Hoke

tinued as principal until July 3, 1841, when in
broken health he sailed for America by way of
Madras and St. Helena. His younger daughter
died at sea. In 1844 Hoisington returned to
Batticotta and resumed the principalship. By
1849 his health was again broken, but not be-
fore he had completely transformed the Sem-
inary, won the confidence of the non-Christians
who sent their sons in numbers, and the deep
gratitude of all those who had graduated from
the course. "Your name is dear to us," they
wrote, "and we shall not forget to hand it down
to our next generation. It shall outlive the deso-
lations of time and death" (Ibid., November
1849) • He returned to America where, with im-
proved health, he became an agent of the Amer-
ican Board, visiting the churches of southern
New England. In 1854 he severed his connec-
tion with the Board, and till 1856 supplied the
Congregational church in Williamstown, Mass.,
and lectured on Hinduism to the students of
Williams College. In 1857 he was installed as
pastor of the Congregational church in Center-
brook, Conn., where he died suddenly in 1858.

Hoisington published in 1848, The Oriental
Astronomer: Being a Complete System of Hindu
Astronomy, a translation. He translated three
of the Tamil religious texts into English: the
Tattuva-Kattalei, the Siva-Gnana-Potham, and
the Siva-Pirakasam, under the title, Treatises on
Hindu Philosophy (1854), with introduction and
notes. Of this translation he wrote, "The provi-
dence of God threw into my hands a key by which
I began to unlock these dark receptacles of hu-
man thought. This key consisted in the discov-
ery of the import of the mystic number five and
of a concurrence of circumstances favoring the
investigation by the aid of native scholars." In
such study he was seeking the esoteric doctrines
of Hinduism. In 1852 he published an essay on
the "Origin and Development of the Existing
System of Religious Belief in India." His re-
ports to the Board frequently contained descrip-
tions of Hindu customs. He was in general sus-
picious of Hinduism, though he taught the ethics
of the "Cural" to his Seminary boys. He called
it "one of the most eminent moral poems of In-
dia ... the highest Tamil classic," adding "It
is taught only under my immediate inspection,
when everything is examined in the light of re-
vealed truth" (Missionary Herald, March 1837).

EE. W. Bliss, The Encyc. of Missions (1891), vol. I ;
reports of the American Board of Commissioners for
Foreign Missions, 1833-49; Bibliotheca Sacra, Apr.
1852; Missionary Herald, 1835-55; Am. Congreg.
year-Book, 1859.] 0. M. B.

HOKE, ROBERT FREDERICK (May 27,
i837-July 3,1912), Confederate soldier, the son

Hoke

of Michael and Frances (Burton) Hoke, was
born in Lincolnton, Lincoln County, N. C., of
Alsatian, Swiss, and English ancestry. His fa-
ther, a lawyer and orator of note, was Demo-
cratic candidate for governor in 1844 and died
from disease contracted during the campaign.
After some years at school in Lincolnton and at
the Kentucky Military Institute, Robert Fred-
erick at seventeen began the management of the
family's varied local manufacturing interests.
These included a cotton-mill established by one
great-grandfather and iron-works established by
another. Entering the Civil War in 1861 as sec-
ond lieutenant of Company K of the "Bethel
Brigade" (ist North Carolina Volunteers), he
was commended by D. H. Hill for "his great
coolness, judgment, and efficiency" as an engi-
neer officer, became major and then lieutenant-
colonel of the 33rd North Carolina Regiment,
and led it valiantly in the many Virginia battles
from Hanover Court House to Second Manassas,
and also at Sharpsburg. In August 1862 he was
commissioned colonel of the 2ist North Carolina
and the following January was made brigadier-
general for most effective service in command of
a brigade at Fredericksburg. Through the win-
ter of 1862-63 he was with Lee and won his high
esteem, but was wounded at Chancellorsville and
thus missed action at Gettysburg. In the fall of
1863 he worked in the piedmont section of the
Carolinas on the serious problem of desertion
and outlawry (War of the Rebellion: Official
Records, Army, 4 ser., II, 768,786,1071). Then,
in early 1864, he was sent into tidewater North
Carolina to check through military operations
the serious political disaffection. Compelled, it
is said, to follow a plan which he did not approve,
he failed signally; then, given a free hand, he
succeeded so brilliantly that in April 1864 he was
made major-general on the battle-field (Ibid., i
sen LI, pt 2, p. 874). Recalled from his un-
finished task, he aided in "bottling up" Butler
near Richmond and, conspicuously, in the bloody
repulse of Grant at Cold Harbor. Back in North
Carolina, his regiment bore the brunt of the fight
at Bentonville and surrendered with Johnston,
Apr. 26, 1865. Bidding his men teach their chil-
dren that "the proudest day in all your proud
careers was that on which you enlisted as South-
ern soldiers" (Ashe, Biographical History, I,
320), he stolidly returned to inconspicuous pri-
vate pursuits. According to Samuel A. Ashe
(Biographical History, I, 320, 309), Hoke was
"Lee's best general" in the late days of the war
and "the most distinguished soldier of North
Carolina"; but this writer's later belief (History
of North Carolina, II, 951) that he was Lee's

126