Background
HILL, Benjamin Jefferson was born on June 13, 1825 in McMinnville, Tennessee, United States, United States.
General lawyer merchant military
HILL, Benjamin Jefferson was born on June 13, 1825 in McMinnville, Tennessee, United States, United States.
Public school.
Little is known of his early life. He attended common schools and entered the mercantile business in McMinnville in the 1850s. In 1855, he was elected to the Tennessee Senate and served until the war began.
Hill entered the Confederate Army as colonel of the 5th Tennessee Regiment and fought at the battle of Shiloh under General Patrick R. Cleburne in the spring of 1862. He was a regimental commander during Braxton Bragg’s Kentucky campaign and at the battle of Murfreesboro in late 1862. After participating in the 1863 battles of Chickamauga and Chattanooga, he served as provost marshal of the Army of Tennessee throughout the Atlanta campaign, in which he also fought.
Promoted to brigadier general on November 30,1864, he distinguished himself as a cavalry commander during John B. Hood’sTennessee campaign. Late in 1864, he participated in the siege of Murfreesboro. In the final months of the war, Hill commanded a brigade under General Nathan B. Forrest.
When the war ended, he surrendered and was soon paroled. After the war, he was a merchant and a lawyer in McMinnville.
"Peculiar institution" of slavery was not only expedient but also ordained by God and upheld in Holy Scripture.
Stands for preserving slavery, states' rights, and political liberty for whites. Every individual state is sovereign, even to the point of secession.