Stephen A. Hurlbut
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Stephen A. Hurlbut

Stephen Augustus Hurlbut (November 29, 1815 – March 27, 1882), was a politician, diplomat, and commander of the U.S. Army of the Gulf in the American Civil War.

Biography

Born in Charleston, South Carolina, Hurlbut studied law and was admitted to the South Carolina bar in 1837. During the Second Seminole War, he served as adjutant of a South Carolina infantry regiment. In 1845, Hurlbut moved to Illinois, established a law practice in Belvidere. He was a presidential elector for the Whig Party in the 1848 Presidential Election. He was elected to the Illinois House of Representatives in 1859 and again in 1861.

When the Civil War erupted, Hurlbut joined the Union Army and became a brigadier general in 1861 and a major general in 1862. He commanded the 4th Division of Army of the Tennessee at the Battle of Shiloh and in the advance towards Corinth and its subsequent siege. It has been suggested by the historian Bertram Korn that, during his garrison duty at Memphis, Tennessee, Hurlbut issued antisemitic orders confiscating Jewish property and preventing Jews from trading.^[1] He led a corps under William T. Sherman in the 1864 Meridian expedition. Hurlbut subsequently commanded the Department of the Gulf, succeeding Nathaniel P. Banks and serving in that capacity for the remainder of the war.

After mustering out of the Union Army on June 20, 1865, Hurlbut was one of the founding fathers of the Grand Army of the Republic, of which he served as commander-in-chief from 1866 to 1868.

He was appointed Minister Resident to Colombia in 1869, where he served three years. In 1872, Hurlbut was elected as Republican from Illinois to the U.S. House of Representatives, reelected in 1874, he was defeated for reelection in 1876. Hurlbut was made ambassador to Peru in 1881, where he served until his death in Lima. He and his spouse are buried together in Belvidere Cemetery, Belvidere, Illinois.

See also

American Civil War portal

• List of American Civil War generals

References