Schools
D.H. Hill: Christian General and Confederate Scapegoat
Confederate General Daniel Harvey Hill, 1861-62 Commander of the Potomac District headquartered in Leesburg, returns to Mt. Zion in the person of guest speaker Douglas Batson, a Defense Department geographer and historian, to give a two-part program. At 1:30 pm, General Hill, a prolific writer on Christian thought before the war, will give a sermon from the pulpit of Mt. Zion. The Civil War-era sermon will include references to the Dix-Hill Cartel, the prisoner-of-war exchange protocol that Hill and his Union counterpart signed on July 22, 1862, one hundred and fifty years ago to the day. At 3:30 pm, General Hill will step away from the pulpit and comment on his role in the 1862 Maryland Campaign, which began with his division being the first of the Army of Northern Virginia to cross in to Maryland at White’s Ford. En route to the fateful Battle of Sharpsburg (known as Antietam in the north), Lost Order 191, addressed to D.H. Hill, would prove to be pivitol.
Doug Batson holds a Master of Education from Boston University and Bachelor’s degrees in history and geography. Retired from the U.S. Army Reserve, he was awarded the Bronze Star Medal during Operation Desert Storm. His Living History website is at www.dhhill.org.