Source:Fleming-heroes/content
WITH Memorial Day close at hand it is both pertinent and proper that the story today deal with some heroes of the great Civil War, 1861–65, and some events of that war.
We have Hays street in East Liberty commemorative of Brevet Maj. Gen. Alexander Hays of Pittsburgh, a soldier of two wars who fell in the battle of the Wilderness, Va., May 5, 1864.
There are other names of noted soldiers commemorated likewise in Pittsburgh street names. In the same neighborhood as Hays street are Black and Rippey streets, named in honor of Cols. Samuel W. Black and Oliver H. Rippey. These two also killed in battle, Black and [sic] Gaines' Mills, Va., June 27, 1862, and Rippey at Fair Oaks, Va., May 31, 1862.
Hays, Black, Rippey—"Soldiers Three," Pittsburgh colonels, commanding, respectively, the Sixty-third, Sixty-second and Sixty-first Pennsylvania Volunteers. All were Western Pennsylvania soldiers—except four companies from Philadelphia in the Sixty-first Regiment transferred from Barney's Zouaves, the Twenty-third Pennsylvania Regiment, because Barney had a surplus.
Hays, Black and Rippey were soldiers in Mexico, 1846–1848, all serving with honor and the two first with distinction. Black and Rippey were attorneys at the bar of Allegheny county, volunteer soldiers. Hays was a graduate of West Point Military Academy and a regular officer serving in the Fourth and later in the Eighth United States Infantry.
Col. Black served as lieutenant colonel of the First Pennsylvania Volunteers in Mexico, which regiment contained the Duquesne Greys which became Company K, and the Jackson Blues, also of Pittsburgh, which became Company A. Col. Rippey served as a private in the Greys, as did also James S. Negley.
Then as a commorative [sic] name we have Rowley street on the Hill—once known as Keating's alley, the name changed in honor of Brevet Maj. Gen. Thomas A. Rowley of Pittsburgh.
Gen. Rowley was born and lived all his life on the "Hill" except when in the service of his country. In Mexico he served first as a lieutenant in the Jackson Blues and then as captain of a Pittsburgh company which was assigned to the Maryland and District of Columbia Volunteers on account of Pennsylvania's quota being full.
In the Civil War Gen. Rowley recruited the Thirteenth Pennsylvania Volunteers for the three months' service, April to July, 1861, and upon his return from that service he again went to the front as colonel of the One Hundred and Second Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteers, which he organized, as frequently called the "Old Thirteenth."
Gen. Rowley arose to the command of a brigade and at Gettysburg commanded a division of the First Corps upon the death of Gen. John F. Reynolds, the First Corps' commander, who fell almost at the opening of the battle.
Late in the war Gen. Rowley was assigned to the command of the Department of Maine, with headquarters at Portland.
We have also Collier street in the Homewood district of the city, recalling both the judicial and military careers of the late Judge Frederick H. Collier, colonel of the One Hundred and Thirty-ninth Pennsylvania Volunteers. This was a Western Pennsylvania regiment organized in Pittsburgh in August, 1862, and sharing the glory of the Sixth Corps of the Army of the Potomac under that great commander, Gen. John Sedgwick, who fell at Spottsylvania [sic], Va., May 9, 1864. Judge Collier was brevetted a brigadier at the close of the war.
We have Sedgwick street in the Manchester district, North Side, no doubt named for him when that district was the borough of Manchester and by some of the North Side "vets" who had served under him in the One Hunder [sic] and Second or One Hundred and Thirty-ninth Pennsylvania regiments.
Corps and army commanders are recalled at mention of Sherman and Sheridan avenues, Meade, McPherson and Thomas streets, Warren street, Sickles street and Reynolds street. The navy is remembered in the designation Farragut street.
Names of battles in the Civil War bring vivid memories to the veterans. Thus Shiloh street, Gettysburg, Antietam, Fair Oaks, Merrimac and Monitor street.
We have that main thoroughfare Ellsworth avenue, in honor of Col. Ephraim Elmer [sic] Ellsworth, colonel of the Eleventh New York Volunteers. He was killed May 24, 1861, in the Marshall House in Alexandria, Va., by Thomas Jackson, the proprietor of the hotel, for having gone upon the roof of the hotel and hauled down a secession flag. Jackson came out of a room and shot Ellsworth dead on the stairway landing.
Jackson was almost immediately shot and killed by Corporal Brownell, who had accompanied Ellsworth.
Ellsworth was an excellent drillmaster, but it would seem from the circumstances of his death, a poor tactician. The troops later learned to do things differently.
The veriest military tyro now if he had to capture an enemy's flag on a housetop, would send a sufficient detail, surround the house, arrest everybody in the house, disarm them and put them under close guard, then enter with a few men and take possession of everything contraband.
Ellsworth had no reason to fear. His entrance was unopposed. Jackson's act was extremely foolhardy. His killing of Ellsworth was pure murder. Jackson was not a Confederate soldier, but the proprietor of the Marshall House.
His act was inspired by rage—hatred merged into madness. He had his revenge but at the cost of his life.
His flying the flag in plain view of the many thousand Union troops in and around Washington was the extreme of folly—uncalled-for bravado. It robbed the Union army of a trained soldier, a man of splendid life and sterling character.
Ellsworth was at once esteemed a martyr. Thousands of babes were given his name, Elmer Ellsworth. When you find a man whose birth occurred during the Civil War days, and who signs himself "E. E.," take it for granted that he was named for Col. Ellsworth.
Ellsworth was well known in Pittsburgh. In August, 1860, while touring the North with his celebrated Zouave company from Chicago, Ill., he had visited Pittsburgh and remained several days. The men of his company were guests of the Washington Infantry.
An exhibition drill that attracted a large crowd was given at the old Fair Grounds at Penn, Liberty, Twenty-seventh and Twenty-eighth streets on August 7, 1860.
Ellsworth was again in Pittsburgh accompanying President Lincoln to Washington for his first inauguration. Lincoln arrived in Pittsburgh on the night of February 15, 1861, and remained until the next day, speaking from the Monongahela House balcony. Ellsworth was a favorite of Lincoln's who greatly admired the young soldier.
It was because the killing of Col. Ellsworth was the first death of unusual note in the Civil War that it made a profound impression throughout the North. Ellsworth was born in Mechanicsville, N. Y., on April 23, 1837, and early in life removed to Chicago, where he took up the study of law. He was but 24 years old when slain.
The Ellsworth Zouaves, also known as the "First Fire Zouaves," because largely recruited from the New York fire department, was numerically, or in line, the Eleventh New York Volunteers. They were experts in the wonderful Zouave drill, as developed by the French.
There are some names of streets in commemoration of local soldiers. Easily recalled are Childs street, Montooth street and Denniston avenue. Others are commemorated in the family name: Thus Maj. Gen. James S. Negley in Negley avenue, and Maj. Gen Frank J. Herron in Herron avenue.
Alfred L. Pearson, once a noted attorney at the local bar, went to the war as captain of Company A of the One Hundred Fifty-fifth Pennsylvania Volunteers, a regiment organized by the late Col. Edward Jay Allen, who commanded it until after Gettysburg. Pearson went through all the grades to brevet major general and was the third colonel of the One Hundred Fifty-fifth Regiment.
Brevet Brig. Gen. J. Bowman Sweitzer, also noted as an attorney and long prothonotary of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania for the Western District, was colonel of the Sixty-second Pennsylvania Regiment, succeeding Col. Black by promotion from lieutenant colonel. Both Sweitzer and Pearson were gallant soldiers, earning their stars by "distinguished and meritorious services in action." Both are without local commemoration.
Hays, Black and Rippey are commemorated in names of posts of the Grand Army of the Republic in Allegheny county. Col. Sam W. Black Post is at McKeesport, the others in Pittsburgh. There was once a Sweitzer post, but it is defunct. There is, however, a camp of the Sons of Veterans bearing this name.
The pictures exhibited today tell a story of more than ordinary interest. They are reproduced from wartime originals given Gen. Hays or his wife, Mrs. Annie A. McFadden Hays, by the several officers as tokens of regard and esteem. Many bear the autographs of the officers donating their pictures.
The few today were picked from 100 or more in the collection of Gilbert A. Hays of Sewickley, son of Gen. Hays. Each photograph, in fact, has a story. With all the generals whose pictures are shown Gen. Hays had intimate relations. With some close, almost brotherly relations.
Grant, Hays and Auger were fellow lieutenants in the Fourth United States Infantry before the Mexican war and in the battles of Palo Alto and Resaca de la Palma the first engagements of that war.
Hays with Auger and Lieut. James S. Woods, a classmate at West Point, captured a cannon from the enemy at Resaca. Woods was a Pennsylvanian from Lewistown and fell at Monterey.
Hancock was a classmate also of Alexander Hays—the class of 1844. His autograph is on this photograph which was given Mrs. Hays in 1865. Grant's autograph is on his photograph, which was presumably given Gen. Hays at Culpepper in the spring of 1864 when Grant came East.
Grant's and Hays' friendship was most intimate. In fact in the old Fourth Infantry Grant had two chums, James Longstreet and Alexander Hays. Longstreet was not Grant's classmate as sometimes alleged. Longstreet graduated in 1842, Grant in 1843. Auger was one of Grant's classmates.
Governeur [sic] Kemble Warren is a name that will always appeal strongly to Pittsburgh veterans because most of the Pennsylvania reserve infantry regiments, the Sixty-second and the One Hundred and Fifty-fifth regiments from the vicinity of Pittsburgh, served in the Fifth Corps of the Army of the Potomac which was commanded by Warren from March, 1864, until April 1, 1865.
After Hancock's disabling wound at Gettysburg, the Second Corps was commanded for a month by Brig. Gen. William Hays, an old regular who was put over the heads of Gen. John C. Caldwell, commanding Hancock's first division and Gen. Hays, commanding the Third division. Gen. John Gibbons, commander of the Second Division, was as badly wounded as Hancock. He was the senior brigade commander.
To allay the discontent that William Hays' assignment caused he was removed and Warren assigned to the command of the corps, and he remained in command until Grant came to command the armies in March, 1864. Then Warren was transferred to the Fifth Corps, vice Gen. George Sykes, transferred to a department in the West, and Hancock resumed his old command.
Warren graduated at West Point in the class of 1850. He was 11 years the junior of Alexander Hays and totally different in physique and manners.
Warren was small and exceeding dark; almost dark visaged as "Black Jack" (John A.) Logan or our Pennsylvania Governor, Maj. Gen. John F. Hartranft.
Hays was a large man, standing at least 6 feet 1 inch, built proportionately, and a magnificent horseman. He was a pronounced blonde. In fact in the old army his sobriquet was "Sandy Hays."
There are two pictures of Gen. Warren in the collection, both having the general's autograph and both given to Mrs. Hays. One has written on the reverse: "Major Gen. G. R. Warren to Mrs. Annie A. Hays." The photos were taken in Baltimore and are similar, save in one the general has on his belt and sword, but his position is the same.
Gen. Auger's picture has no signature nor has Gen. Slocum's.
It may be mentioned that all the photographs are of the small card style then in vogue and each originally had a three-cent revenue stamp on the back, as required by law, one method of a thousand of raising war revenues.
Berry and Birney, both major generals, were in service with Alexander Hays in the Third Corps on the peninsula of Virginia. The corps was commanded by Gen. Heinzelman. Phil. Kearney [sic] was also one of Heinzelman's division commanders and Hays served under him with his regiment, the Sixty-third Pennsylvania Volunteers.
Hiram G. Berry was a Maine politician and business man, five years younger that [sic] Hays. He took great interest in militia matters at home and went to the war as colonel of the Fourth Maine Volunteers. He developed into a fine officer and was killed at Chancellorsville, Va., May 2, 1863, when he had attained the rank of major general of volunteers. He commanded a division of the Third Corps, the corps then under Gen. Sickles, Heinzelman going to command the Department of Washington, D. C.
Gen. Berry's photo is without his autograph.
David B. Birney was a volunteer officer also, a Philadelphian, the son of the noted abolitionist James G. Birney. He commanded Sickles' first division at Gettysburg and had a long and distinguished record. He died of disease in Philadelphia October 18, 1864. His photograph has this inscription in a fine hand on the back:
"Mrs. Gen. A. Hays, from
"D. B. Birney,
"Maj. Gen. Volunteers,
"Commanding Divn."
No general of the war has had a greater thrill of glory attached to his name than Philip Kearney [sic], the dashing, peerless Kearney [sic], who had let [sic] an arm in Mexico. He and Alexander Hays were like brothers.
Kearney [sic] fell at Chantilly, Va., September 2, 1862, four days after Alexander Hays had been put out of service for four months by a wound received at Second Bull Run August 29, 1862. Kearney's [sic] photo is without his signature and is full length.
Thomas A. Smyth of Wilmington, Del., was one of Alexander Hays' brigade commanders at Gettysburg. He was of Irish birth and a gallant soldier. He entered the service in 1861, bringing a company from Wilmington Twenty-fourth Pennsylvania Volunteers as Company H.
Upon the completion of the term of three months' service Smyth recruited the First Delaware Volunteers and became its colonel, but soon advanced to the command of a brigade. He died April 9, 1865, the day of Gen. Lee's surrender at Appomattox, his death due to wounds received at Farmville, Va., April 7, 1865.
After Hays was able to do duty, having been promoted to brigadier general September 29, 1862, he was assigned to the command of a New York brigade in Heinzelman's department. Gen. Hays commanded this brigade from January, 1863, until a few days before the battle of Gettysburg, when the brigade was assigned to the Second Corps on the march to the battle front.
On reporting with his brigade Gen. Hays was assigned to the command of the third division of the Second Corps under Hancock. His brigade was placed under the command of Col. George L. Willard of the One Hundred and Twenty-fifth New York, who was killed at Gettysburg, as was also Col. Eliakim Sherrill, One Hundred and Twenty-sixth New York, who succeeded Willard. The brigade suffered terribly in the battle, as did all of Hays' division.
The bronze monument to Gen. Hays stands in Zeigler's Grove on his division line there. It has been erected by the commonwealth of Pennsylvania, one of a series to Pennsylvania commanders on that field.
Secretaries Stanton and Welles' photos will revive many memories. Welles, Lincoln's secretary of the navy, did not write on his protograph [sic], but Stanton's bold signature appears on the face of his. Mrs. Stanton was Miss Ellen Hutchison of Pittsburgh, who was a cousin of Mrs. Hays. In commemoration of the great war secretary, we have Stanton avenue in Pittsburgh.
