Gen. A. P. Hill, C.S.A between 1860 and 1865. Congress/Wikimedia Commons/Public Domain.
11. Confederate General Ambrose Powell Hill, Jr. Had Gonorrhea
Ambrose Powell Hill, Jr., better known as AP Hill, began his rise to prominence in American military history during the Mexican-American War. Hailing from Culpepper, Virginia, when the state seceded, his allegiances lay with the newly-formed Confederate States of America. He joined the Confederacy’s military and quickly rose through the ranks to become a general. He led a unit known as the Light Division, possibly because of the quick speed with which they moved, and proved to have decisive leadership during the Second Battle of Bull Run and Battle of Fredericksburg.
Hill contracted gonorrhea while he was studying at West Point (where he was ironically friends with to-be Union General George McClellan). He was forced to miss so many classes due to an illness that he had to repeat his third year. In fact, Hill’s gonorrhea may have had a hand in the Confederates losing the Civil War, as his inflamed genitalia caused him to be ineffective at the Battle of Gettysburg and other, smaller battles. He would be struck by bouts of illness throughout the Civil War, which sidelined him and forced his unit to fall under different leadership. He died at the Third Battle of Petersberg, just a week before the war ended and General Robert E. Lee surrendered to General Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Courthouse.