Ambrose Powell Hill

Ambrose Powell Hill (1825-1865), American soldier, born in Culpeper, Virginia, and educated at the U.S. Military Academy. He served in the Mexican War and Seminole Wars and from 1855 to 1860 with the U.S. Coast Survey. In 1861, just before the outbreak of the American Civil War, Hill resigned from the army to become a colonel in the Confederate service. He fought with distinction in many major campaigns, and in 1863 he was made a lieutenant general, commanding one of the three corps of the army of General Robert E. Lee. His troops led the attack that began the Battle of Gettysburg. Hill played an important part in the Wilderness campaign of 1864. In April 1865 he was shot and killed by a stray group of Union soldiers during fighting around Petersburg, Virginia.