December 16, 1861 (Sunday): D. H. Hill Requests Permission for Hangings

General D. H. Hill

HDQRDS. FIRST CORPS, ARMY OF THE POTOMAC,

                                                                        Centreville, December 16, 1861.

Brig. Gen. D. H. HILL,

            Commanding C. S. Forces in Loudoun County, Leesburg, Va:

GENERAL:  Your letter of this morning has been received and its contents communicated to the general command, who instructs as follows:

  Let General Hill try and hang our own traitors for murder, robbery, and treason but the Northern soldiers cannot be dealt with thus summarily.  He must not make up his mind to victory or the extermination of his command, but must be reminded of the instructions already furnished him.  We are too far to be able to give him assistance after an attack is begun and too weak to send him re-enforcements while there is uncertainty as to the point of attack.  By disposing of his heavy baggage, as already instructed, he can retreat in safety before a force too strong to be opposed successfully. I will write for an additional regiment from Richmond besides the cavalry regiment of Colonel Jenifer, but with little hope of succsss.

   Marauders should receive no quarter; that would prevent any trouble or difficult.

  I concur fully with these views and in these instructions of General Johnston.

      Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

                                                            G. T. BEAUREGARD,

                                                                        General Commanding.

Official Records, Series I., Vol. 5, Part 1, Page 999.

D. H. Hill defined the term “loose cannon”.  This letter is in response to one from Hill in which he describes writing Union General Stone, his opposite number in the area, that he would “…hang these villains unless forbidden by my immediate superior…”.  In this he refers to Union troops who had fired at women in carriages and stolen horses.  In the same letter to Beauregard he remarked that if attacked on all sides he would be better off to make a determined resistance than retreat.  Hill had been one of the South’s first heroes at Bethel, fought with the Army of Northern Virginia in 1862, went West to fight with Bragg (on the field of battle and in words) and ran afoul of Bragg and Davis, bringing his career to a slowing pace.  After the war he returned to teaching, his pre-war profession.