19. Ambrose Powell Hill, United States Army, Confederate States Army
A. P. Hill graduated from the United States Military Academy in 1847. He attended the Academy at a time when such notables as Stonewall Jackson, George Pickett, George McClellan, Jesse Reno and other famed soldiers of the Civil War and the Plains Wars were cadets there. Hill did not distinguish himself in the areas of academics and discipline, contracting a venereal disease while on leave, which left him with recurring health problems for the rest of his life. He served in the Seminole and Mexican-American wars following graduation, after which he acted as a military adjutant to the Coastal Survey until 1860. In March, 1861, he resigned his army commission and accepted appointment as a Colonel of infantry in his native Virginia.
In 1862, Hill accepted promotion to Brigadier General in the Confederate States Army. He grew to become one of the ablest brigade and later division commanders in the army, serving with the corps commanded by Stonewall Jackson. Jackson and Hill did not get along well personally, though their professional partnership proved devastating to Union troops in multiple battles. After Jackson was killed at Chancellorsville, Hill took command of his corps. Hill was killed in action as the Confederate defenses at Petersburg crumbled in 1865, and is buried in Richmond, Virginia, beneath a monument erected to honor him in 1892.