Identity:

Wade Hampton was a cavalry commander in the army of the Confederacy during the American civil war.

Life:

The son of wealthy planters, he ran his plantations in South Carolina and the Mississippi Valley and held several public offices before the war. At the start of the war he raised and mostly equipped the Hampton Legion, which fought at First Manassas and took part in the Peninsula, Antietam and Gettysburg Campaigns. In September 1863 he became a major general and with General Jeb Stuart's death in May 1864 he took command of the cavalry corps.

He was twice elected governor of South Carolina after the war and served as a U.S. Senator until 1891.

Bibliography:

http://www.sciway.net/hist/governors/hampton.html (accessed 2003); http://www.nps.gov/pete/mahan/edbioswhn.html (accessed 2003)