Thomas Carmichael Hindman was an American lawyer, politician, and soldier. He served as a United States Representative from the 1st Congressional District of Arkansas, and Major General in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War.
Background
Thomas Hindman was born on January 28, 1828, in Knoxville, Tennessee, United States. He was the son of Thomas Carmichael and Sarah Holt Hindman. In 1832 the elder Hindman moved with his family to Jacksonville, Alabama, where he served as an agent for the federal government in Indian affairs, then in 1841 he moved to Mississippi and established a large plantation near Ripley.
Education
Hindman was sent to the local schools in Jacksonville and Ripley and for four years attended the Classical and Commercial High School at Lawrenceville, New Jersey before he graduated from Princeton College (now Princeton University) in 1846.
At the outbreak of the Mexican War Thomas Hindman at once volunteered, was made a lieutenant on the battlefield for conspicuous bravery, and served throughout the war. Soon after returning from the war he was admitted to the bar. He was interested in politics, and, being able as a speaker, in 1851 he canvassed northern Mississippi on behalf of Jefferson Davis against Henry S. Foote in the notable campaign for governor. In 1854 he was elected to the legislature.
In 1856 he moved to Helena, Arkansas, where he resumed the practice of law, and that year canvassed the district against the American party. Two years later, on the Democratic ticket, he was elected to Congress, where he took an active part in the contest over the election of a speaker in 1859. He was reelected in 1860 but never took his seat.
In the state election of 1860, Hindman and others joined in a revolt against the "Johnson family," which had controlled the local Democratic party since the state had been admitted to the Union, and brought out Henry M. Rector, who gained the election in opposition to R. H. Johnson, the regular nominee. After the election of Lincoln Hindman met Foote in a joint debate in Memphis, where Hindman took the position that the time for state action had come. On January 8, 1861, by which time President Buchanan was becoming less yielding to the South, Hindman and Senator R. W. Johnson advised the people of Arkansas to secede. The state convention which assembled on March 4 submitted the question to the people to be voted upon August 5. Hindman and others stumped the Union counties, but upon the bombardment of Fort Sumter, the convention reassembled and took the state into the Confederacy without waiting for a vote of the people. Because of trouble with Rector over martial law and conscriptions, Hindman deserted him in 1862 and supported Harris Flanagin for governor.
As soon as Arkansas seceded Hindman resigned from Congress, raised a regiment, and was soon in active service as a colonel. He displayed unusual military capacity and soon rose to the rank of major-general. He was assigned to the Trans-Mississippi Department, with headquarters in Arkansas, and assumed the task of appeasing those who were displeased with Davis' policy of stripping the West of troops. Being too vigorous in enforcing conscription and imposing martial law, he aroused great opposition among the politicians. To allay this opposition General T. H. Holmes was sent to supersede him. Thereupon Hindman took the field and fought with credit the drawn battle of Prairie Grove, December 7, 1862, and soon thereafter, at his own request, he was transferred to the East and took part in the fighting around Chattanooga. While serving under Johnston against Sherman on the road to Atlanta he was so badly wounded in the eye that he was disqualified for further service.
After the war he retired to Mexico to engage in coffee planting, but his wife did not like her new surroundings and in 1867 they returned to Arkansas. Against congressional Reconstruction Hindman again took up the cudgels. On one occasion, having listened to an inflammatory address to the negroes by Powell Clayton, he returned a hot answer. Shortly afterward he was shot by an assassin who fired through a window, killing the general as he sat quietly at home.
Achievements
Politics
Hindman was a member of the Democratic Party. He became a strong advocate for secession and when Arkansas withdrew from the Union he resigned his seat.
Views
Hindman became an outspoken advocate of conservative politics and African American suffrage, which made him many enemies.
Personality
Hindman's extreme actions of burning all the cotton fields, declaring martial law, and harsh treatment of troops made him very unpopular with civilians and troops. But he was credited with saving Little Rock from a Federal invasion.
Connections
Thomas married Mary Watkins Briscoe on November 11, 1856. They had two sons and a daughter.