Thomas C. Hindman (born Thomas Carmichael Hindman, Jr.; January 28, 1828 – September 27, 1868) was a lawyer, United States Representative from the 1st Congressional District of Arkansas, and Major-General in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War.[1]
Shortly after he was born in Knoxville, Tennessee, Hindman moved with his family to Jacksonville, Alabama, and later Ripley, Mississippi. After receiving his primary education in Ripley, he attended the Lawrenceville Classical Institute (now known as the Lawrenceville School) and graduated with honors. Afterwards, he raised a company in Tippah County for the 2nd Mississippi regiment in the Mexican–American War. Hindman served during the war as a lieutenant and later as a captain of his company. After the war, he returned to Ripley. He studied law, and was admitted to the state bar in 1851. He started a law practice in Ripley, and served as a member of the Mississippi House of Representatives from 1854 to 1856.
Hindman moved his law practice to Helena, Arkansas, after his term in the Mississippi House ended. He was elected as the Democratic Representative from Arkansas’s 1st congressional district in the Thirty-sixth Congress from March 4, 1859, to March 4, 1861. He was re-elected to the Thirty-seventh Congress, but declined to serve after the onset of the Civil War and Arkansas’ secession from the Union. Instead, Hindman joined the armed forces of the Confederacy. He was promoted to brigadier general on September 28, 1861, and to major general on April 18, 1862. He commanded the Trans-Mississippi Department, and later raised and commanded “Hindman’s Legion” for the Confederate States Army. After the war, Hindman avoided surrender to the federal government by fleeing to Mexico City. He worked in Mexico as a coffee planter and attempted to practice law. After the execution of Maximilian I of Mexico in 1867, Hindman submitted a petition for a pardon to United States President Andrew Johnson, but it was denied. Hindman, nonetheless, returned to his former life in Helena.[2] He became the leader of the “Young Democracy”, a new political organization that was willing to accept the Reconstruction for the restoration of the Union. He was assassinated on September 27, 1868, at his Helena home.[3]
American Civil War
As the Civil War approached, Hindman was a passionate voice for secession and was primarily Arkansas’s most prominent Fire-Eater. When Arkansas voted 65–5 to secede from the Union in May 1861, Hindman was present in the gallery of the convention.[55] With war approaching, Hindman resigned from Congress and recruited a regiment at Helena, which was mustered into Confederate service. He made a request to the state government for muskets, clothing and ten days of rations so that his men could “fight for our country”.[56] By June 1, Hindman had raised ten companies which would eventually become known as the 2nd Arkansas Infantry, with six companies stationed at Helena and four at Pine Bluff. He lost five companies who refused to leave the state to fight. Afterwards, Hindman followed orders to report to Richmond, Virginia.[57] He began the long journey with his regiment in June. By September, Hindman was promoted to the rank of brigadier general.[17] He and his regiment were shipped to Kentucky and reported to superiors William Hardee and Albert Sidney Johnston and the Army of Central Kentucky.
After the fall of Fort Henry and Fort Donelson in February 1862, Johnston abandoned Kentucky and Tennessee to consolidate his forces at Corinth, Mississippi. Fierce fighting at the Battle of Shiloh in April, soon followed. During the battle, Johnston and Hindman were wounded,[17] Johnston mortally. Command of the Army of Mississippi fell upon General P.G.T. Beauregard, who wrote the following in his report: “Brigadier General Hindman, engaged in the outset of the battle, was conspicuous for a cool courage efficiently employed in leading his men ever into the thickest of the fray, until his horse was shot under him, and he was unfortunately so severely injured by the fall that the army was deprived, on the following day, of his chivalrous example.”
After his recovery, Hindman was promoted to the rank of major-general and commanded the Second Corps of Braxton Bragg’s Army of Tennessee during the Siege of Corinth before being appointed commander of the desolate Trans-Mississippi Department to prevent an invasion into eastern Arkansas by Samuel Curtis.[17][58] Events in Arkansas had taken a terrible turn for the worse. Most units had been stripped from the state for service east of the Mississippi River. When Hindman arrived in Little Rock, he found that his command was “bare of soldiers, penniless, defenseless, and dreadfully exposed” to the Federal Army that was approaching dangerously from the northeast.[59]
Hindman set to work and issued a series of harsh military edicts, instituting conscription, authorizing guerrilla warfare and requisitioning supplies for the defense of the State.[60] Hindman also commenced a campaign of misinformation designed to mislead Federal authorities about the strength of the state’s defenses. He also diverted Texas troops bound for Virginia for use in defense of Arkansas.[61] This series of events, combined with harassing tactics, confused the Federal authorities, causing them to fear that they did not have an adequate supply line to conquer the state and soon diverted from a course towards the capital and instead moved to Helena to reestablish a solid supply line.[62]
In Charge Of “Hindman’s Legion”
Hindman’s edicts, however, raised the ire of the local citizenry, and his political enemies demanded that the Confederate leaders in Richmond replace him. By August 1862, the authorities in Richmond decided to replace him with the well-meaning but incompetent Theophilus H. Holmes.[63] Hindman convinced Holmes to give him a field command in northern Arkansas, and he proceeded with a plan to drive out the invader.[64] Hindman aggressively moved into northwest Arkansas and managed to intercept the Federal army while it was divided into two parts. At this moment, however, Hindman’s normally aggressive style gave way to uncharacteristic doubt. Rather than attack the divided pieces of the Federal army, Hindman entrenched himself at Prairie Grove, Arkansas, allowing the Federal forces to recombine and assault him.[65] Hindman’s position was well selected, but the better equipped and supplied Federal forces wore down the Confederate forces and Hindman was forced to withdraw back towards Little Rock, having missed his chance to destroy the Federal army. After the stalemate at Prairie Grove, Hindman was transferred back across the river and participated in the Battle of Chickamauga alongside his friend Pat Cleburne.[66]
After being wounded in the neck at Chickamauga,[67] Hindman and his Legion continued to fight along with the Army of Tennessee against General William Tecumseh Sherman in the Atlanta Campaign, seeing action across northwestern Georgia from the First Battle of Dalton, to the Battle of Resaca; the Battle of New Hope Church; the Battle of Kolb’s Farm; the Battle of Kennesaw Mountain, just outside Marietta, Georgia. On July 4, 1864, at Kennesaw Mountain, he was struck in the eye by a tree limb and fell off his horse. Hindman suffered severe injuries that left him unfit for service on the battlefield. He went to Atlanta and later Macon to recuperate from his injuries.[68] Afterward, Hindman hoped that he would be able to fight after a full recovery. He applied for a transfer to the Trans-Mississippi Department. His request was denied by the Confederate War Department, but Confederate President Jefferson Davis offered Hindman a leave of absence until he had fully recovered from his “physical disability”.[69]
After his leave of absence had been approved in August, Hindman set out for Texas. During their journey, Hindman’s second daughter, Sallie, died of an illness near Meridian, Mississippi.[70] Hindman arrived in San Antonio and settled there with his family for the time being. He was honored by military officials and residents on January 26, 1865.[71] By May 1865, Confederate generals in New Orleans signed a document with Union generals detailing the Confederate terms of surrender.[72] Hindman refused to surrender and, along with many other ex-Confederates, he crossed the Rio Grande into Mexico and sought asylum.[73]
Content retrieved from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_C._Hindman.