Joshua Hill (January 10, 1812March 6, 1891) was an American politician who served as a United States senator from the state of Georgia.

Joshua Hill was born in 1812, in the Abbeville District, South Carolina to Joshua Hill, Sr. and Nancy Ann Wyatt Collier. Hill married Emily Reid of Monticello in 1836, she was 16 years old. They had four daughters and one son.

Political career

U.S. House of Representatives

Hill is said to have had "strong Whig and Unionist principles" which aligned him with Whig Party until that organization dissolved in Georgia. During the later stages of the Civil War, Hill lost his only son during the Atlanta campaign in fighting near Lithonia, Georgia. When Hill went to retrieve his son's body, he stopped to speak with General William Tecumseh Sherman, with a request that Union troops under Sherman's command not burn the town of Madison which was on the path of Sherman's March to the Sea.

Death and legacy

Hill died in Madison on March 6, 1891, with interment in Madison Cemetery. He is remembered for his congressional work, obtaining the transfer of deed of the old U.S. Mint Offices in Dahlonega, Georgia to the fledgling North Georgia Agricultural College which later evolved into the University of North Georgia.

References

Relevant Academic Literature

  • Rice, Bradley. Joshua Hill of Madison: Civil War Unionist and Georgia's First Republican Senator, 1812-1891. Mercer University Press. .
  • Southern Living at the Joshua Hill house in Madison, Georgia