Wade Hampton - Definition and Overview

There were three men in American history -- grandfather, father, and son -- called Wade Hampton:

1. Wade Hampton (1754—1835), captain in the War of Independence and brigadier-general in the War of 1812;
2. Wade Hampton (1791—1858), one of the wealthiest planters in the South; and
3. Wade Hampton (1818—1902), Confederate cavalry leader.

Wade Hampton (March 28, 1818–April 11, 1902) was a Confederate cavalry leader during the American Civil War and afterwards a politician from the U.S. state of South Carolina.

Hampton was born in Columbia, South Carolina. In 1836 he graduated at South Carolina College, and was trained for the law. He devoted himself, however, to the management of his great plantations in South Carolina and in Mississippi, and took part in state politics and legislation.

Though his own views were opposed to the prevailing state-rights tone of South Carolinian opinion, he threw himself heartily into the Southern cause at the beginning of the Civil War in 1861, raising a mixed command known as "Hampton’s Legion," which he led at the First Battle of Bull Run. During the war he served in the main with the Army of Northern Virginia in Stuart's cavalry corps. After Stuart's death in 1864, Hampton distinguished himself greatly in opposing Sheridan in the Shenandoah Valley, and was made lieutenant-general to command Robert E. Lee's whole force of cavalry. In 1865 he assisted Joseph E. Johnston in the attempt to prevent Sherman's advance through the Carolinas.

After the war his attitude was conciliatory and he recommended a frank acceptance by the South of the war's political consequences. He was governor of his state from 1876 to 1879, being installed after a memorable contest; he served in the United States Senate from 1879 to 1891, and was United States commissioner of Pacific railways from 1893 to 1897.

Further reading

E. L. Wells: Hampton and Reconstruction (Columbia, S. C., 1907).

This article incorporates text from the public domain 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica.

Wade Hampton is also a town in South Carolina, USA.