A . P . Hill Ambrose Powell Hill , Jr . ( November 9 , 1825 – April 2 , 1865 ) , was a career U . S . Army officer in the Mexican – American War and Seminole Wars and a Confederate general in the American Civil War . He gained early fame as the commander of the " Light Division " in the Seven Days Battles and became one of Stonewall Jackson ' s ablest subordinates , distinguishing himself in the 1862 battles of Cedar Mountain , Second Bull Run , Antietam , and Fredericksburg . Following Jackson ' s death in May 1863 at the Battle of Chancellorsville , Hill was promoted to lieutenant general and commanded the Third Corps of Robert E . Lee ' s Army of Northern Virginia , which he led in the Gettysburg Campaign and the fall campaigns of 1863 . His command of the corps in 1864 – 65 was interrupted on multiple occasions by illness , from which he did not return until just before the end of the war , when he was killed during the Union Army offensive at the Third Battle of Petersburg . Hill is usually referred to as A . P . Hill , to differentiate him from another prominent ( unrelated ) Confederate general , D . H . Hill . Early life . Hill , known to his family as " Powell " ( and to his soldiers as " Little Powell " ) , was born in Culpeper , Virginia , the seventh and final child of Thomas and Fannie Russell Baptist Hill . Powell was named for his uncle , Ambrose Powell Hill ( 1785 – 1858 ) , who served in both houses of the Virginia legislature , and Capt . Ambrose Powell , an Indian fighter , explorer , sheriff , legislator , and close friend of President James Madison . Hill was nominated to enter the United States Military Academy in 1842 , in a class that started with 85 cadets . He made friends easily , including such prominent future generals as Darius N . Couch , George E . Pickett , Jesse L . Reno , George Stoneman , Truman Seymour , Cadmus M . Wilcox , and George B . McClellan . His future commander , Thomas J . Jackson , was in the same class but the two did not get along . Hill had a higher social status in Virginia and valued having a good time in his off - hours , whereas Jackson scorned levity and practiced his religion more fervently than Hill could tolerate . In 1844 , Hill returned from a furlough with a case of gonorrhea , medical complications from which caused him to miss so many classes that he was required to repeat his third year . Reassigned to the class of 1847 , he made new friendships in particular with Henry Heth and Ambrose E . Burnside . He graduated in 1847 , ranking 15th of 38 . He was appointed to the 1st U . S . Artillery as a brevet second lieutenant . He served in a cavalry company during the final months of the Mexican - American War , but fought in no major battles . After some garrison assignments along the Atlantic seaboard , he served in the Seminole Wars , again arriving near the end of the war and fighting various minor skirmishes . He was promoted to first lieutenant in September 1851 . From 1855 to 1860 , Hill was employed on the United States ' coastal survey . He was once engaged to Ellen B . Marcy , the future wife of Hill ' s West Point roommate George B . McClellan , before her parents pressured her to break off the engagement . Although he felt no ill will about the affair afterward , during the war a rumor spread that Hill always fought harder if he knew McClellan was present with the opposing army , because of Ellen ' s rejection . On July 18 , 1859 , he married Kitty ( " Dolly " ) Morgan McClung , a young widow , thus becoming the brother - in - law of future Confederate cavalry generals John Hunt Morgan ( Hill ' s best man at the wedding ) and Basil W . Duke . Civil War . On March 1 , 1861 , just before the outbreak of the Civil War , Hill resigned his U . S . Army commission . After Virginia seceded , he was appointed colonel of the 13th Virginia Infantry Regiment . The 13th Virginia was one of the regiments in Brig . Gen . Joseph E . Johnston ' s army that were transported by railroad as reinforcements to the First Battle of Bull Run , but Hill and his men were sent to guard the Confederate right flank near Manassas and saw no action during the battle . Hill was promoted to brigadier general on February 26 , 1862 , and command of a brigade in the ( Confederate ) Army of the Potomac . In the Peninsula Campaign of 1862 , Hill performed well as a brigade commander at the Battle of Williamsburg , where his brigade blunted a Union attack , and was promoted to major general and division command on May 26 . His division did not participate in the Battle of Seven Pines ( May 31 – June 1 ) , the battle in which Joseph E . Johnston was wounded and replaced in command of the Army of Northern Virginia by Robert E . Lee . June 1 was the first day that Hill began using a nickname for his division : the " Light Division " . This contradictory name for the largest division in all of the Confederate armies may have been selected because Powell wished his men to have a reputation for speed and agility . One of Hill ' s soldiers wrote after the war , " The name was applicable , for we often marched without coats , blankets , knapsacks , or any other burdens except our arms and haversacks , which were never heavy and sometimes empty . " Hill launched multiple attacks throughout the Seven Days Battles , including at Mechanicsville , Gaines ' s Mill , and Glendale ; his division was held in reserve at Malvern Hill . Following the campaign , Hill became involved in a dispute with James Longstreet over a series of newspaper articles that appeared in the " Richmond Examiner " ; relations between them deteriorated to the point that Hill was placed under arrest and Hill challenged Longstreet to a duel . In July Lee decided to send Hill and his division to reinforce Jackson , who was at Gordonsville , Virginia , to keep watch on the Army of Virginia . At the Battle of Cedar Mountain on August 8 , Hill launched a counterattack that stabilized the Confederate left flank , preventing it from being routed . Three weeks later at the Second Battle of Bull Run ( Second Manassas ) , Hill was placed on the Confederate left along the unfinished railroad cut and held it against repeated Union attacks . During the campaign , Hill became involved in several minor disputes with Jackson concerning Jackson ' s marching orders to Hill . Hill ' s performance at Antietam was particularly noteworthy . While Lee ' s army was enduring strong attacks by the Army of the Potomac outside Sharpsburg , Maryland , Hill ' s Light Division had been left behind to process Union prisoners at Harpers Ferry . Responding to an urgent call for assistance from Lee , Hill marched his men at a grueling pace and reached the battlefield just in time to counterattack a strong forward movement by the corps of Maj . Gen . Ambrose Burnside , which threatened to destroy Lee ' s right flank . Hill ' s arrival neutralized the threat , bringing an end to the battle with Lee ' s army battered but undefeated . At the Battle of Fredericksburg in December 1862 , Hill was positioned near the Confederate right along a ridge ; because of some swampy ground along his front , there was a 600 - yard gap in Hill ' s front line , and the nearest brigade behind it was nearly a quarter mile away ; the dense vegetation prevented the brigade commander from seeing any Union troops advancing on his position . During the battle , Maj . Gen . George Meade ' s division routed two of Hill ' s brigades and part of a third . Hill required the assistance from Maj . Gen . Jubal A . Early ' s division to repulse the Union attack . Hill ' s division suffered over 2 , 000 casualties during the battle , which was nearly two - thirds of the casualties in Jackson ' s corps ; two of his brigade commanders were wounded , one ( Maxcy Gregg ) mortally . After the battle one of his brigade commanders , Brig . Gen . James J . Archer , criticized him about the gap left in the division ' s front line , saying that Hill had been warned about it before the battle but had done nothing to correct it . Hill was also absent from his division , and there is no record of where he was during the battle ; this led to a rumor spread through the lines that he had been captured during the initial Union assault . Hill ' s division initially formed part of James Longstreet ' s command , but after an argument between Hill and Longstreet , which nearly resulted in a duel , Hill was transferred to Stonewall Jackson ' s Second Corps . Hill and Jackson argued as well several times during the Northern Virginia Campaign and the 1862 Maryland Campaign . During the invasion of Maryland , Jackson had Hill arrested and after the campaign charged him with eight counts of dereliction of duty . During the lull in campaigning following the Battle of Fredericksburg , Hill repeatedly requested that Lee set up a court of inquiry , but the commanding general did not wish to lose the effective teamwork of his two experienced lieutenants and so refused to approve Hill ' s request . Their feud was put aside whenever a battle was being fought and then resumed afterward , a practice that lasted until the Battle of Chancellorsville in May 1863 . There , Jackson was accidentally wounded by the 18th North Carolina Infantry of Hill ' s division . Hill briefly took command of the Second Corps and was wounded himself in the calves of his legs . While in the infirmary , he requested that the cavalry commander , J . E . B . Stuart , take his place in command . After Jackson ' s death of pneumonia , Hill was promoted on May 24 , 1863 , to lieutenant general ( becoming the Army of Northern Virginia ' s fourth highest - ranking general ) and placed in command of the newly created Third Corps of Lee ' s army , which he led in the Gettysburg Campaign of 1863 . One of Hill ' s divisions , led by his West Point classmate Maj . Gen . Henry Heth , was the first to engage Union troops at the Battle of Gettysburg . Although the first day of the battle was a resounding Confederate success , Hill received much postbellum criticism from proponents of the Lost Cause movement , suggesting that he had unwisely brought on a general engagement against orders before Lee ' s army was fully concentrated . His division under Maj . Gen . Richard H . Anderson fought in the unsuccessful second day assaults against Cemetery Ridge , while his favorite division commander , Maj . Gen . William Dorsey Pender , commanding the Light Division , was severely wounded , which prevented that division from cooperating with the assault . On the third day , two thirds of the men in Pickett ' s Charge were from Hill ' s corps , but Robert E . Lee chose James Longstreet to be overall commander of the assault . Of all three infantry corps of the Army of Northern Virginia , Hill ' s suffered the most casualties at Gettysburg , which prompted Lee to order them to lead the retreat back into Virginia . During the autumn campaign of the same year , Hill launched his Corps " too hastily " in the Battle of Bristoe Station and was bloodily repulsed by Maj . Gen . Gouverneur K . Warren ' s II Corps . Lee didn ' t criticize him for this afterward , but ordered him to detail himself to the dead and wounded after hearing his account . Hill ' s corps also took part in the Battle of Mine Run . Other than a brief visit to Richmond in January 1864 , Hill remained with his corps in its winter encampments near Orange Court House . In Overland Campaign of 1864 , Hill ' s corps held back multiple Union attacks during the first day of the Battle of the Wilderness , but became severely disorganized as a result . Despite several requests from his division commanders , Hill refused to straighten and strengthen his line during the night , possibly due to Lee ' s plan to relieve them at daylight . At dawn on the second day of the battle , the Union army launched an attack that briefly drove Hill ' s corps back , with several units routed , but the First Corps under Longstreet arrived just in time to reinforce him . Hill was medically incapacitated with an unspecified illness at Spotsylvania Court House , so Maj . Gen . Jubal Early temporarily took command of the Third Corps , but Hill was able to hear that his men were doing well and to observe the battle at Lee ' s side . After recovering and regaining his corps , he was later rebuked by Lee for his piecemeal attacks at the Battle of North Anna . By then , Lee himself was too ill to coordinate his subordinates in springing a planned trap of the Union Army . Hill held the Confederate right flank at Cold Harbor , where his corps defended against the main Union attack on June 3 ; when part of the troops to his right gave way , Hill used one brigade to launch a successful counterattack . During the Siege of Petersburg of 1864 – 65 , Hill and his men participated in several battles during the various Union offensives : during the Crater , he fought against his West Point classmate Ambrose Burnside , whom the former repulsed at Antietam and Fredericksburg . Hill was ill several times that winter ; in March 1865 , his health had deteriorated to the point where he had to recuperate in Richmond until April 1 , 1865 . Hill has said he had no desire to live to see the collapse of the Confederacy , and on April 2 , 1865 ( during the Union breakthrough in the Third Battle of Petersburg , just seven days before Lee ' s surrender at Appomattox Court House ) , he was shot dead by a Union soldier , Corporal John W . Mauck of the 138th Pennsylvania , as he rode to the front of the Petersburg lines , accompanied by one staff officer . His body was recovered by the Confederates shortly afterward . His family had hoped to take Hill to Richmond for burial , but the city ' s capture by Union forces caused him to be buried in Chesterfield County . In February 1867 , his remains were reinterred in Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond . During the late 1880s , several former comrades raised funds for a monument to Hill in Richmond . Hill ' s remains were transferred to the base of the monument when it was dedicated on May 30 , 1892 . Analysis . Hill did not escape controversy during the war . He had a frail physique and suffered from frequent illnesses that reduced his effectiveness at Gettysburg , the Wilderness , and Spotsylvania Court House . ( Some historians believe these illnesses were related to the venereal disease he contracted as a West Point cadet . ) Some analysts consider Hill an example of the Peter Principle . Although he was extremely successful commanding his famed " Light Division " , he was less effective as a corps commander . Historian Larry Tagg described Hill as " always emotional . . . so high strung before battle that he had an increasing tendency to become unwell when the fighting was about to commence . " This tendency was to some extent balanced by the implied swagger and combative attitude that he displayed . He often donned a red calico hunting shirt , which his men called his " battle shirt , " when a battle was about to commence , and the men under his command would pass the word , " Little Powell ' s got on his battle shirt ! " and begin to check their weapons . Hill was affectionate with the rank - and - file soldiers and one officer called him " the most lovable of all Lee ' s generals . " Although it was said that " his manner [ was ] so courteous as almost to lack decision , " his actions were often impetuous , and did not lack decision , but judgment . Nevertheless , Hill was one of the war ' s most highly regarded generals on either side . When Hill was a major general , Robert E . Lee wrote that he was the best at that grade in the Army . He had a reputation for arriving on battlefields ( such as Antietam , Cedar Mountain , and Second Bull Run ) just in time to prove decisive . Stonewall Jackson on his deathbed deliriously called for A . P . Hill to " prepare for action ; " some histories have recorded that Lee also called for Hill in his final moments ( " Tell Hill he " must " come up . " ) , although current medical opinions believe that Lee was unable to speak during his last illness . In memoriam . In the Hermitage Road Historic District of Richmond , Virginia , the A . P . Hill Monument is located in the center of the intersection of Laburnum Avenue and Hermitage Road . This monument is the only one of its type in Richmond under which the subject individual is actually interred . The United States military honored Hill by naming both a fort and a ship after him . Fort A . P . Hill is located in Caroline County , Virginia , about halfway between Richmond and Washington , D . C . . During World War II , the United States Navy named a Liberty Ship the SS " A . P . Hill " in his honor . Hill ' s sword is on display at the Chesterfield County Museum in Chesterfield , Virginia . In popular media . Hill was depicted in both of Ronald F . Maxwell ' s Civil War films , " Gettysburg " ( 1993 ) and " Gods and Generals " ( 2003 ) . In the former , he was portrayed by historian and Civil War reenactor Patrick Falci ; in the latter , by character actor William Sanderson .