Henry W. Hilliard

Henry Washington Hilliard
Circa 1892
United States Ambassador to Brazil
In office
October 23, 1877 – June 15, 1881
PresidentRutherford B. Hayes
Preceded byJames R. Partridge
Succeeded byThomas A. Osborn
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives
from Alabama's 2nd district
In office
March 4, 1845 – March 4, 1851
Preceded byJames E. Belser
Succeeded byJames Abercrombie
Member of the Alabama House of Representatives
In office
1836–1838
Personal details
Born(1808-08-04)August 4, 1808
Fayetteville, North Carolina
DiedDecember 17, 1892(1892-12-17) (aged 84)
Atlanta, Georgia
Resting placeOakwood Cemetery (Montgomery, Alabama)
Political partyWhig
Military service
AllegianceConfederate States of America Confederate States of America
Branch/service Confederate States Army
Years of service1861–1862
Rank Colonel (CSA)
CommandsHilliard's Alabama Legion
Battles/warsAmerican Civil War
Portrait of Henry Washington Hilliard, by Mathew Brady, c1851

Henry Washington Hilliard (August 4, 1808 – December 17, 1892) was a U.S. Representative from Alabama and a colonel in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War.[1][2] In later life, he became a proponent of abolitionism in Brazil.[3]

Early life

Hilliard was born in Fayetteville, North Carolina, and graduated from South Carolina College (now the University of South Carolina) at Columbia in 1826. While at South Carolina College, he was active in the Euphradian Society.[4] He read law under William C. Preston and then moved to Athens, Georgia, where he was admitted to the bar in 1829. He was a Professor of English Literature at the University of Alabama from 1831 to 1834, when he resigned to practice law in Montgomery, Alabama.[5]

He served as a member of the state house of representatives from 1836–1838, was a delegate to the 1839 Whig National Convention at Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, ran as a Whig presidential elector in 1840, and was an unsuccessful candidate for election to the 27th United States Congress.[2] He was chargé d'affaires to Belgium from May 12, 1842, to August 12, 1844.[6]

Hilliard was elected as a Whig to the 29th, Thirtieth, and 31st Congresses, serving from March 4, 1845 to March 3, 1851. He was not a candidate for renomination in 1850. Following the end of his term, he joined the short-lived Union Party which supported the Compromise of 1850.[7]

In 1856, he served as presidential elector on the American ticket.[8]

Civil War service

In 1861 he was appointed by Jefferson Davis Confederate commissioner to Tennessee. During the Civil War, he served as a colonel in the Confederate States Army.

Hilliard's Legion was organized at Montgomery, Alabama in June, 1862, and consisted of five battalions; one of these, a mounted battalion, was early detached and became part of the Tenth Confederate cavalry. The Legion proceeded to Montgomery nearly 3,000 strong, under the command of Col. H. W. Hilliard, and was placed in McCown's Brigade. It took part in the siege of Cumberland Gap, and spent the fall and winter in Kentucky and east Tennessee.

Hilliard resigned from the army December 1, 1862 to take care of personal affairs and because he had not been promoted to brigadier general.[9]

Postbellum

He moved to Augusta, Georgia, in 1865 and resumed the practice of his profession.[8]

He was an unsuccessful Republican candidate for election in 1876 to the 45th Congress.

He resumed the practice of law in Augusta, Georgia, moving later to Atlanta.

He was Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to Brazil from July 31, 1877, to June 15, 1881.[6] In Brazil he worked with Joaquim Nabuco and Emperor Pedro II to support abolition.[3]

He died in Atlanta, Georgia, December 17, 1892 and was interred in Oakwood Cemetery, Montgomery, Alabama.[10]

Honors

In 2022, Hilliard was inducted into the Alabama Lawyers Hall of Fame.[11]

Notes

  1. ^ "Henry W. Hilliard". Encyclopedia of Alabama. Retrieved 4 August 2016.
  2. ^ a b "Hilliard, Henry Washington, (1808 – 1892)". United States Congress. Retrieved 4 August 2016.
  3. ^ a b See generally, David I. Durham, A Journey in Brazil: Henry Washington Hilliard and the Brazilian Anti-Slavery Society (2017).
  4. ^ Durham, David. A Southern moderate in radical times: Henry Washington Hilliard, 1808-1892 (Baton Rouge: LSU Press, 2008), 13–14.
  5. ^ "Alabama State Bar Inducts New Members to Lawyers Hall of Fame". Alabama State Bar. Retrieved 2025-08-19.
  6. ^ a b "Henry Washington Hilliard (1808–1892)". United States Department of State. Retrieved 4 August 2016.
  7. ^ Holt, Michael F. (1999). The Rise and Fall of the American Whig Party: Jacksonian Politics and the Onset of the Civil War. New York: Oxford University Press. p. 616.
  8. ^ a b "Hilliard, Henry Washington". State Library of North Carolina. Retrieved 4 August 2016.
  9. ^ Allardice, Bruce S. (2008). Confederate Colonels: A Biographical Register. Columbia, MO: University of Missouri Press. p. 196. ISBN 978-0-8262-1809-4.
  10. ^ Durham, David I. (2008). A Southern Moderate in Radical Times: Henry Washington Hilliard, 1808-1892. LSU Press. pp. 5–7. ISBN 9780807134221.
  11. ^ "Alabama State Bar Inducts New Members to Lawyers Hall of Fame". Alabama State Bar. Retrieved 2025-08-19.

References

  • Allardice, Bruce S. Confederate Colonels: A Biographical Register. Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 2008. ISBN 978-0-8262-1809-4.

Public Domain This article incorporates public domain material from the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress

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