The Life, Public Services and Select Speeches of Rutherford B. Hayes. J. Q. Howard
free by himself and his father. The grandfather of Mrs. Dr. Webb was Lieutenant-Colonel Cook, who in 1777 was serving in a regiment commanded by Colonel Andrew Ward, in the army of the Revolution. Both Governor and Mrs. Hayes are, therefore, descendants of soldiers of the Revolution, most worthily uniting in their lineage jointly the dawn of the second century with the dawn of the first. The six years following 1852 were years of full practice and exacting labors, in which disappointments were few and successes many. These were years in which solid foundations were laid for as solid a reputation as it was possible for the men among whom he moved to build up.
In January, 1854, he formed a law-partnership with R. M. Corwine and W. K. Rogers, under the firm name of Corwine, Hayes & Rogers. This proved a partnership of friendship as well as business, being in every way satisfactory and agreeable. Mr. Rogers is now the close companion of his old partner in these later and more eventful years. Mr. Corwine died a resident of Washington City, a year or two since.
In April, 1859, he was, without solicitation, chosen city solicitor by the city council of Cincinnati, to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Judge Hart, and on the 9th of that month entered upon the discharge of his official duties. His chief competitor for this office was Caleb B. Smith, since a member of Mr. Lincoln's cabinet. The vote in the city council on the first ballot was: Mr. Smith, 13; Mr. Disney, 12; Mr. Hayes, 3. On the seventh ballot, Mr. Hayes had 17; Mr. Ware, 12; and Mr. Disney, 3. On the thirteenth ballot, Mr. Hayes was declared elected, having received 18 votes to Mr. Ware's 14. His election was due to the vote of Mr. Toohey, a Democratic councilman of the Thirteenth Ward. The election of Hayes to his first office was most favorably received.
The Cincinnati Commercial, of December 9, 1858, said: "R. B. Hayes, Esq., one of the most honest and capable young lawyers of the city, was elected city solicitor last night by the city council to fill the vacancy occasioned by the death of Judge Hart. It would have been very difficult to have made any other selection of a solicitor equally excellent and as generally satisfactory."
The Cincinnati Enquirer, of the same date, said: "Mr. Hayes, the city solicitor elect, is a lawyer of good acquirements and reputation, and is well qualified for the position."
Charles Reemelin, in a letter to the New York Evening Post, wrote: "I know of no young man in our city of higher promise than Mr. Hayes, and we hope for him a bright future."
The estimate of the people seemed to correspond with that of the press, for in the following spring he was elected to the office to which he had been appointed by a majority of two thousand five hundred and thirty-six on the popular vote. His Democratic opponent was W. T. Forrest.
He filled the office of corporation counsel for three years, during which time, as legal adviser of the municipal government of a great city, he passed judgment upon questions involving large interests, and discharged with high fidelity the duties of an important trust. As city solicitor, the opinion which perhaps aroused the most general attention and interest, was one delivered in February, 1859, denying the right of the city council to contract debts for waterworks purposes, without additional authority from the General Assembly. He was opposed to the increase of taxation and creation of new debts, on principle. In April, 1861, in common with the entire Republican ticket, he was defeated for re-election as city solicitor. His vote, however, was larger than that of any candidate on his ticket. He had suffered a similar defeat in the fall of 1856, when a candidate for Common Pleas Judge, his party being in a decided minority in Hamilton county. Had the election of 1861 occurred two weeks later, when the great uprising came with the fall of Sumter, the Republican war ticket, not the Democratic compromise ticket, would have carried the day.
CHAPTER IV.
Top
IN THE FIELD.
Appointed Major—Judge Advocate—Lieutenant-Colonel—South Mountain—Wounded—Fighting while Down—After Morgan—Battle of Cloyd Mountain—Charge up the Mountain—Enemy's Works Carried by Storm—First Battle of Winchester—Berryville.
That a loyal citizen of the antecedents, ardent patriotism, and impulsive nature of Rutherford B. Hayes would enter the army in the war for the Union, was to be looked for as a thing of course. He had been in the habit of obeying every call of duty, and could not therefore disobey when duty called loudest. He regarded the war waged for the supremacy of the constitution and the laws as a just and necessary war, and preferred to go into it if he knew he "was to die or be killed in the course of it." He had been a most earnest advocate of the election of Mr. Lincoln to the Presidency, and had been an anti-slavery man of established convictions long before the candidacy of Fremont for the Presidency. He did not think the Union should be destroyed to make slavery perpetual. He desired to mitigate and finally eradicate that evil. He had prayed for the election of General Harrison for the sake of the country; he had cast his first vote for Henry Clay, his second for General Taylor, and his third for General Scott. But the old Whig party having ceased to be a living organization, he gave his whole heart to the Republican party and its cause, and by political speeches, and in other ways, helped forward the movement in favor of equality of rights and laws. The insult to the flag at Fort Sumter aroused to the intensest pitch the patriotic indignation of a united North. At a great mass-meeting held in Cincinnati, R. B. Hayes was selected to give expression to the loyal voice, by being made chairman of the public committee on resolutions. It is not needful to add that these resolutions had all the fire and intensity of the popular feeling. The knowledge that it was his purpose to enter the Union army having reached Governor Dennison, that officer appointed Hayes major of the Twenty-third Ohio Volunteer Infantry, June 7, 1861. With this appointment was coupled the appointments of W. S. Rosecrans as colonel, and Stanley Matthews as lieutenant-colonel of the same regiment. Colonel Rosecrans, with the other field-officers, had just set to work organizing the new regiment, when Rosecrans was appointed brigadier-general, and ordered to take command of the Ohio troops moving in the direction of Western Virginia. Upon the promotion of Rosecrans, Colonel E. P. Scammon, an officer of military education, was placed in command of the Twenty-third.
After a brief period of discipline at Camp Chase the regiment was ordered, on the 25th of July, to Clarksburgh, West Virginia, and on the 29th went into camp at Weston. We shall not follow it in this or in subsequent campaigns, in its marching, scouting, skirmishing, or counter-marching. It is enough to say, that in this first campaign it assisted in clearing the whole mountainous region of Western Virginia of a formidable enemy.
Major Hayes was appointed by General Rosecrans, on the 19th of September, 1861, judge advocate of the department of Ohio, the duties of which service he discharged about two months. He received his first promotion, to the rank of lieutenant-colonel, October 24, 1861. Passing over less important events, we come to the first serious battle in which he was engaged.
THE BATTLE OF SOUTH MOUNTAIN
Was fought on Sunday, September 14, 1862, a beautiful, bright September day. The enemy were in possession of the crest of the mountain, where the old National road crossed it. The army of McClellan, with Burnside in advance, were pressing up that mountain by the National road as its center. General Cox's division of Burnside's corps was in advance. The brigade to which Lieutenant-colonel Hayes was attached was in advance of the division. His regiment was in advance of the brigade. He was ordered to pass up a mountain path on the left of the National road and feel for the enemy, advancing until he struck him; to push him up the mountain if he could; in short, to open the engagement. Lieutenant-colonel Hayes pushed into the woods, came upon the enemy's pickets, received their fire, and drove them in. He soon saw a strong force of the enemy coming toward the line of his advance from a neighboring hill, and