Robert Hopkins HATTON, Congress, TN (1826-1862)

HATTON Robert Hopkins , a Representative from Tennessee; born in Steubenville, Jefferson County, Ohio, November 2, 1826; attended the common schools and was graduated from the Cumberland University, Lebanon, Tenn., in 1847; was a tutor in Cumberland University in 1847 and 1848; attended the law school of Cumberland University in 1848 and 1849; principal of Woodland Academy, Sumner County, Tenn., in 1849 and 1850; was admitted to the bar in 1850 and commenced practice in Lebanon, Tenn.; trustee of Cumberland University from 1854 until his death; member of the State house of representatives 1855-1857; unsuccessful candidate for Governor in 1857; elected as an Opposition Party candidate to the Thirty-sixth Congress (March 4, 1859-March 3, 1861); chairman, Committee on Expenditures in the Department of the Navy (Thirty-sixth Congress); colonel of the Seventh Regiment, Tennessee Volunteer Infantry, May 26, 1861; made brigadier general in the Confederate Army May 23, 1862; assigned to the command of the Fifth Brigade, First Corps, Army of Virginia; killed in the Battle of Seven Pines, near Richmond, Va., on May 31, 1862, interment in Cedar Grove Cemetery, Lebanon, Tenn.

Bibliography

Cummings, Charles M. ``Robert Hopkins Hatton: Reluctant Rebel.'' Tennessee Historical Quarterly 23 (June 1964): 169-81; Threatte, Bernard B. ``The Public Life of Robert Hatton, 1855-1862.'' M.A. thesis, Vanderbilt University, 1931.

Source: Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1771-Present