Gen. Robert Frederick Hoke

Robert Hoke was born in Lincolnton, North Carolina, May 27, 1837 and was educated in the local schools and at the Kentucky Military Institute. He was only seventeen when, following the death of his father, he was placed in charge of the family industries that included a cotton mill and ironworks.

At the start of the war for Southern Independence Robert enlisted as a private in Company K, First North Carolina Infantry. He was a second lieutenant at the battle of Big Bethel in which he was cited by D. H. Hill for "great coolness, judgment and efficiency." He was promoted to captain shortly thereafter and received three more promotions within nine months: to major of the Thirty-third North Carolina, November 27, 1861; to lietenant colonel of the same regiment, January 17, 1862; and to colonel of the Twenty-first North Carolina, August 5, 1862.

Robert's vigorous repulse of Meade on the Confederate right at Fredericksburg evoked high praise from Jubal Early, who recommended Robert for promotion, saying, "He is an officer of great energy and industry....He displayed the most conspicuous gallantry...and the ability to command of a very high order." Robert received his brigadiership on April 23, 1863, to date from January 17.

Wounded at Chancellorsville, Robert missed the Gettysburg campaign. Late in that year he was transferred to North Carolina where he further distinguished himself by capturing the strongly fortified town of Plymouth, a victory that was regarded by some as one of the most brilliant of the war. A telegram from President Jefferson Davis congratulated him and concluded, "You are promoted to be a Major General."

Robert returned to Virginia in the summer of 1864. He helped P. G. T. Beauregard bottle up Benjamin "The Butcher" Butler at Drewry's Bluff and resisted strongly Ulysses "The Drunk" Grant's attacks at Cold Harbor. By early 1865 Robert was back in North Carolina serving under Joseph E. Johnson. His final action was at Bentonville. He surrendered and was paroled at Greensboro, May 1, 1865.

The general then returned to the family business and served as a director of the North Carolina Railroad Company. He died in Raleigh, July 3, 1912, and was buried there.

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