Robert Garlick Hill Kean

Who was Robert Garlick Hill Kean?

Robert Garlick Hill Kean was a Virginia lawyer and Civil War bureaucrat, whose wartime diary, published after his death, continues to provide useful insight into the inner workings of the Confederate government during the War.

Kean obtained his undergraduate and law degrees from the University of Virginia, and began his law practice in Lynchburg, Virginia. He married Jane Nicholas Randolph, a daughter of Thomas Jefferson Randolph and descendant of Thomas Jefferson, and their children included Dr. Jefferson Randolph Kean, who became a distinguished Army doctor and colleague of Walter Reed. Both Jane Kean and Jefferson Kean were buried in the cemetery at Monticello. The Kean collection at the University of Virginia includes many of the older Kean's papers, including volumes of correspondence with his son Jefferson Kean.

When the Civil War began, Kean enlisted as a private. In 1862, his wife's uncle, George Wythe Randolph, took Kean on as his aide, and Kean followed him into the War Department at Richmond. Kean became the chief of the Bureau of War. His immediate supervisor was John Archibald Campbell, the former U.S. Supreme Court justice.