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D.H. Hill hated any and all things Yankee. His writings are littered with anti-Yankee statements. Even the word problems he created for an algebra textbook leaned decidedly against those who hailed from north of the Mason-Dixon Line. Anything that supported his world view was worth repeating. In the December 1866 (No. II, Vol. II, p. 147-148) issue of his magazine, The Land We Love, he published a story that South Carolina cavalry general Wade Hampton apparently told him:
“From a well-known cavalry officer, we get the next incident,” Hill wrote. “The day after the great battle of Spottsylvania C.H., General Lee was standing near his lines, conversing with two of his officers, one of whom was known to be not only a hard fighter but a hard swearer, but also a cordial hater of the yankees. After a silence of some moments, the latter officer, looking at the yankees with a dark scowl on his face, exclaimed most emphatically, ‘I wish they were all dead.’ General Lee, with the grace and manner peculiar to himself, replied, ‘how can you say so, General. Now I wish they were all at home, attending to their own business, leaving us to do the same.’ He then moved off, when the first speaker waiting until he was out of earshot, turned to his companion and in the most earnest tone said, ‘I would not say so before General Lee, but I wish they were all dead and in hell!’ When this ‘amendment’ to the wish was afterwards repeated to General Lee, in spite of his goodness, he could not refrain from laughing heartily at the speech, which was so characteristic of one of his favorite officers.” Where did this hate come from? It is a topic I am exploring in my research into the life of General Hill.
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