Who is Holding Down the Fort? D. H. Hill and the July 1863 Defense of Richmond

Two sessions- 11:00am - 12:00pm; repeated 2:00pm to 3:00pm.

Seizing the initiative following his astounding victory at Chancellorsville, Robert E. Lee gathered all available Confederate forces for an invasion of the North. The Department of North Carolina, commanded by Lee’s former lieutenant, D.H. Hill, was expanded to include Virginia south of the James River. Hill deals with the shocking personal loss of his brother-in-law, Stonewall Jackson, and the loss of his best troops to Lee’s Army, now 200 miles away, when Richmond is threatened by Federal attacks. Panicky citizens and a nervous War Department ecstatically acclaim Hill and his men, who marched from Petersburg to defend the Capital on July 4, 1863, a day that otherwise, brought disastrous news from Vicksburg and Gettysburg. Based on actual letters, Doug & Terri Batson give first person impressions of D.H. and his wife, Isabella, for this unsung Civil War Sesquicentennial event.