Full Name:
- Robert Hatton
Birth Date:
- November 2, 1826
Birth Location:
- Steubenville, Ohio
Parents:
- Robert Clopton and Margaret (Campbell) Hatton
Education:
- Cumberland University (1847)
Occupation:
- Lawyer
- Military officer
Career Summary:
- U.S. Congressman
- Brigadier General (CSA)
Spouse:
- Sophie K. Reilly (1852)
Place of Death:
- Henrico County, Virginia
Date of Death:
- May 21, 1862
Place of Burial:
- Cedar Grove Cemetery, Lebanon, Tennessee
Significance:
- Robert Hatton was born at either Youngstown or Steubenville, Ohio, on November, 2 1826.
- Robert Hatton was one of six children of Robert Clopton Hatton, a Methodist Episcopal minister, and Margaret Campbell Hatton.
- Robert Hatton’s family lived in various locations in Eastern Ohio and Western, Pennsylvania before relocating to Nashville, Tennessee in 1835.
- In 1845, Robert Hatton entered Cumberland University in Lebanon, Tennessee as a member of the junior class even though he was only eighteen years old.
- Robert Hatton graduated from Cumberland University in Lebanon, Tennessee in June 1847.
- Robert Hatton studied law at Cumberland University in 1848.
- Lacking funds to complete his law studies at Cumberland University, Robert Hatton left school in 1849 to serve as principal and teacher at Woodland Academy in Sumner County.
- Robert Hatton passed the Tennessee bar exam in 1850.
- Robert Hatton married Sophie K. Reilly of Williamson County on December 16, 1852.
- While living in Lebanon Tennessee, Hatton became an active member of the Whig Party.
- In 1855, voters elected Robert Hatton to serve in the General Assembly of Tennessee for two years.
- In 1857, Robert Hatton made an unsuccessful bid for the governorship of Tennessee.
- As the Whig Party began to dissolve in the South during the late 1850s, Robert Hatton changed his party affiliation to the Opposition Party, which was generally opposed to secession and to the extension of slavery into U.S. territories.
- In 1858, voters elected Robert Hatton to the U.S. House of Representatives. Hatton served in the 36th Congress from March 4, 1859 to March 3, 1861.
- During his tenure in Congress, Robert Hatton was Chairman of the Committee on Naval Affairs.
- Although Robert Hatton opposed secession, he cast his lot with his home state of Tennessee when President Abraham Lincoln issued his call for volunteers to put down the rebellion in the South.
- In 1861, Robert Hatton formed the Lebanon Blues a Confederate military company of about 100 soldiers.
- On May 27 1861, the men of the 7th Tennessee Infantry Regiment elected Robert Hatton elected Hatton as their regimental colonel.
- Robert Hatton’s regiment served under Robert E. Lee during the Confederacy’s Operations in Western Virginia in the fall of 1861, and they served under Stonewall Jackson during the Shenandoah Valley Campaign in the spring of 1862.
- On May 23, 1862, Robert Hatton was promoted to brigadier general commanding the 5th brigade, 1st division, 1st corps, of General Joseph Johnston’s Army of Northern Virginia. Eight days later, on May 31,
- While leading his troops in an assault against Union soldiers on Nine Mile Road, during the Battle of Seven Pines, Robert Hatton was felled by a rifle or cannon shot to the head and he died instantly.
- After the battle of Seven Pines, Robert Hatton’s body was sent west and buried at Knoxville, Tennessee.
- After the Civil War, Robert Hatton’s body was disinterred and sent to Lebanon, Tennessee where it was reburied at Cedar Grove Cemetery on March 23, 1866.
- In 1912 the citizens of Lebanon, Tennessee erected a memorial statue of Robert Hatton on the town square.
- Robert Hatton was one of six generals in the Confederate Army who was born in Ohio.