Transcription by Gary Dean Gardner, Independent Scholar
Sometimes there is no need to revise words already well written. In this case, I present a brief biography of Confederate Captain Lafayette Hewitt, interjected with additional material as quoted from Hardin County's first historian, Samuel Haycraft.
As LaRue County was carved from the southern portions of Hardin in 1843, it is regretful, yet understandable, that so many historical personages are credited to our neighboring county without due recognition of their actual place of birth or residency after the creation of Hodgenville as a county seat. Such is the case for the Hewitt brothers; Fayette, Virgil, and Fox, long forgotten as natives of LaRue County, and sadly never to be properly acknowledged and honored for their wartime valor in this modern era of needless shame and vilification of a society, and a war, we today fail to understand and have no right to morally judge in light of our own modern depravities.
Captain (General) Fayette Hewitt
15 October 1831 to 26 January 1909
The dashing Lafayette Hewitt in Confederate uniform
(La)Fayette Hewitt, president of the State National Bank of
Frankfort, is descended from an old French Huguenot family of that name who
settled on the James River, in Virginia, in 1689. His mother, Eliza Chastain, was also a
descendant of French Protestant refugees who were driven from France during the
bloody reign of Louis XIV., when, by his order, the Edict of Nantes was revoked
in 1685, forty thousand of the Huguenots left their native country and settled
in the American provinces. This country
has never had better citizens than those sturdy Huguenots and their
descendants. Many thousands of them are
among the most prominent people- in the pulpit, at the bar, and in the halls of
legislature, and there is no record to show that any one of them has ever
disgraced himself, his ancestors or his country.
General Fayette Hewitt’s father, Robert Hewitt, was a native
of Bedford County, Virginia, who came to Kentucky in 1829. His first teaching was at Hodgenville,
LaRue County. As soon as he removed to
Elizabethtown he took charge of* (and) He was for many years principal of
an (the Hardin) academy at Elizabethtown, Hardin county, and was a man of fine
scholarly attainments, who enjoyed a high reputation as an educator. He devoted his life to teaching but died at
the early age of thirty-nine years, in 1850.
He was a ripe scholar and, according to the custom of that day, was
compelled to use the rod liberally, as he had under his tuition a considerable
number of hard cases, and none but a man of his determination could have governed
them. He was remarkable for his modesty
and unobtrusiveness0 so much so that among stranger he would have passed for
half his worth. But with those who knew
him he was held in high esteem for his moral worth and integrity. *
John Hewitt (grandfather) was a native and farmer of Bedford
County, Virginia. He was a highly
respected citizen and in the War of 1812 he served his country well at the head
of his regiment. He died in his native
county in 1841.
Eliza Chastain Hewitt (mother) was a native of Frederick
County, Virginia; daughter of Rev. Louis Chastain, one of the early ministers
in the Methodist Episcopal Church, in Virginia, who was sent to Kentucky for
the purpose of organizing and building up churches. Mrs. Hewitt survived her husband, residing in
Elizabethtown until the day of her death in 1876.
General Hewitt was in in Hardin (now LaRue) County,
Kentucky, near the birthplace of Abraham Lincoln, October 15, 1831. He received his early education under the
careful instruction of his, who died when Fayette was eighteen years of
age. He at once succeeded his father as principal
of the school and continued the academy for ten years, fully sustaining the
high standards of the school, and making for himself a reputation as one of the
most competent educators in the State. He was compelled to resign in 1859, on account
of failing health, and went south for the purpose of recuperating.
In 1860 he received an appointment in the Post office
Department at Washington, under President Buchanan. This he resigned in March 1861, he
espoused the cause of the Confederacy and sent to Richmond to engage in the
war. The postmaster general of the
Confederate States, learning his whereabouts, immediately telegraphed him to
come on to Montgomery to aid in getting the postoffice department in working order. When the department got into successful
operation he resigned his position in order to take part in the arduous duties
of the field* and soon afterwards was appointed adjutant general under
President Davis of the Confederacy. He
served in this capacity in the trans-Mississippi department and with General Breckinridge
as adjutant general of a brigade, enduring all manner of hardships and
sufferings in behalf of the cause that was lost. He had three horses killed
under him, in different battles, and several bullets pierced his clothing, but he
escaped unhurt. He participated in many
bloody battles throughout the war, and distinguished himself as a daring,
gallant and fearless soldier.
When he returned home it had been his intention to practice
law, but the Kentucky legislature had
passed a law that no one who had been a soldier in the Confederate army
should practice law in the State, and he resumed the profession of teacher,
taking charge of a select female school at Elizabethtown. When the law prohibiting him from practicing
was repealed, a year later, he was at once admitted to the bar of Hardin
County. And made a successful beginning in the legal profession; but in 1867
Governor Stevenson appointed him quartermaster general, which office he held
until 1876, when he resigned and returned to Elizabethtown with the intention
of practicing law; but on account of the death of his brother, in Louisville,
re removed to that it to settle the estate.
In august, 1879, he was elected State auditor, and assumed
the duties of that office January 1, 1880.
He was twice re-elected State auditor, and held that office until
November, 1889, when he resigned to accept the presidency of the State National
Bank of Frankfort, since which time he has given his attention to the affairs
of that bank and to other financial matters, having been president of the
Frankfort Safety Vault & Trust Company since its organization, and being
general manager of the Kentucky Investment & Building Association.
Virgil Hewitt, brother of the general, was adjutant of the
Sixth Regiment Kentucky Infantry, C.S.A., in the brigade of General Joseph H.
Lewis; and was severely wounded a number of times in the hard-fought battles of
Tennessee & Georgia. He was county
clerk of Hardin County and deputy clerk of the Court of Appeals, and assistant
auditor of State until January 1896.
Another brother, Fox Hewitt, participated in some of the battles around Richmond,
and after the was clerk of the County Court of Hardin County.
Biographical Cyclopedia of the Commonwealth of Kentucky, Jn.
M Gresham Co., 1896, pp.108-109
*Haycraft, Samuel, A History of Elizabethtown, Kentucky
and Its Surroundings, 1921, pp. 144-148.
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