Wade Hampton I
Wade Hampton was an American military officer, planter, and politician who served in the American Revolutionary War and War of 1812. Sitting in the United States Congress for two terms, Hampton was one of the wealthiest planters and largest Slavery in [the United States|slaveowners] in the United States at the time of his death. In addition to suppressing the 1811 [German Coast uprising], a slave rebellion in Louisiana, he is also known for leading American forces to defeat at the 1813 Battle of the Chateauguay.
Early life
Sources vary on Hampton's exact birth year, listing it as 1751, 1752, or 1754. He was the scion of the politically important List of [United States political families (H)#The Hammonds, Hamptons and Prestons|Hampton family], which was influential in South Carolina state politics almost into the 20th century. His second great-grandfather Thomas Hampton was born in England before moving to the English colony of Virginia. Thomas Hampton's father, William, a wool merchant, sailed from England and appears on the 1618 passenger list of the Bona Novo. The ship was blown off course and arrived in Newfoundland. It would arrive in Jamestown the following year, 1619. He would send for his wife and three children to arrive in Jamestown in 1620.Military career
Hampton served in the American Revolutionary War as a captain in the 2nd South Carolina Regiment and as the colonel (United States)|lieutenant colonel] of a South Carolina volunteer cavalry regiment. He was a Democratic-Republican member of Congress for South Carolina from 1795 to 1797 and from 1803 to 1805, and a presidential elector in 1800. He was appointed to the U.S. Army as colonel of Regiment of Light Dragoons in October 1808, and was promoted to brigadier general in February 1809, appointed as the top military officer in the Territory of Orleans.He used the U.S. military presence in New Orleans to suppress the 1811 German Coast uprising, a slave rebellion which he believed was a Spanish plot. In the same year, he purchased The Houmas, a Plantation complexes in the [Southern United States|sugar plantation] in Ascension Parish, Louisiana. This may have been a gift for his daughter and son-in-law, as the son-in-law was managing the plantation by 1825. During the War of 1812, Hampton commanded American forces in the Battle of the Chateauguay in 1813, leading thousands of U.S. soldiers to defeat at the hands of a little over a thousand Canadian troops and 180 Mohawk warriors, then getting his army lost in the woods. On April 6, 1814, he resigned his commission and returned to South Carolina.