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Re: Is this Gen. A.P. Hill?
In Response To: Re: Is this Gen. A.P. Hill? ()

R.D.
Thanks ever so much for your opinion. It tends to support what my therory has been that this is probably is Gen. Hill. The only Identification that came with the Image was the mans name was "Powell". Gen. Hill's middle name of course was Powell and he was known by and to his men as "little Powell". so the Identification that could be expected to be associated with his image if it was taken for or given to a friend would be "Powell". Then you add in the close similarity in facial features. with the exception of sideburns he is dead ringer for the man. even down to the way he is wearing is hair. on the actual image you can mame out the same curl going over the right ear and flowing curls on his left side. from there I tried to see what else fit. even though hes not wearing uniform with insignia. I have found 25 differant citations in books describing him in the field and they all state. "plainly but neatly dressed absent any rank insignia" or "wearing a gray sack coat" or "preferring the ease of his sack coat to his General's uniform" and the list goes on. Then you look at the boy and see a definate CS uniform even with a gilted hat cord. leading me to believe it was wartime related. what it came down too, was I have been in contact with 5 museums and 2 leading authorities on Hill. the MOC was one of them. and they all said they are 99% sure it is him, but none of them wanted to put their reputation on the line and say it is him. being a Civil War re-enactor/ living historian and Image collector for over 32 years my only goal was to make the image availabe to the CW community if it is him. so after 7 years of trying to locate some difinative proof. I just decided to bring out as "possible Image" of A.P Hill and let the CW community help as a whole. I have been trying to find that one piece of information that can tilt the scale one way or the other. so far my two strongest leads have been the clothing. I am currently trying to get a reposnce back from a Clothing Museum in Maine as a gentleman who claims to have 40 years expieience dealing with clothing, feels the wide lapel and low cut vest is more indicative of 1875. then I had this "author" of two books on Civil War Saddles stating that he felt what he saw defiantly wouldnt be appropriate for a general. and I happened accross your thread which happend to disprove his comment indicating that Hill was known to use a Texas hope saddle. Thats why I havent given up when someone says it cant be him because........
I will ask you one other question if I can. the man who said he doubts it could be Hill because of the saddle also mentioned "no respecting General would ever be seen on a horse like the one in the Picture" he gave a few reasons why. do you know much about Horses? his reasons were the the Horse is extremely Cow-hocked and poor cofiguration and looks more like a common cob horse and he even stated "the horse would be an emabarresment to a military officer" I know nothing about Horses! I thought maybe what he was seeing was movement in the legs or something like the horse was backing up when the pic was taken. I dont know. I am not saying this horse is "Champ" but if Hill was to have his photo taken in the field. and with the inclusion of a backdrop the concept was to get a waist up image of a man sitting on a horse. I would have thought he would want to have been photographed on his favorite horse Champ. the only thing known about champ is that he was Hills Favorite. it was a stallion and was described as "dapple-gray" or steel gray. he took him off the battle field at Ceder Mtn and kept him the entire war and was even shot off of him. Sgt Tucker, who was with Hill when he was shot, actually took Champ by the reigns and rode back to Lee's HQ's to inform him and was qouted as saying he switched to Champ because Hill's horse was fresher and faster. so, could this horse meet that based on what can be seen in the image? Hill did have two horse's so this may not even be Champ. in that case is the Horse worthy of a field horse that a general would rely on? any thoughts on that? Thanks. Sam

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Is this Gen. A.P. Hill?
Re: Is this Gen. A.P. Hill?
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Re: Is this Gen. A.P. Hill?