Eppa Hunton II (September 24, 1822October 11, 1908) was a Virginia lawyer and soldier who rose to become a brigadier general in the Confederate Army during the American Civil War. After the war, he served as a Democrat in both the United States House of Representatives and then the United States Senate from Virginia. Early years Hunton was born on September 24, 1822 near Warrenton, Virginia, to Eppa Hunton I (1789-1830) and the former Elizabeth Marye Brent (1789-1866), who had married on June 22, 1811, in Fauquier County. He was their third son, after the twins John Heath Hunton and George William Hunton, who were born in 1826. Both families had emigrated from England by about 1700. His father taught school and operated three plantations: "Springfield" and "Mount Hope" in Fauquier County (whose seat was Warrenton, though the plantations were near New Baltimore) and another in nearby Prince William County. The senior Eppa Hunton had fought in the War of 1812 (rising to brigade inspector of Virginia's militia) and twice won election to the Virginia House of Delegates, but died unexpectedly young in Lancaster in Virginia's Northern Neck in 1830. This left his widow to raise nine young children (two others having died as infants), and the Prince William plantation was sold to pay debts. His mother's father, William Brent, was a lawyer who had fought in the American Revolutionary War, and had moved his family from the port of Dumfries in Prince William County to Bealeton in Fauquier County for safekeeping during that war. The Prince William county seat, Brentsville (near the county's center), was named for that family. This Eppa Hunton was educated at the private New Baltimore Academy by Rev. John Ogilvie, although family circumstances forced him to borrow money to finish his final year in 1839. Early career After graduating from that school, this Eppa Hunton taught for three years, first in a log schoolhouse near The Plains in Fauquier County. Then he opened his own school in Buckland in Prince William County, where he lived with his brother Silas and his wife. Hunton taught the five sons of John Webb Tyler, who in turn helped him to study law and become admitted to the Virginia bar in 1843. Hunton thus began his legal practice in Brentsville, the Prince William County seat. He also became prominent in the local community, winning election as colonel, and later