Wade Hampton: Confederate Warrior, Conservative Statesman

by Walter Brian Cisco

On the eve of the American Civil War, Wade Hampton, one of the wealthiest men in the South and indeed the United States, remained loyal to his native South Carolina as it seceded from the Union. Raising his namesake Hampton Legion of soldiers, he eventually became a lieutenant general of Confederate cavalry after the death of the legendary J. E. B. Stuart. Hampton’s highly capable, but largely unheralded, military leadership has long needed a modern treatment. After the war, Hampton returned to South Carolina, where chaos and violence reigned as Northern carpetbaggers, newly freed slaves, and disenfranchised white Southerners battled for political control of the devastated economy. As Reconstruction collapsed, Hampton was elected governor in the contested election of 1876 in which both the governorship of South Carolina and the American presidency hung in the balance. While aspects of Hampton’s rise to power remain controversial, under his leadership stability returned to state government and rampant corruption was brought under control. Hampton then served in the U.S. Senate from 1879 to 1891, eventually losing his seat to a henchman of notorious South Carolina governor "Pitchfork" Ben Tillman, whose blatantly segregationist grassroots politics would supplant Hampton’s genteel paternalism. In Wade Hampton , Walter Brian Cisco provides a comprehensively researched, highly readable, and long-overdue treatment of a man whose military and political careers had a significant impact upon not only South Carolina, but America. Focusing on all aspects of Hampton’s life, Cisco has written the definitive military-political overview of this fascinating man. Winner of the 2006 Douglas Southall Freeman Award .

Genres: Biography

416 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 2004

Reviews

[Susan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Informative, detailed, but biased account of the life of Wade Hampton III.

[Jim · Rating 2 out of 5]

Incredibly disappointed. I was eager to learn about one of the Confederacy's lesser-known figures, but the author's bias and disregard for basic facts led me to stop reading after a few chapters. There's always a risk of bias with any topic, but biographies seem to be more susceptible. This is particularly true with Southern Civil War figures, especially those less-famous ones. I'm usually successful in choosing books and authors that present the facts for the reader without trying to lead them in a certain direction, allowing for a reasonably small amount of bias that exists in many works. However, this author showed himself to be an apologist for both the Southern cause and slavery as well as an obvious fan of Hampton in general. For example, someone with little or no knowledge of First Manassas would think Hampton singlehandedly decided the outcome based on the author's hyperbolic praise. My breaking point was his At one point, I dug a little deeper for other reviews and found some that confirmed my thoughts. In general, it seemed his intent was to write a glowing account of the subject rather than present the facts and let the reader decide how to interpret those facts. At best, the author was not able to present his thoughts in a manner and context that gave an objective view of Hampton and the Confederacy. At worst, he intentionally tried to glorify the subject and the Confederacy while vilifying the North. The truth is somewhere in the middle, but it was too close to the latter for my taste. Even though there are limited works on this particular figure, particularly unbiased ones, I don't recommend this to anyone looking for an objective view. To paraphrase one reviewer, a history professor at a Southern university, this effort did nothing to advance our understanding of Hampton or the planter class, which I think is being kind. I was generous with two stars simply because I learned a little about this figure from my home state that I didn't otherwise know.

[Jon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really great biography. I genuinely grieved at the end as I felt I lost a grandparent after reading this for a month. There were plenty of things here that I did not know because common education had not given me the privilege to really understand what Southerners were like during those times and certainly even today they are still portrayed negatively and backward- caricatures of a bigoted and unsophisticated people who fought for a detestable system. I have come across reviews that claim Hampton was just another racist person who served in the Confederacy and this book skims over that fact! While that might not be false it is not true either. Hampton's views towards blacks were not terribly unique during his time be it from someone in the Union or the CSA - both's perceptions were not really that different from each other of the 'colored folk'. Hampton's views towards blacks stem from observation of them as slaves but he had no problem changing his perception on educated blacks and often gave them positions in government and protected them from those who exploited them for political gain both by radical whites from the North and radicalized blacks who, in their fanatical views of social justice had become a menace to Southerners and notoriously corrupt during Reconstruction.

[Colin Darby · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had planned on giving this a one-star review, but Cisco accidentally makes an interesting point near the end, that Hampton was an aristocrat, and while he expected the privileges associated with that, he also felt a sense of obligation out of it, unlike Pitchfork Ben Tillman.

Nevertheless, I give this book three stars only grudgingly. According to Cisco, Lincoln maneuvered the south into firing the first shots - never mind that Anderson had withdrawn from Fort Moultrie to Fort Sumter where he was less likely to provoke a conflict, that Anderson had attempted to purchase supplies on the economy peacefully until cut off by the city of Charleston, and that President Buchanan had attempted to send a supply ship that was fired on from the shore batteries. You cannot simultaneously trigger an international incident by shooting at a ship, invite a guest speaker (Edmund Ruffin) to pull the lanyard on the first shot, AND claim to be the wronged party. Hampton himself claimed to hope to be able to loot Maryland or Pennsylvania, but God forbid someone loot South Carolina!

The entire book is full of things like this. I'd give it a hard one-star except for the accidental discussion of Hampton as a conservative moderating influence.

[George · Rating 2 out of 5]

I picked this up as I hadn't read all that much previously on General Hampton. I found the book surprising as the author is a South Carolinian and something of an apologist for the Confederacy, not something you see in most modern Civil War histories. The book is as much about his post Civil War politics as it is about his war time exploits. The author is clearly no fan of the Reconstruction period either, but he does make a valient effort to make Hampton into something of a racial moderate, at least in comparison to his contemporaries. However, given South Carolina's troubled racial history since the Civil War, I found it hard to admire Hampton's success in overcoming the Yankee occupation.

[Mike Bauldree · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book completely and shamelessly covers up the truth about the Red Shirts and rifle clubs of the post-Civil War South and their brutal and (unfortunately) successful campaign to strip all of the liberties of the freedmen after the Civil War.

The author seems unapologetic in his attempt to paint Hampton as a patriarch to the black man when, in reality, Hampton, Tillman and other notables of South Carolina used fear to limit the freedom of all non-whites.

Hampton was an incredible soldier but his post-war political activities are undeniably racist and only served to keep the South from advancing into the modern age.

The author's whitewashing of Hampton's post-war activities displays his own racist tendencies in my opinion.