Representative Robert Hopkins Hatton

Robert Hopkins Hatton (November 2, 1826 – May 31, 1862) was a lawyer, state legislator, United States Representative from Tennessee, and a Confederate general during the American Civil War. He was born in Ohio, with sources differing as to whether his birthplace was Steubenville or Youngstown. His father, the Reverend Robert Clopton Hatton, was a Methodist preacher, and in 1842 the family moved from Ohio to Tennessee, a relocation that shaped Hatton’s subsequent legal and political career in his adopted state.

Hatton pursued higher education at Cumberland University in Lebanon, Tennessee, from which he graduated before undertaking legal studies at the Cumberland School of Law, also in Lebanon. After completing his legal training, he was admitted to the bar in 1850 and established a successful law practice in Lebanon. His professional standing in the community and his family’s religious and civic background helped position him for entry into Tennessee politics during a period of growing sectional tension in the United States.

Aligning himself initially with the Whig Party, Hatton entered public life as a state legislator. He was elected to the Tennessee State Legislature in 1855, where he served in the General Assembly and gained experience in legislative affairs. In 1857 he sought higher office as a candidate for governor of Tennessee, running as a Whig, but was unsuccessful in that bid. The collapse of the Whig Party in the late 1850s led Hatton, like many former Whigs, to affiliate with the emerging Opposition Party, which sought to provide a political home for Unionist and anti-Democratic elements in the South.

As a member of the Independent Party representing Tennessee, Hatton contributed to the legislative process during one term in office as a United States Representative. In 1858 he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives from Tennessee’s 5th Congressional District as an Opposition Party candidate, reflecting the realignment of former Whigs and other anti-Democratic forces in the state. He served in the Thirty-sixth Congress from March 4, 1859, to March 3, 1861, during a significant period in American history marked by escalating sectional conflict. In Congress, he participated in the democratic process and represented the interests of his constituents, and he served as chairman of the Committee on Expenditures in the Department of the Navy, overseeing aspects of federal fiscal accountability in naval affairs. During this period he was generally identified with efforts to preserve the Union and initially opposed secession.

Hatton’s views shifted dramatically with the outbreak of the Civil War. Although he had believed the Union should be preserved and had opposed secession before the firing on Fort Sumter, President Abraham Lincoln’s call for volunteers to suppress the Southern rebellion led Hatton to embrace the Confederate cause. Returning to Tennessee, he organized a local military company known as the “Lebanon Blues,” which was incorporated into the 7th Tennessee Infantry Regiment of the Confederate Army. Hatton was soon elected colonel of the regiment, reflecting both his local prominence and his leadership abilities. In July 1861 his regiment was sent to western Virginia, where it saw early service in the Confederate war effort.

In 1862 Hatton and the 7th Tennessee were ordered to the Richmond, Virginia, area to help defend the Confederate capital against the advancing Union forces during the Peninsula Campaign. Serving in the Army of Northern Virginia, Hatton distinguished himself in command, and on May 23, 1862, he was promoted to brigadier general of the 4th Brigade, 1st Division, Army of Northern Virginia. Although this appointment was not confirmed by the Confederate Congress, he was in active command of what was often referred to as his Tennessee Brigade. Just eight days after his promotion, on May 31, 1862, he was shot in the head and killed while leading his brigade in combat at the Battle of Fair Oaks (also known as Seven Pines), near Richmond.

Following his death, Hatton’s body was returned to Tennessee for burial. Because Middle Tennessee was under Federal occupation at the time, he was temporarily interred in Knoxville. After the war, on March 23, 1866, his remains were reburied with greater permanence and ceremony in Cedar Grove Cemetery in Lebanon, Tennessee, the community where he had built his legal and political career. His memory continued to be honored in the decades that followed. In 1912 a statue of Hatton was erected in the town square of Lebanon, commemorating his role as a local leader, congressman, and Confederate officer. The Robert H. Hatton Camp No. 723 of the Sons of Confederate Veterans was later named in his honor, reflecting his continued symbolic significance to some descendants of Confederate soldiers and to local historical memory in Tennessee.