Johnson Hagood (governor)

Johnson Hagood
Johnson Hagood
80th Governor of South Carolina
	In office; December 1, 1880 – December 1, 1882
Lieutenant	John D. Kennedy
Preceded by	Thomas Bothwell Jeter
Succeeded by	Hugh Smith Thompson
20th Comptroller General of South Carolina
	In office; December 14, 1876 – December 1, 1880
Governor	Wade Hampton III; William Dunlap Simpson; Thomas Bothwell Jeter
Preceded by	Thomas C. Dunn
Succeeded by	John C. Coit
Personal details
Born	Johnson Hagood; February 21, 1829; Barnwell, South Carolina
Died	January 4, 1898 (aged 68); Barnwell, South Carolina
Political party	Democratic Party
Spouse(s)	Eloise B. Butler
Alma mater	The Citadel
Profession	Planter, soldier, politician
Military service
Allegiance	Confederate States of America
Branch/service	Confederate States Army
Years of service	1861–1865
Rank	Brigadier general
Unit	1st South Carolina Infantry
Battles/wars	American Civil War Battle of Fort Sumter; Northern Virginia Campaign Second Battle of Bull Run; ; Second Battle of Fort Wagner; Overland Campaign Battle of Drewry's Bluff; Battle of Cold Harbor; ; Richmond-Petersburg Campaign; Wilmington Campaign Battle of Wilmington; ;

Johnson Hagood (February 21, 1829 – January 4, 1898) was a planter, soldier and military officer in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War, reaching the rank of Brigadier General in the state militia and regular Confederate Army in 1862.

After the war, he became a politician in the Democratic Party. After being elected in 1876 as Comptroller General and serving a term to 1880, he was elected after the Reconstruction era as the 80th Governor of South Carolina, serving a standard two-year term from 1880 to 1882.[1]

Early years

Born in 1829 in Barnwell, South Carolina to a planter family, Hagood attended the private Richmond Academy in Augusta, Georgia. He attended the South Carolina Military Academy (now The Citadel), graduating in 1847 at the top of his class. He was admitted to the bar in 1850, but never practiced law because he preferred the life of a cotton planter, attending to his plantation acres and the work of enslaved African Americans.

Civil War

When the Civil War broke out in 1861, Hagood volunteered and was enlisted a private of the First South Carolina Volunteers. He demonstrated remarkable skills in the military arts and rose rapidly through the ranks of the enlisted and subsequently as an officer. By 1862, due to his bravery in the field and considerable administrative acumen in camp, he was appointed a Brigadier General and Assistant Adjutant General of the South Carolina Militia. His first commission in the Confederate States Army was as a colonel in the 1st (Hagood's) South Carolina Infantry. He participated in the Battle of Fort Sumter and the Second Battle of Bull Run, receiving appointment to brigadier general, effective July 21, 1862.[2]

During the 1864 Overland Campaign, Hagood brought a brigade north to Petersburg, Virginia, and fought under Major General Robert F. Hoke in the battles of Drewry's Bluff and Cold Harbor. He and his men served in the entrenchments at the Siege of Petersburg until December 1864, when Hoke's Division was ordered to the relief of Fort Fisher. Hagood commanded Fort Anderson during the Battle of Wilmington.

Battle of Fort Wagner and later surrender

After defeating Colonel Robert Gould Shaw and the all-black 54th Massachusetts Regiment at the second Battle of Fort Wagner in July 1863, commanding Confederate General Johnson Hagood had the bodies of nearly all the dead Union officers returned to their lines, as was customary. But he deliberately had Shaw's body buried in a mass grave with his black soldiers, which was considered an insult. Like many Confederate officers, he believed that the African-American soldiers were fugitive slaves and characterized the attack on the fort as a slave revolt led by Shaw. Hagood reportedly told a captured Union surgeon that ordinarily the officer's body would have been released for burial, but said, "We buried him with his niggers."[3]

At the end of the war, Hagood's troops were serving under General Joseph E. Johnston in North Carolina. He may have surrendered with Johnston at Durham Station in April, 1865, although Hagood's brigade was then commanded by its senior colonel at the time.[4] No record of Hagood's parole has ever been found.[5]

Postbellum political career

After the war, Hagood resumed operating his plantation. Like other planters, he struggled with the change to free labor after slaves were emancipated. Many freedmen who had been associated with his plantation continued to work for him, but others left for towns and urban areas.

He resented the administration of Radical Republicans during Reconstruction. He actively campaigned for fellow Confederate general Wade Hampton in the 1876 gubernatorial contest and was elected on the Democratic state ticket as Comptroller General. The campaign season was marked by white violence against freedmen, to suppress their voting and defeat Republicans, and many county returns were noted for fraud, where intimidation of freedmen had continued by Democrats at the polls.

Hagood served one term. In 1880, he was nominated by the state Democrats for Governor and easily won the gubernatorial election that fall, as Democrats again suppressed black voting and the federal government had withdrawn its troops in 1877. Hagood's major achievement in his two-year term, to December 1882, was the reopening of The Citadel in 1882.

Hagood died in Barnwell on January 4, 1898. He was buried at Church of the Holy Apostles Episcopal cemetery.

Legacy and honors

Johnson Hagood Stadium at The Citadel was named in his honor.
Hagood, South Carolina is named for him, as well as several streets throughout South Carolina.

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Notes

[https://secure.citadelalumni.org/dcal/detail.php?id=5\ "Johnson Hagood", Citadel Alumni
Eicher, p. 272.
Burchard, Peter (1989). 'One Gallant Rush': Robert Gould Shaw and his Brave Black Regiment. New York: St. Martin's Press. pp. 143. ISBN 0-312-04643-X.
Bradley, p. 292
Eicher, p. 272; Warner, pp. 121-22.

References

Bradley, Mark L., This Astounding Close: The Road to Bennett Place, University of North Carolina Press, 2006, ISBN 0-8078-5701-7.
Eicher, John H., and David J. Eicher, Civil War High Commands. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2001. ISBN 978-0-8047-3641-1.
Sifakis, Stewart. Who Was Who in the Civil War. New York: Facts On File, 1988. ISBN 978-0-8160-1055-4.
Warner, Ezra J. Generals in Gray: Lives of the Confederate Commanders. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1959. ISBN 978-0-8071-0823-9.

External links

Party political offices
Preceded by Wade Hampton III	Democratic nominee for Governor of South Carolina 1880	Succeeded by Hugh Smith Thompson
Political offices
Preceded by Thomas Bothwell Jeter	Governor of South Carolina 1880–1882	Succeeded by Hugh Smith Thompson

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[1] [https://secure.citadelalumni.org/dcal/detail.php?id=5\ "Johnson Hagood", Citadel Alumni

[2] Eicher, p. 272.

[3] Burchard, Peter (1989). 'One Gallant Rush': Robert Gould Shaw and his Brave Black Regiment. New York: St. Martin's Press. pp. 143. ISBN 0-312-04643-X.

[4] Bradley, p. 292

[5] Eicher, p. 272; Warner, pp. 121-22.