WADE

See also:

• HAMPTON
• WADE HAMPTON (1818-1902)

HAMPTON (1818-1902)  , American cavalry leader was born on the 28th of March 1818 at Columbia, South Carolina, the son of Wade Hampton (1791-1858), one of the wealthiest planters in the South, and the grandson of Wade Hampton (1754-1835), a captain in the War of Independence and a brigadier-general in the War of 1812 . He graduated (1836) at South Carolina College, and was trained for the law . He devoted himself, however, to the management of his great plantations in South Carolina and in Mississippi, and took part in state politics and legislation . Though his own views were opposed to the prevailing state-rights tone of South Carolinian opinion, he threw himself heartily into the Southern cause in 1861, raising a mixed command known as " Hampton's Legion," which he led at the first battle of Bull Run . During the Civil War he served in the main with the Army of Northern Virginia in Stuart's cavalry corps . After Stuart's death Hampton distinguished himself greatly in opposing Sheridan in the Shenandoah Valley, and was made lieutenant-general to command Lee's whole force of cavalry . In 1865 he assisted Joseph Johnston in the attempt to prevent Sherman's advance through the Carolinas . After the war his attitude was conciliatory and he recommended a frank acceptance by the South of the war's political consequences . He was governor of his state in 1876-x879, being installed after a memorable contest; he served in the United States Senate in 1879-1891, and was United States commissioner of Pacific railways in 1893-1897 . He died on the 11th of April 1902 . See E . L .

Wells, Hampton and Reconstruction (Columbia, S . C., 1907) .