Kentucky: A History of the State, Battle, Perrin, & Kniffin, 5th ed., 1887,
Franklin Co.

GEN. FAYETTE HEWITT, the present auditor of the State of Kentucky, is a
native of Hardin County, in that State, and was born October 15, 1831.  His
parents were Robert and Eliza (Chastain) Hewitt, natives of Virginia, and
both of unusual intelligence and education.  Robert Hewitt, the father, was
for many years principal of the academy at Elizabethtown, Ky., where he
enjoyed a high reputation as an educator and as a man of scholarly
attainments and eminent worth.  At that place Fayette Hewitt received his
education under the careful tutelage of his father.  His father died when
he was but seventeen years of age; and being the eldest of four sons, and
besides these having his mother and two female relatives dependent upon him
for support, he accepted the principalship of the school over which his
father had presided, and for eight years conducted its affairs.  At the end
of that time his health became considerably impaired from close application
to his duties as a teacher, and he gave up the school and went to Louisiana
with the hope of improving his physical condition.  He remained in that
State two years, when he was appointed by Postmaster-Gen. Joseph Holt to a
position in his department at Washington, where he remained until March,
1861, when he resigned his position and proceeded south to participate in
the great struggle then just beginning between the two sections.  After
arriving in Virginia he was at once summoned to the assistance of the
postmaster-general of the Southern Confederacy to aid him in establishing
the mail system of the new government, and having satisfactorily performed
that duty, he resigned his place to enter the army, with the rank of
Captain, and ordered in January 1862, to the Trans-Mississippi for duty
with Gen. Albert Pike, commanding the department of Indian Territory.  He
remained in that department, first with Gen. Pike, then with Gens.
Hindman, Holmes and Walker, until March 1863, at which time he was ordered
to report to Gen. Breckinridge.  After serving for a short time on the
staff of that officer, then commanding a division in the army of Tennessee,
he was ordered to the Kentucky brigade, which was known as the "Orphans'
Brigade" because composed entirely of Kentuckians, that State not having
seceded, and was first commanded by Gen. Breckinridge, and subsequently by
Gens. Roger Hanson and Ben Hardin Helm, and afterward by Gen. Jo H. Lewis.
Gen. Hewitt, after joining this brigade, went with it to Mississippi, and
fought at Jackson; thence back to Tennessee, where he participated in the
Battle of Chickamauga, and in fact every one of its subsequent engagements.
He earned a reputation as a cool and skillful officer of unquestioned
courage; and, although he had three horses shot under him, and balls
repeatedly passed through his coat and hat, and on one occasion through
his hair, he escaped without personal injury.  He was offered promotion
in the army, but declined all propositions of preferment to remain with the
Kentucky brigade, in which he was held with respect and veneration by both
officers and men.  He surrendered with the brigade on the 7th of May, 1865,
at Washington, Ga.  Shortly after his return from the war Gen. Hewitt
assumed temporary charge of the Elizabethtown Female Academy, Ky., but
after the repeal of the expatriation laws he began the practice of law in
the courts of Hardin County, as the partner of William Wilson.  In
September, 1867, he was appointed quartermaster-general of Kentucky by
Gov. Helm, and retained that position for nine years, under Govs. Stevenson
and Leslie, and for a portion of the term of Gov. McCreary, resigning
previous to its close.  While filling that important office Gen. Hewitt
collected from the Federal Government over $2,000,000 of Kentucky's war
debt, which other accredited agents of the State had failed in securing.
In 1876 he resigned his office and returned to Elizabethtown to recuperate
his health, and to secure mental rest and quiet.  But he was not long
content to main quiescent, and in 1879 became the Democratic candidate for
auditor of the State, receiving the nomination over Col. D. Howard Smith,
who had served acceptable as Kentucky's auditor for twelve years.  He was
triumphantly elected to that office, and in 1883 was re-elected to the same
responsible place, and again for the third term in 1887.  He was the author
for the new revenue laws of the State, which were passed by the General
Assembly of 1885-86, and which resulted in more equally distributing the
burden of taxation in the State.  Personally, Gen. Hewitt is one of the
most popular men in the State.  He is a thorough student, devoted to books
and the fine arts, of a peculiarly retiring and modest disposition,
cordial, generous and kind-hearted, of undoubted integrity, enjoying the
confidence of the people, progressive and enterprising, and bringing to
the discharge of his public duties a dgree of industry, fidelity and
intelligence not excelled by any previous State officer.

Hewitt Chastain Holt Wilson Smith
=
Elizabethtown-Hardin-KY Washington_DC LA VA

http://www.rootsweb.com/~kygenweb/kybiog/franklin/hewitt.f.txt