His election to the governor's chair in effectively ended Reconstruction in the state, and in the eyes of white South Carolinians, Hampton was more than a victorious political candidate. He was their savior.
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Planter, soldier, governor, U.S. senator. Hampton was born in Charleston on March 28, , the eldest son of Wade Hampton II and Ann Fitzsimons. A scion of one of the South’s wealthiest families, Hampton was educated in private academies at Rice Creek and Columbia before attending South Carolina College, where he was graduated in A quintessential planter-aristocrat, Hampton may have been the richest planter in the South at the end of the antebellum era, with properties in South Carolina and Mississippi producing annual incomes of as much as $, On October 10, , Hampton wed Margaret Frances Preston, with the marriage eventually producing five children. His first wife died in and Hampton married Mary Singleton McDuffie on January 27, Four children were born to this second union.
From until Hampton represented Richland District, first in the S.C. House of Representatives and then in the state Senate. As a legislator, Hampton promoted economic development in
A Book Review: Wade Hampton, III
For years and years, there was only one full-length biography of Wade Hampton, written in the &#;s by Manly Wade Wellman titled Giant in Gray: A Biography of Wade Hampton of South Carolina. Although it was an early biography and clearly biased toward the Southern perspective, it nevertheless gave full coverage to both Hampton&#;s military career during the Civil War as well as his long-running post-war political career. This book&#;s weaknesses are its obvious lack of objectivity, and its failure to take advantage of unpublished manuscript material.
The last few years have seen a sudden explosion of new biographies of Hampton. The first one, by Ed Longacre, is titled Gentleman and Soldier: A Biography of Wade Hampton, III. Longacre&#;s biography, published in , provides the best coverage of Hampton&#;s military service of any of the books. It&#;s well written and well-researched (I gave Ed some material for the project). Its coverage of Hampton&#;s political career is not as strong, which is this book&#;s weakness. The second one, by Walter Brian Cisco, titled Wade Hampton: Confederate Warrior, Conservative Statesman, was published in L
Rod Andrew Jr.: Wade Hampton, One of the Last Confederate Generals to Surrender
[This article is crossposted at UNCPressCivilWarcom.]
We welcome a guest post today from Rod Andrew Jr., author of Wade Hampton: Confederate Warrior to Southern Redeemer, which is now available in a new paperback edition. One of the South&#;s most illustrious military leaders, Wade Hampton III was for a time the commander of all Lee&#;s cavalry and at the end of the Civil War was the highest-ranking Confederate cavalry officer. Andrew&#;s critical biography sheds light on Hampton&#;s central role during Reconstruction as a conservative white leader, governor, U.S. senator, and Redeemer; his heroic image in the minds of white southerners; and his positions and apparent contradictions on race and the role of African Americans in the New South.
In the following guest post, Andrew explores Hampton&#;s history as an unlikely Confederate stalwart.
Nearly everybody has an opinion on what caused the Civil War&#;and on what Americans on both sides thought they were fighting for (which, by the way, could be a quite different question). In the case of individual Confederates, however, we have other
Gentleman and Soldier: A Biography of Wade Hampton III
Winner of the Douglas Southall Freeman History Award, Gentleman and Soldier is the first biography in more than fifty years of Wade Hampton III (), a Confederate general whose life provides a unique, sweeping insight into the entire history of the Civil War in the South. Hampton was a leading citizen of South Carolina before the war and the highest-ranking cavalry leader on either side during the war. He fought in a remarkable number of battles from Antietam to Gettysburg to Bentonville and after the war served as governor of South Carolina and in the U.S. Senate. Hampton's life, however, was one of dramatic contradictions. He was the quintessential slave owner who nonetheless questioned the ethical underpinnings of the "peculiar institution." He was a prewar spokesperson for national unity but became an avid secessionist. He condemned violence and abhorred dueling, but he probably killed more opponents in battle than any other general with the possible exception of Nathan Bedford Forrest. He "redeemed" South Carolina from Reconstruction but then extended more political benefits to African Americans
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