Daniel Harvey Hill, one of the highest-ranking Confederate Civil War generals, died September 24, 1889. He was 68.

Hill was born July 12, 1821 in Hill’s Iron Works, South Carolina. The grandson of a man who made cannon for the Continental army during the Revolutionary War, Hill graduated from West Point in 1842.

Seeing action in the Mexican War, Hill won two brevet promotions for his gallantry, and after returning home to South Carolina, the state legislature voted him one of the three bravest soldiers who participated in the war from South Carolina.

In 1849, he resigned his commission to take a teaching post at Washington College in Virginia. Five years later he took a teaching position at Davidson College in North Carolina.

With southern secession looming, Hill in 1859 volunteered his services to command a military institute in Charlotte. When the war began, he was commissioned a colonel in charge of the North Carolina Volunteers.

In September 1861, he rose to the rank of brigadier general, subordinate to General Joseph Johnston. He distinguished himself at Leesburg and was promoted to major general.

General James Longstreet gave Hill credit for much of the success at Seven Pines. He continued to gain a favorable reputation at 2nd Bull Run, and the Maryland campaign, especially in South Mountain and Antietam.

Hill was promoted to lieutenant general after the Fredericksburg battle, but a dispute with General Braxton Bragg would bring Hill’s military career to a crashing halt.

After taking over General Hardee’s corps (Hardee and his protégé General Cleburne had also had run-ins with Bragg), Hill led his troops at Chickamauga. Disgusted at the way Bragg did not follow up to destroy retreating Union troops at Chickamauga, he voiced his discontent with President Jefferson Davis. But Davis could not be wavered in his devotion to his old friend and advisor Bragg, and he refused to allow Hill’s name to be confirmed by the Confederate Senate as a lieutenant general.

Hill reverted to a major general and finished the war as a division commander in the eastern theater.

After the war, Hill edited a magazine devoted to promoting southern ideals. He also became heavily involved in educational efforts. He was president of two universities, Arkansas Industrial University and Georgia Military and Agricultural College.

Hill died in Charlotte, North Carolina on September 24, 1889.