, Georgia, in 1865 and resumed the practice of his profession. He was an unsuccessful Republican candidate for election in 1876 to the Forty-fifth Congress. He resumed the practice of law in Augusta, Georgia, moving later to Atlanta. He was Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to Brazil from July 31, 1877, to June 15, 1881. In Brazil he worked with

Joaquim Nabuco Joaquim Aurélio Barreto Nabuco de Araújo (August 19, 1849 – January 17, 1910) was a Brazilian writer, statesman, and a leading voice in the abolitionist movement of his country. Early life and education Born in Brazil, Joaquim was the son ...

and

Emperor Pedro II Dom PedroII (2 December 1825 – 5 December 1891), nicknamed "the Magnanimous" ( pt, O Magnânimo), was the second and last monarch of the Empire of Brazil, reigning for over 58 years. He was born in Rio de Janeiro, the seventh child of Empe ...

to support abolition. He died in Atlanta, Georgia, December 17, 1892 and was interred in Oakwood Cemetery, Montgomery, Alabama.

Notes

References

* Allardice, Bruce S. ''Confederate Colonels: A Biographical Register.'' Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 2008. . Retrieved on 2009-04-16 * * Durham, David R. (2008). ''A Southern Moderate in Radical Times: Henry Washington Hilliard, 1808–1892''.

Louisiana State University Press The Louisiana State University Press (LSU Press) is a university press at Louisiana State University. Founded in 1935, it publishes works of scholarship as well as general interest books. LSU Press is a member of the Association of American Univer ...

. * Evans, Clement A. ed., Confederate Military History, Vol. VII, p. 234, Confederate Pub. Co., Atlanta, 1899. * Hilliard, Henry Washington.
Politics and Pen Pictures at Home and Abroad
' G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1892.

External links

*
Hilliard's Legion
Ohio State University {{DEFAULTSORT:Hilliard, Henry Washington 1808 births 1892 deaths Politicians from Fayetteville, North Carolina Georgia (U.S. state) Republicans Ambassadors of the United States to Belgium Ambassadors of the United States to Brazil University of South Carolina alumni Georgia (U.S. state) lawyers People of North Carolina in the American Civil War Confederate States Army officers 19th-century American diplomats Alabama Know Nothings Whig Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Alabama 19th-century American politicians 19th-century American lawyers