Robert Frederick Hoke

The 24 year old manager of his widowed mother's cotton mill and iron works in Lincoln County, he enrolled there and was commissioned 2nd Lieutenant, Company K, First North Carolina Infantry on 25 April 1861. He transferred to the 33rd North Carolina Infantry on 1 August as their Major and was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel on 17 January 1862.

He was promoted to Colonel of the 21st North Carolina Infantry to date from 5 August 1862, but remained with the 33rd Infantry through the battle at Sharpsburg (17 September 1862) while Colonel C.M. Avery remained absent, a POW since captured at New Berne in March 1862.

He led the 21st North Carolina at Fredericksburg, VA in December 1862 then was appointed Brigadier General (to date from 9 January 1863) and took command of Trimble's Brigade. He was wounded by a gunshot to his shoulder in action on the Chancellorsville Campaign in May 1863 and while recovering was in rear-area duty in North Carolina into 1864. He commanded all Confederate troops in Eastern North Carolina from April 1864 when he was promoted to Major General. By late 1864 he was back in Virginia and in action at Cold Harbor and around Petersburg. He was at Fort Fisher, NC and Wilmington in January 1865 and at Bentonville in March. He was surrendered with the army near Durham, NC on 26 April.

He was in gold and iron mining, insurance and railroads, being a director of the North Carolina Railroad Company.

His service from the Roster.1 Personal details from his bio sketch in the Dictionary of North Carolina Biography (1979-1996), online from NCPedia. His gravesite is on Findagrave. His picture from a CDV in the North Carolina Collection Photographic Archives at the University of North Carolina.

He married Lydia Ann Van Wyck (1849-1915) in January 1869 and they had 6 children.

Hoke County, NC, formed in 1911, was named for him.

05/27/1837; Lincolnton, NC

07/03/1912; Raleigh, NC; burial in Oakwood Cemetery, Raleigh, NC