Civil War Confederate Army Major General. He was born in Knoxville, Tennessee, one of six children of a planter and Indian agent. In 1841 the father bought a new plantation in Ripley, Mississippi where Thomas went to local schools and private schools, graduating with honors from Lawrenceville Classical Institute near Princeton, New Jersey. His Law studies were interrupted by the Mexican War. He was commissioned as a Lieutenant in the Second Mississippi Regiment under Colonel Clark and promoted to Captain. His company was assigned to garrison duty and saw no action. After the Mexican war he returned to Ripley and passed the bar exam. He moved to Helena, Arkansas and established a laws practice. His marriage to Mary Watkins Biscoe, the daughter of a wealthy planter enhanced his financial status and his political opportunities. He ran successfully for a seat in the United States House of Representatives in 1858 and was reelected in 1860. He became a strong advocate for secession and when Arkansas withdrew from the Union he resigned his seat. After Fort Sumter, he helped raise the Second Arkansas Regiment and was named as its colonel. By September of 1861 he had been promoted to brigadier general and was a brigade commander at the Battle of Shiloh where he received a minor wound when an artillery shell struck his horse. After this battle he was promoted to major general. He was dispatched to Little Rock and charged with the task of organizing the state against a Union invasion. His extreme actions of burning all the cotton fields, declaring martial law, and harsh treatment of troops made him very unpopular with civilian and troops. But he was credited with saving Little Rock from a Federal invasion. He was moved to Tennessee where he was wounded at the Battle of Chickamauga and again at the Kennesaw Mountain, the last leaving him partially blind and unable to return to duty. In 1866 the Federal Government indicted him for his activities during the war and he fled to Mexico City. Mexico did not work well for him and he returned to Helena in 1867. In the 1868 elections, he urged conservatives to take the oath of allegiance so they might vote against the Republicans. He was unique among the conservatives in that he encouraged acceptance of the African-American suffrage and organization of black voters into support of the conservative cause. On September 28, 1868, an assassin shot and killed him through a window in his home. The murderer was never apprehended nor a motive established. In 1887, former Confederate President Jefferson Davis penned a final tribute to Hindman, writing: "General Hindman was certainly endowed with high military attributes. Both in his civil and military career he displayed zeal and energy, marked by unswerving fidelity. Daring, without being rash, and looking beyond the event of the moment to the future result to be achieved, he possessed the instincts of a soldier, without which no amount of education can make a general."