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William Hays 1840

Cullum No. 1034-1840 | 2/7/1875 | Died in Ft. Independence, MA
Interment: West Point Cemetery, West Point, NY

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Memorial article found at 1875 AR 1875 
 
William Hays
No. 1043 Class of 1840
Died Feb 7, 1875 at Fort Independence, MA aged 56
 
Brevet Brigadier General William Hays, of the class of 1840 died February 7, 1875 at Fort Independence, MA in the fifty-sixth year of his age.
General Hays was of good stock. His grandfather, General John Hays, of Rockbridge County, VA at the beginning of the Revolution, raised and equipped at his own expense a troop of cavalry in a regiment of which he was appointed Colonel, and which he commanded throughout the war, losing a leg in the battle of Brandywine. His father, Andrew Hayes, was a prominent lawyer of Richmond, VA in which town the subject of our sketch was born, May 9, 1819. In 1820 Mr. Hays removed with his family to Tennessee of which state he was for years the Attorney General.
Young Hays received his early education in Nashville. In 1836, President Jackson, with whom the boy had always been a favorite, sent him an appointment to the Military Academy; he graduated in 1840 and was promoted to the Second Regiment of Artillery with which he served during the border trouble on the Canadian frontier in 1840-41. On the annexation of Texas, he was ordered to Corpus Christi where he was transferred to the light battery of his regiment, at the request of its distinguished commander, Captain James Duncan, who had early recognized his many excellent qualities, and his special aptitude for that arm. He served in this battery during the entire war, from the opening battle at Palo Alto, to the capture of the City of Mexico, and soon attracted the marked admiration of his Division Commander, General Worth, by his coolness, gallantry and dash—traits which won the heart of that splendid soldier, whose official reports, with those of Colonel Duncan, bear continuous testimony to the value of Hays’s services in Mexico.
He was present and took and active part in the battles of Palo Alto, Resaca de la Palma, Monterey, Vera Cruz, Cerro Gordo, Churubusco, Molino del Rey (in which he was wounded), Chapultepec, and at the garitas and in the streets of the city of Mexico, besides being engaged in many minor affairs; receiving the brevets of captain and major for the battles of Churubusco and Chapultepec. On the evacuation of the City of Mexico by the American Army on the proclamation of peace he was designated by General Worth to fire the salute to the Mexican Flag on its replacing our own on the national palace—a compliment to Hays’s services during the war and intended as such.
The qualities which, as a young soldier, made him conspicuous on the battle-field, and drew from his superiors and his comrades so many commendations, were accompanied by others which, in their way, were equally conspicuous, and not less honorable, for he was as much remarked for his modesty and reserve, as for his bravery. He won reputation and distinction but left the honors and rewards to seek him. All that were bestowed upon him had been well earned, and were based solely on the official reports of his merits and service.
After the Mexican war, he served in Florida, in the Seminole campaigns of 1854-5 where he contracted the disease which enfeebled his constitution, and of which he subsequently died; but true to his sense of duty, he would not quit the country so long as there was work to be done, however obscure the service or great the sacrifice. A letter received by the writer, from a distinguished officer of the Adjutant General’s department, marks this trait of his character in such terms, that I am tempted to quote from it. He says: “I was much grieved on learning of General Hays’s death. He has long been in a condition verging on death, at least so I thought. Extending back to his service in the Florida Everglades in 1854-5, he suffered greatly, though with great patience. I then knew him for days in the field and saddle, when any other officer under the like suffering would have fled the country.” Nor did he leave until sent away in a sick and disabled condition, from which he did not recover for more than a year, when he joined his company in Minnesota, prematurely, in order to take part in the Sioux campaign of 1857-8 in which he served until a relapse from exposure cost him another year of sickness and suffering.
In April 1860 he was ordered to Fort Monrow. Here, in his native state, surrounded by southern friends and comrades and southern influences, he passed the year that preceded theoutbreak of the civil war. When the hour for action arrived, he justified the favorable opinion formed of him as a boy by General Jackson, as one who would be true to, and honor his flag and country. He never for a moment wavered in his allegiance to the Union. Ordered to Washington in August, he was in September, 1861, by special request of Major General McClellan, appointed his aide de camp, with the rank of lieutenant colonel and assigned to the duty of organizing the Horse Artillery Brigade of the Army of the Potomac, which he commanded in the Peninsula Campaign of 1862, with his usual gallantry, skill and activity. He was engaged in the siege of Yorktown, the battles of Williamsburg and of the “Seven Days” beginning at Mechanicsville, and ending at Malvern Hill; and received the brevet of lieutenant colonel in the army, for his gallantry and services in this campaign.
In September he succeeded to the command of the Artillery Reserve, with the direction of the Grand Park of the Army of the Potomac, and directed its operations in the Maryland and Rappahannock campaigns of 1862, being engaged in the battles of Antietam and Fredericksburg. For these services he was appointed a brigadier general of volunteers and in February 1863 assigned to the command of a Brigade of the Second Army Corps, with which he took part in the battle of Chancellorsville; taken prisoner on the last day of the battle, he was conducted to Richmond, where he was immediately visited by many of his father’s old friends—amongst them the governor of the state—and detained there until June 1863 when he was exchanged.
On his return from captivity he hurried to his command in the field; reached Gettysburg on July 3d, the last day of the battle, and took command of the Second Corps, which he exercised in the pursuit of the enemy from Gettysburg to Warrenton, VA and retained until September 13, 1863.
In November, he was appointed Provost Marshal General and Superintendent of the Volunteer Recruiting Service for the Southern district of New York—duties not to his taste—but which he discharged with his accustomed fidelity and ability until February 1865 when his health being sufficiently restored for field service, he reported for duty in the field, was assigned first to a division of Infantry and then to his former command, the Reserve Artillery of the Army, being present at the capture of Petersburg, and in the pursuit of the Confederate Army to Appomattox Court House, where it surrendered April 9, 1865.
For his gallant and meritorious services in the field during the war he received at its close the additional brevets of colonel and brigadier general in the Army.
His regimental commissions were: second lieutenant July1, 1840, first lieutenant March 3, 1847, captain October 8, 1853, all in the Second regiment of Artillery; and major of the Fifth Artillery August 1, 1863.
At the close of the civil war, he was placed in charge of the Camp of instruction for field artillery near Bladensberg, MD which he commanded until it was broken up in October 1865. He was mustered out of the Volunteer service in January 1866 and after a brief service in Mississippi was assigned to the command of Fort Monroe. Soon after he was attached as field officer to the Artillery School of application established at that post, on which duty he remained until 1869. He was then appointed to the command of the Sea Coast Defences of Massachusetts with his headquarters at Fort Independence which command he retained until his death.
Such is the brief sketch of a military life passed in the performance of ill requited but valuable service to the country. Devoted and conscientious in the discharge of his duties, faithful and true in all the relations of life, gentle and retiring in his disposition of a high and manly sense of honor and of singular purity of character, his merits were of the proverbially modest kind that seek the shade. There are on the long roll of graduates of West Point more prominent names but none more worthy, more estimable, nor more honorable, than that of William Hays. 
 
                                    Brevet Major General Henry J. Hunt
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