Ambrose Martin Hite was born on January 31, 1843, in Virginia to Abraham and Ann Hite. His father was a farmer who owned $4,000 of real estate and $7,914 of personal property by 1860. He grew up and attended school in Page County, Virginia.
He enlisted in the Confederate army on April 8, 1862, and he mustered in as a private in Company H of the 33rd Virginia Infantry. According to his service records, he was 5 feet, 6 inches tall, with light hair and grey eyes. The regiment took part in the Second Battle of Manassas, the Battle of Antietam, the Battle of Fredericksburg, the Battle of Chancellorsville, the Battle of Gettysburg, and the Overland Campaign. Union forces captured him in May 1864, and imprisoned him at Fort Delaware. He remained there until June 20, 1865, when he swore an oath of allegiance to the United States.
After the war, he returned to his father’s household in Marksville, Virginia, and he worked as a farmer. He married Mary C. Brubaker on November 11, 1869, and they had at least five children: David, born around 1871; Ora, born around 1873; Carrie, born around 1876; William, born around 1878; and Sallie, born around 1881. His wife probably died in the 1880s, and he married Lucy Virginia Modesitt on October 11, 1888. He died in Marksville on January 28, 1921.