Hill was in Iowa when the Civil War began. Hill helped raise the 35th Iowa Volunteer Infantry Regiment, of which he was appointed Colonel on September 18, 1862.[3] For the first several months of its existence the 35th Iowa was on garrison duty in Illinois and Kentucky until being ordered to join the Army of the Tennesseebesieging Vicksburg.[4] After the siege of Vicksburg, Colonel Hill assumed command of the 3rd Brigade, 1st Division, XVI Corps (Right Wing), a position he would maintain for much of the remainder of the war. Hill was wounded at the battles of Pleasant Hill and Yellow Bayou in 1864.[3] He returned to regimental command at the Battle of Tupelo but was back in command of the 3rd Brigade during Price's Missouri Raid.
Hill's final engagement came in December 1864 at the Battle of Nashville. On the first day of the battle Hill led his brigade against the Confederates on Montgomery Hill and was killed instantly from artillery fire from Redoubt No. 2. He was posthumously given a brevet promotion to brigadier general for his service at Nashville.[3][5]
^Eicher, 2001, p. 748 indicates that PresidentAbraham Lincoln nominated Hill for appointment to the grade of brevet Brigadier General of volunteers on December 12, 1864, to rank from December 15, 1864, and that the U.S. Senate confirmed the appointment on February 14, 1865. The nomination date seems prematurely wrong because the appointment was for gallant and distinguished services in the action of December 15, 1864. Hunt, Roger D. and Jack R. Brown. Brevet Brigadier Generals in Blue. Gaithersburg, MD: Olde Soldier Books, Inc., 1990. ISBN1-56013-002-4. p. 284. REED, D. W. (1903). Campaigns and battles of the Twelfth Regiment Iowa Veteran Volunteer Infantry from organization, September, 1861, to muster-out, January 20, 1866. p. 197-98. See https://books.google.com/books?id=rYovAAAAYAAJ&q=%22Col.+Hill%22.
Colonel
Brevet Brigadier General[1]
