Background
Hugh Judson Kilpatrick was born on January 14, 1836 on the family farm in Wantage Township, near Deckertown, New Jersey, United States. He was the son of Simon Kilpatrick, a farmer, and Julia Wickham.
Diplomat military politician Soldier
Hugh Judson Kilpatrick was born on January 14, 1836 on the family farm in Wantage Township, near Deckertown, New Jersey, United States. He was the son of Simon Kilpatrick, a farmer, and Julia Wickham.
Kilpatrick received a common-school education and entered West Point in 1856 as Judson Kilpatrick, graduating May 6, 1861--a month earlier than usual--as second lieutenant, 1st Artillery. He is said to have possessed more than ordinary ability--graduating seventeenth in a class of forty-five members.
In 1861 Kilpatrick was appointed the captain of the 5th New York Volunteers (Duryée's Zouaves). He left with his regiment for Fort Monroe, Virginia, in time to participate in the battle of Big Bethel, June 10, 1861, in which he was severely wounded. His gallant service won for him appointment as lieutenant-colonel, 2nd New York Cavalry, and thereafter until the end of the Civil War he had almost continuous field-service with cavalry.
When General McClellan transferred the Army of the Potomac to the James River, Kilpatrick assisted in covering the defenses of Washington with his cavalry, and for two years he took an active part in cavalry operations of the Army of the Potomac: in the Department of the Rappahannock (March-July 1862); in the Northern Virginia campaign (August-September 1862), where he was constantly and gallantly fighting Stuart's cavalry; and in the Rappahannock campaign (January-June 1863).
At Beverly Ford he commanded a brigade and participated in the ill-fated Stoneman's raid where he destroyed immense quantities of enemy's stores and penetrated to within two miles of Richmond. He was promoted brigadier-general of volunteers on June 13, 1863 and shortly afterward commanded a cavalry division in the engagements of Aldie, Middleburg, and Upperville, Virginia. For gallant and meritorious services at Aldie he was brevetted major in the regular army. He took an active and successful part at the battle of Gettysburg in cavalry assaults upon the Confederate right flank, and in pursuit of the defeated enemy. In subsequent operations in Central Virginia (August-November 1863), he initiated the Kilpatrick raid on Richmond, with the object of releasing Federal prisoners in Libby Prison--an operation ably executed but barren of results.
Thereafter he was transferred to command of the 3rd Cavalry Division, Army of the Cumberland, assembling in northern Georgia for the campaign against Atlanta, and for conspicuous services at the battle of Resaca, where he was again severely wounded, he was brevetted colonel in the regular army. He joined Sherman's march to the sea while still unable to ride a horse, and in the invasion of the Carolinas which followed, his cavalry division performed valuable service. He was brevetted on March 13, 1865 brigadier-general and major-general respectively for gallant and meritorious services in the capture of Fayetteville, North Carolina, and in the campaign in the Carolinas.
After the war, Kilpatrick resigned from the army and entered politics, receiving appointment as United States minister to Chile (1865 - 1868). But after Grant's second campaign for the presidency, Kilpatrick was recalled and joined the Democratic party in supporting Horace Greeley. In the year 1876 he again became a Republican and in 1880, while a director of the Union Pacific Railroad, was nominated for Congress from his native state but was defeated. In the same year he was a delegate to the Republican National Convention and in March 1881 was reappointed by President Garfield United States minister to Chile. While involved in a diplomatic controversy with Stephen A. Hurlbut, United States minister to Peru--Chile and Peru being then at war--he died at Santiago of kidney trouble.
Kilpatrick was a member of the Republican party.
Kilpatrick was an eloquent, magnetic, and forceful public speaker.
In 1861 Kilpatrick married Alice Nailer of New York who died during the Civil War. He was later married to a Chilean.