Eppa Hunton

He studied law, and was admitted to the bar in 1843. He was very active in state politics and served in the state militia, rising to the rank of brigadier general. At the outbreak of the war, he was serving as Commonwealth Attorney at Brentsville.

When the Virginia Secession Convention was organized following Lincoln's election, Hunton was elected to the convention as an "Immediate Secession Candidate." He continued to press his fellow delegates for secession throughout the crisis, "taking the peculiar position of favoring secession for the sake of the Union, arguing that if all the Southern States promptly withdrew, war would be avoided, and reconstruction on favorable and lasting terms would soon follow" (Conf Mil Hist, Vol III). Once Virginia left the Union, Hunton immediately resigned his seat and applied for a commission. Governor John Letcher appointed him colonel of the 8th Virginia Volunteer Infantry Regiment, then being organized at Leesburg, Virginia.

He led his Regiment at 1st Manassas and on the Penninsula. When the Brigade commander Brigadier General Pickett was wounded at Gaines' Mill, Col Hunton assumed command of the brigade. He did well at the Second Battle of Manassas, but at the start of the Maryland Campaign the brigade was given to Brigadier General Richard Garnett, and Hunton returned to command of the 8th Virginia.

He commanded the regiment in Maryland.

Col Hunton was at the head of his Regiment in Pickett's Charge at Gettysburg, where he was seriously wounded. Hunton was promoted to the rank of brigadier general on August 9, 1863, and received command of Garnett's Brigade. He led the Brigade through the Wilderness, Sportsylvania, Cold Harbor, and Petersburg, to it's end with capture at Saylor's Creek in April 1865. Hunton was sent to Fort Warren, in Boston Harbor, until he was paroled in July 1865.

Hunton moved to Warrenton, Va following the Civil War and established a law practice. Elected to Congress in 1872, he continued to serve the northern district of Virginia until 1881, He was appointed to the United States Senate in 1892, and served in that body until 1895.

His photograph from one published in his Autobiography (1933), which is online thanks to the Internet Archives.

For more, see a biography from the Mosby Museum, from which much of the material above is quoted. His page from the Confederate Military History is also online courtesy of the Virginia in the Civil War site.

9/23/1823; Fauquier County, VA

10/11/1908; Richmond, VA; burial in Hollywood Cemetery, Richmond, VA