The South Mountain Battle President Rutherford B Hays Experience

President Rutherford B. Hays Experience in the SOUTH MOUNTAIN BATTLE
Thesis Statement
When the American Civil War broke out, Rutherford B. Hayes tendered his willingness to take part in the struggle and joined the Union. He rose through the ranks and had attained a brevet major general rank by the time the war ended. It is important to note, from the onset, that the Civil War was one of our country’s most defining moments. The country owes those who actively participated in the same, such as Hayes, for their role towards the redefinition of the United States of America into one true nation. The challenges these gallant citizens faced in this endeavor were great, and Hayes’ account of his experience during the South Mountain Battle underlines this assertion.
Discussion
Hayes was instrumental in the victory secured by the union at the South Mountain Battle after his regiment, as part of Union forces, was dispatched to dislodge Confederate soldiers at Maryland’s South Mountain. It was during this battle that Hayes suffered serious injuries when his regiment came under enemy fire. He was the regimental commander at the time. On the morning of 14th of September, 1862, as the regiment was ascending South Mountain’s steep slopes Hayes was in high spirits as he directed his men to engage Confederate forces holed in Fox’s Gap. As Mahan points out, the Twenty-third soldiers had not witnessed a campaign of this nature before.[footnoteRef:1] They had not come under heavy fire many times before. However, their numbers had been depleted by what Conwell refers to as “the vicissitudes of army life.”[footnoteRef:2] Although close to a thousand men had departed from Camp Dennison twelve months earlier, in that particular morning, a total of three hundred and ten men answered to the roll-call.[footnoteRef:3] It is important to note that despite the fact that the Twenty-third soldiers had seen their numbers reduced by more than half, their brevity and confidence was not in question. [1: Mahan Russell, Lucy Webb Hayes: A First Lady by Example (New York, NY: Nova Publishers, 2005), 46. ] [2: Conwell Herman, Life and Public Service of Gov. Rutherford B. Hayes (Philadelphia: Quaker City Publishing House, 1876), 87.] [3: Conwell Herman, Life and Public Service of Gov. Rutherford B. Hayes (Philadelphia: Quaker City Publishing House, 1876), 87.]
Hayes regiment was assigned a more risky and dangerous task of attacking Confederate positions in an uphill march that exposed them to enemy fire from higher up. According to Howells, it was at around 9AM in the morning when Hayes “drove in a rebel picket; he pushed forward and in a few minutes saw the rebels coming down upon him in strong force from a hill in front.”[footnoteRef:4] Realizing the folly of engaging the enemy from a clearly disadvantaged position, Hayes outmaneuvered the enemy and directed “his men to move forward, breaking the enemy before them and driving them out of the woods”.[footnoteRef:5] As a consequence, Hayes succeeded in moving the engagement to an open field further up in the hill. It is important to note that the Union troop commanders had grossly understated the enemy’s ability. This is more so the case given that as Conwell points out, “when the rebel general, Garland, with his brigade of veterans, advanced down the mountains to meet the Union troops, he was not left unsupported, nor was everything staked on his success.”[footnoteRef:6] It was for this reason that Garland’s killing and the steady advancement of the Union troops was did not bear much fruit initially. [4: Howells William, Sketch of the Character of Rutherford B. Hayes (New York, NY: Hurd and Houghton, 1876), 65. ] [5: Mahan, Lucy Webb Hayes: A First Lady by Example, 46.] [6: Conwell, Life and Public Service of Gov. Rutherford B. Hayes, 88]
That morning, as Twenty-third advanced upon the Confederate formations, it was met with heavy enemy fire and as Conwell points out, “as the Twenty-third clambered over a rising stretch of ground toward the enemy, a blinding discharge of grapeshot met them full in the face, and in an instant, more than a hundred of them lay upon the ground, dead or wounded.”[footnoteRef:7] Hayes was amongst those who were wounded. In his diary entries, Hayes describes the feeling that he felt when a musket ball hit him as a “stunning blow.”[footnoteRef:8] [7: Conwell, Life and Public Service of Gov. Rutherford B. Hayes, 87.] [8: “Chapter XX: Wounded at South Mountain – August – November, 1862,” Ohio History Connection, accessed March 27, 2018. http://resources.ohiohistory.org/hayes/browse/chapterxx.html]
As Hayes writes in his diaries, that morning, he was apprehensive of confusion amongst his men due to relative disarray and as a result, he threatened and swore at will[footnoteRef:9]. It was after he gave an advancement order that a musket ball from enemy fire tore into his arm in a moment he clearly describes in his diary. When he was stuck, Hayes recalls experiencing a terrible feeling of faintness and weakness. In this particular entry, he further notes: “I laid down and was pretty comfortable. I was perhaps twenty feet behind the line of my men, and could form a pretty accurate notion of the way the fight was going. The enemy’s fire was occasionally very heavy; balls passed near my face and hit the ground all around me.”[footnoteRef:10] Hayes would soon be taken to the rear where his injury was dressed, before he was later on in the day evacuated to Middletown.[footnoteRef:11] [9: Ohio History Connection, “Chapter XX: Wounded at South Mountain – August – November, 1862.”] [10: Ohio History Connection, “Chapter XX: Wounded at South Mountain – August – November, 1862.”] [11: Mahan, Lucy Webb Hayes: A First Lady by Example, 46. ]
According to Howells, Hayes closely followed the engagement even he lay there and from time to time directed their movement.[footnoteRef:12] At some point, his regiment was pushed back to cover due to heavy enemy fire and the injured Hayes, as Howells points out, found himself left alone between the enemy and his men.[footnoteRef:13] Thinking that his men were effectively pulling out, Hayes yelled, “Hallo, twenty-third men! are you going to leave your colonel here for the enemy?”[footnoteRef:14] It was at around this moment that Hayes was removed from range and Major Comly took over the command of the regiment. Despite the setback, the regiment did not back down. However, as Conwell points out, word that the colonel had been killed had spread and fear was beginning to creep in.[footnoteRef:15] It was at this moment that out of the blue, “Hayes, with a handkerchief tied around his arm, appeared to his surprised command, and, against the protests of friends, again took lead.”[footnoteRef:16] The colonel’s return was timely and this alone brought great motivation to the regiment. This, and the arrival of reinforcements, rekindled the regiment’s fighting spirit for the rest of the day. [12: Howells, Sketch of the Character of Rutherford B. Hayes, 66.] [13: Howells, Sketch of the Character of Rutherford B. Hayes, 67.] [14: Howells, Sketch of the Character of Rutherford B. Hayes, 67] [15: Conwell, Life and Public Service of Gov. Rutherford B. Hayes, 89. ] [16: Conwell, Life and Public Service of Gov. Rutherford B. Hayes, 90.]
As the fighting raged on, Hayes had to be moved from the front lines as he was losing a lot of blood and was only partially conscious most of the time. It was at this point that, as he describes in his diary entries, he met a wounded confederate soldier with whom he found himself side to side. In his own words, Hayes points out thus: while I was lying down I had considerable talk with a wounded Confederate soldier lying near me… I gave him messages for my wife and friends in case I should not get up.”[footnoteRef:17] This particular experience demonstrated to Hayes that regardless of their differences and stations in life, at the very end, men were all equal at the most defining moments of their lives. As Howells playfully points out, this friendliness appeared to be “the natural condition of the men of both armies when they were not actually killing each other.”[footnoteRef:18] Hayes describes the event as having been rather amusing and satisfying. As he points out, “we were right jolly and friendly; it was by no means an unpleasant experience.”[footnoteRef:19] [17: Ohio History Connection, “Chapter XX: Wounded at South Mountain – August – November, 1862.”] [18: Howells, Sketch of the Character of Rutherford B. Hayes, 67. ] [19: Ohio History Connection, “Chapter XX: Wounded at South Mountain – August – November, 1862.”]
At the end of the day, it was both a marvelous and a sorrowful day for the Twenty-third. While the day was marvelous because the regiment had stood their ground against an aggressive enemy and managed to steadily advance, it was sorrowful because the regiment had lost dozens of men to enemy fire and hand to hand engagements. Their commander had been wounded but had displayed great heroism until he had to be carried away from the frontlines as his injuries took a toll on him. However, regardless of the setbacks, there was a glimpse of victory. In the final analysis, therefore, the South Mountain Battle was a defining moment for both Haynes and the Twenty-third regiment. With regard to the regiment, Lanning points out that “ever after, in the many battles they fought, the lesson and experience of South Mountain, and the conduct of their commander there, kept them cool under fire, and made them irresistible in a charge.”[footnoteRef:20] [20: Lanning Michael, Civil War 100: The Stories Behind the Most Influential Battles, Peoples and Events in the War Between the States (Naperville, Illinois: Sourcebooks, 2007), 121. ]
Conclusion
Hayes’ wartime experiences, despite suffering several injuries, were crucial in shaping his perception of life and what was good for the country, in general. As a matter of fact, one could argue that the said experiences informed his priorities later on – especially when it came to the need to not only restore, but also reconstruct the nation’s section that suffered defeat. It could also be argued that Hayes’ wartime experiences came in handy in postwar political engagements. This is particularly the case when it came to gathering and maintaining support from various key quarters. For his service in volunteering to fight for the Union during the American Civil War, and his achievements at the political front in the various capacities that he served, Hayes remains one of those the United States of America owes a great debt of gratitude.







Bibliography
“Chapter XX: Wounded at South Mountain – August – November, 1862.” Ohio History Connection. Accessed March 27, 2018. http://resources.ohiohistory.org/hayes/browse/chapterxx.html
Conwell, Herman. Life and Public Service of Gov. Rutherford B. Hayes. Philadelphia: Quaker City Publishing House, 1876.
Howells, William. Sketch of the Character of Rutherford B. Hayes. New York, NY: Hurd and Houghton, 1876.
Lanning, Michael. Civil War 100: The Stories Behind the Most Influential Battles, Peoples and Events in the War Between the States. Naperville, Illinois: Sourcebooks, 2007.
Mahan, Russell. Lucy Webb Hayes: A First Lady by Example. New York, NY: Nova Publishers, 2005.