33 Facts About Eppa Hunton

Eppa Hunton II was a Virginia lawyer and soldier who rose to become a brigadier general in the Confederate Army during the American Civil War.

Eppa Hunton was their third son, after the twins John Heath Hunton and George William Hunton, who were born in 1826.

The elder Eppa Hunton appeared likely to have a similar career, becoming the brigade inspector and twice won election to the Virginia House of Delegates, but died unexpectedly young in Lancaster in 1830.

Eppa Hunton's mother's father, William Brent, was a lawyer who had fought in the American Revolutionary War, and had moved his family from the port of Dumfries in Prince William County to Bealeton in Fauquier County for safekeeping during that war.

Eppa Hunton taught the five sons of John Webb Tyler, who in turn helped him to study law and become admitted to the Virginia bar in 1843.

Eppa Hunton thus began his legal practice in Brentsville, the Prince William County seat.

Eppa Hunton became prominent in the local community, winning election as colonel, and later brigadier general, in the Virginia militia.

Tyler as circuit judge, Eppa Hunton was elected his successor as Commonwealth's attorney in 1848.

Eppa Hunton later described himself as a Democrat from his "earliest youth" like his father, and he was one of Virginia's delegates to the Democratic National Convention in 1856, and was a Breckenridge elector in 1860, later describing the multiple conventions that year that divided the Democratic party.

In 1848, Eppa Hunton married Lucy Caroline Weir, daughter of Robert and Clara Boothe Weir.

Considerably after the Civil War described below, Hunton's brother James died, and Eppa Hunton provided for his children, especially Bessie Marye Hunton, paying for her education and ultimately blessing her marriage.

At the Convention Eppa Hunton made many contacts which proved important later in his career, from former US President John Tyler, to Governor John Letcher, Lt.

Eppa Hunton take leave to visit his sick wife five miles from that battlefield, Eppa Hunton received several leaves from duty during the war due to a fistula which failed to heal, despite various surgeries, until he became a prisoner of war during the war's final days.

Eppa Hunton missed both the Battle of Williamsburg and the Battle of Seven Pines due to sickness.

Eppa Hunton rejoined Pickett's division and fought at Cold Harbor and defended Richmond and Petersburg siege lines.

Eppa Hunton recovered his health as a prisoner of war at Fort Warren, especially noting the professionalism of its commanding officer, a career officer from North Carolina named Wilson, and two local families.

Eppa Hunton learned they refused money offered them by a staff officer of Federal Major John W Turner, but managed to secure a $50 loan from family friend John H Reid, then survived on that money until Hunton's brother Silas managed to get to Lynchburg and escorted them to Culpeper, where they stayed with the family of Hunton's sister Elizabeth and brother in law, Lt.

Eppa Hunton later noted that two servant girls had accompanied his wife and family to and from Lynchburg, so that after returning from prison, he told them they were free, and paid their stage fare from Clarke County to their family in Alexandria.

Eppa Hunton thought the Freedman's Bureau created problems, and that he got along well with Gen.

Eppa Hunton defeated Republican Edward Daniels, a former abolitionist from Massachusetts who had moved into Gunston Hall and who later would become a Democrat.

Eppa Hunton noted the "Democratic wave" in the 1874 election, and that while Virginia only sent one other Democrat in 1872, he had seven democratic colleagues in the state delegation in 1874.

Eppa Hunton became chairman of the Committee on Revolutionary Pensions.

Meanwhile, Eppa Hunton was the only southerner appointed to the 15-member Electoral Commission created by an act of Congress in 1877 to decide the contests in various states in the presidential election of 1876.

On May 28,1892, Eppa Hunton was appointed to fill Barbour's senate seat, and won the subsequently election to fill that vacancy, serving until March 4,1895.

On or about April 1,1894, Eppa Hunton became indirectly involved in voting bribery attempts.

Senator Eppa Hunton availed himself of the first opportunity to disclose the matter to certain of his friends in the senate, as appears in the testimony, and was in no other way connected with the transaction.

Eppa Hunton remained active in the United Confederate Veterans in his later years.

Eppa Hunton wrapped up his final cases from Washington, DC, wrote his autobiography and lived the rest of his days with the growing young family at 8 Franklin Street in Richmond, grateful that a Richmond doctor had cured his vertigo, unlike the smaller town's doctors.

On October 11,1908, blind and deaf though previously vigorous, Eppa Hunton died at his son's home.

Eppa Hunton was buried in the city's Hollywood Cemetery with his wife Clara and many fellow Confederate veterans.

Eppa Hunton's name continues to be used within the family, currently by Eppa Hunton VI, who practices law in Richmond.

Eppa Hunton's home in Warrenton, Brentmoor is a historic site, although perhaps now better known for its links to its builder Judge Edward M Spilman or for its postwar occupant Confederate Colonel John Singleton Mosby.

Eppa Hunton's autobiography, originally only for family use and 100 copies of which were printed by his son in 1929, is a perspective on Virginia life in the 19th century.