New Book on Wade Hampton

I can’t wait to read this new book on Wade Hampton. Over the past few years there has been a renaissance in writing about this Confederate general after a drought of several decades. Here are some excerpts from a review printed over the weekend in the Wall Street Journal:

“Rod Andrew Jr.’s “Wade Hampton: Confederate Warrior to Southern Redeemer” is, amazingly, the fourth full-scale biography of the man in five years, but no less welcome for that. Hampton is one of those larger-than-life figures whose actions repay close attention and whose careers match pivotal moments in America’s history.”

"Before the Civil War, Hampton was a gentleman-planter who, with other members of his family, owned vast, slave-labor plantations in Mississippi and South Carolina and lived most of the time at Millwood, a resplendent property near Columbia, S.C. True to his exalted status, he was keen on his ancestors, his horses and his hunting. In 1857, after some English aristocrats visited him in Mississippi, Hampton wrote to his sister: “Today I took them bear-hunting & we killed four. They are not accustomed to the sport. Lord Althorp . . . was with me & he literally had his clothes torn off. I had to furnish him with my drawers, as to enable him to come home decently.”"

“Mr. Andrew brings this antebellum South to life, but he describes Hampton’s wartime experience with special vividness. (Mr. Andrews is himself a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve, as well as a history professor at Clemson University.) Hampton was a bold, competent commanding officer — whether supporting infantry with his daring charges or conducting long raids into enemy territory — though not a brilliant one. In 1864, he succeeded Jeb Stuart as cavalry commander of the Army of Northern Virginia. Hampton notably took pains to see that his men were well cared for, receiving adequate rations, shelter and home leave.”

“This concern for the well- being of others fits Mr. Andrew’s thesis — that Southern concepts of paternalism, honor and chivalry formed Hampton’s character. So, it may be said, did grim experience. Hampton buried two wives and five children. Both a brother and a son were killed in the War Between the States. Of the son’s death, near Petersburg, Va., in 1864, one eyewitness wrote: Hampton “dismounted and kissed his [fallen] boy, wiped a tear from his eye, remounted and went on giving orders as though nothing happened.”"

Full review.