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One of the wealthiest planters and largest slaveholders in the antebellum South, Hampton was widely regarded as a typical figure of the region's planter-aristocracy, and also respected for his wartime exploits and gentlemanly conduct. During his post-war political career, despite the partisan and racial conflicts that divided the region, he presented himself as a proponent for national unity and racial reconciliation.
One of the wealthiest planters and largest slaveholders in the antebellum South, Hampton was widely regarded as a typical figure of the region's planter-aristocracy, and also respected for his wartime exploits and gentlemanly conduct. During his post-war political career, despite the partisan and racial conflicts that divided the region, he presented himself as a proponent for national unity and racial reconciliation.
==Early Life==
Wade Hampton III was born on March 28, 1818, in Charleston, South Carolina, the first child of Wade Hampton Jr. and Ann Fitzsimons. The Hampton family had originally immigrated from [[England]] to [[Virginia]] in the early 17th century, later moving to the South Carolina frontier, where Hampton's grandfather (the first Wade Hampton) served as a prominent militia officer in the [[Revolutionary War]] (and would later lead a column of troops during the failed invasion of [[Canada]] during the [[War of 1812]]), and developed large plantations in the state as well as in [[Louisiana]] and [[Mississippi]]; many considered him the richest planter in the South. Wade Hampton Jr., who also fought in the War of 1812, eventually inherited his father's plantation empire and married Ann Fitzsimons, the daughter of a Charleston merchant.
The third Wade Hampton (the first of eight children) was raised partly in Charleston and partly at his parents' Millwood plantation near Columbia, South Carolina. He attended South Carolina College (the future [[University of South Carolina]]), graduating in 1836, and thereafter briefly studied law, though he never practiced. In 1838 he married Margaret Preston, daughter of a distinguished Virginia family, with whom he had four children. She died in 1852; six years later he married again, to Mary McDuffie, whose father had been a South Carolina governor.
Hampton was a private citizen until his 30s, though well-respected in the state on account of his social position. He managed the family properties in the various Southern states, taking over entirely after his father's death in 1858, and traveled extensively, including to Europe on one occasion. In 1852, he was elected to the state House of Representatives, serving until 1858 when he was in turn elected to the state Senate. He supported expansion of the state school system, the foundation of a penitentiary, and the construction of a new capitol building, among other improvements, with the development of a proper and humane insane asylum, and increased funding for his alma mater, South Carolina College, being particular pet causes of his.<ref>Walter Cisco, ''Wade Hampton: Confederate Warrior, Conservative Statesman'' (2004), p. 46-48.</ref>
==Civil War General==
Hampton, like most of the planter class, was a firm defender of the institution of [[slavery]] and of [[states' rights]], though he did not take an especially prominent role in the sectional debates of the 1850s. Early in the decade, he did oppose the movement for South Carolina to secede from the Union, and in 1859 spoke at length in the state Senate against a proposal to re-open the international slave trade, calling it "cruel and inhuman." A supporter of [[John C. Breckinridge]] in the 1860 presidential election, he was on hand for the secession convention that followed [[Abraham Lincoln]]'s election, and this time supported leaving the Union. Following the firing on [[Fort Sumter]] in April 1861, Hampton organized a so-called "legion" of about 1,000 infantry, cavalry, and artillery for service in the new Confederate Army, with himself as commander with the rank of colonel. "Hampton's Legion," as it was called, departed for Virginia that summer, seeing its first action in the [[First Battle of Bull Run]] on July 21, where it suffered heavy casualties but was praised by observers for its courage and skill under fire; Hampton himself was singled out as displaying "soldierly ability." The following June, he was promoted to brigadier general.
==References==
{{reflist}}
[[Category:American Civil War Commanders]]
[[Category:American Civil War Commanders]]