He Changed His Position

Confederate Colonel Robert Hopkins Hatton was killed May 31^st 1862 at the Battle of Fair Oaks [also called the Battle of Seven Pines].

Robert Hopkins Hatton was born November 2^nd 1826 in Steubenville, Ohio.  While still a child his family moved to Tennessee.  He would receive a degree from the Cumberland University, pass the bar and begin a law practice in Lebanon, Tennessee in 1850.  He became a member of the Whig Party and won a seat in the Tennessee State Legislature in 1855 and to the United States Congress in 1858.  While in Congress Hatton was the chairman of the Committee on Expenditures in the Department of the Navy.

Hatton wished to see the Union preserved and opposed secession, but after President Abraham Lincoln made his call for troops Hatton changed his position.  He raised the Lebanon Blues, which became a part of the 7^th Tennessee Infantry, and was elected the Colonel of the Regiment.  In 1862 Hatton and the 7^th were part of the troops protecting Richmond, Virginia from Union Major General George B McClellan during the Peninsula Campaign.

On May 31^st 1862 while leading troops at the Battle of Fair Oaks, Hatton was shot in the head and killed.  His body was sent back to Tennessee, but as Middle Tennessee was held by the Union his body was temporarily placed in Knoxville.  He would be reentered in 1866 in the Cedar Grove Cemetery in Lebanon, Tennessee.

A New Commander

At the Battle of Seven Pines [also called the Battle of Fair Oaks], Confederate General Joseph Eggleston Johnston was wounded, and the command of the Army of Northern Virginia was turned over the next day June 1^st 1862 to General Robert E Lee.

Confederate General Joseph Eggleston Johnston was criticized by Confederate President Jefferson Davis for a lack of aggressiveness.  He was the senior commander at the First Battle of Manassas, and was defending the Confederate capital of Richmond, Virginia in 1862 against a superior number of Union troops commanded by Major General George B McClellan.  Facing greater numbers Johnson wanted to concentrate his force in fortifications around Richmond, but was overruled by Davis.  First he prepared for a siege at Yorktown, but then withdrew to Williamsburg where he fought a battle on May 5^th 1862.  On May 7^th 1862 Johnson’s men turned back an amphibious attack at Eltham’s Landing.  Each movement however placed Johnson’s army closer to Richmond, until he was only about six mile away.

A part of the Peninsula Campaign, at the Battle of Seven Pines Johnson was operating on the offensive.  Seeing that McClellan’s army was divided by the flooded Chickahominy River, he attacked on May 31^st 1862.  The battle was a tactical draw, but it halted McClellan’s advance.  Johnson was wounded about dusk, in the right shoulder and chest by an artillery shell.  He was evacuated to Richmond, Virginia.  That day, June 1^st 1862 the command of the Army of Northern Virginia was turned over to his West Point classmate Robert E Lee.

He Received The Masonic Sign

A member of the 140^th Pennsylvania Infantry, Henry Harrison Bingham received his commission on August 22^nd 1862 to First Lieutenant.

Henry Harrison Bingham was born December 4^th 1841 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.  He attended Jefferson College in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania, and would graduate with a law degree from Washington and Jefferson College in Washington, Pennsylvania.

Bingham enlisted in the Union Army, and was commissioned First Lieutenant in the 140^th Pennsylvania Infantry August 22^nd 1862.  During the Battle of Gettysburg he was part of Union Major General Winfield Scott Hancock’s Second Corps.  He was near the Angle as Pickett’s Charge came to its conclusion.  Bingham would be the man to whom Confederate Brigadier General Lewis Addison Armistead gave the Masonic sign after being wounded. [Although this story has been discounted recently.] Bingham who was a Captain would come to Armistead’s aid, receive his personal effects and tell Hancock the news of his old friend.  During the Battle of Wilderness Bingham was the aide-de-camp to Union Major General Gouverneur Kemble Warren.  As a Captain in Company G of the 140^th Pennsylvania on May 6^th 1864 he "rallied and led into action a portion of the troops who had given way under fierce assaults of the enemy."  For this action he would be awarded the Medal of Honor.  Bingham was wounded at the Battle of Spotsylvania and captured at the Battle of Fair Oak.

After the war Bingham was appointed by President Andrew Johnson to Postmaster of Philadelphia, a post he held until December 1872.  He was a delegate at the Republican National Conventions from 1872 through 1900.  He was a Congressman from 1879 until his death, serving as the Chairman of several committees.  Bingham died March 22^nd 1912 in Pennsylvania and is buried in the Laurel Hill Cemetery in Philadelphia.

Second Time At Fair Oaks

As a part of the Petersburg / Richmond Campaign, the Second Battle of Fair Oaks was fought on October 28th 1864.

Ulysses S Grant ordered an assault on Fair Oaks to draw attention from a larger Federal offensive around Petersburg. A combination of Union forces lead by Major General Benjamin Butler’s 10th attacked Confederate defenses along the Darbytown Road, and marched north to Fair Oaks. The Union troops were repulsed my Major General Charles W Field’s Confederate soldiers. The Rebels took some 600 Union soldiers prisoners with another 500 killed or wounded. The Confederates lost only 450. The diversion didn’t work as the Union troops failed to move around the end of the Confederate lines.