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 on May 17, 1861 and a major general on September 17, 1862. He commanded the 4th Division, Army of the Tennessee at the Battle of Shiloh and in the advance towards Corinth and the subsequent siege. He also led a division at the Battle of Hatchie's Bridge, taking command of the entire Union force after Gen Edward Ord was wounded.

Hurlbut commanded XVI Corps from his headquarters at Memphis, Tennessee. 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.

Gen Hurlbut 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. Hurlbut was suspected of peculation during his term as department commander.

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 to the U.S. House of Representatives as a Republican Congressman from Illinois. Elected for a second term in 1874, he was defeated for reelection in 1876. Hurlbut was made ambassador to Peru in 1881, where he had an embarrassing altercation with Gen. Hugh Judson Kilpatrick, U.S. minister to Chile during the War of the Pacific. Each had become a partisan of the country to which he was the US diplomatic representative. Hurlburt served as U.S. ambassador to Peru until his death in Lima in 1882.

Hurlbut and his spouse are buried together in Belvidere Cemetery, Belvidere, Illinois.