108

people mistake one person for another….

Monday 16 June 1862

Quite cool this morning. I found myself in Washington City D.C. I was up early and went to the Soldiers Retreat and got my meales. I took a walk around the city. I saw the White House. I went to the Pay Masters Generals* office and received my check to the US Treasure office and at 11oclock I left on the Rail Road for Baltimore. Arrived there at 1oclock A.M. at 3oclock I left for Harrisburg. Arrived there at 8 ½ oclock in the evenning. I stoped at the Bumgardner Hotel** and I was somewhat tired out. We are behind time coming from Baltimore as there was a Locomotive Runoff the track and detained us some. The farmers were snaking hay below Harrisburg. The day was quite warm. I got some strawberrys today

*The “pay master generals office” which is likely the U.S. Department of the Treasury at 1500 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W. The White House is close by, at 1600. These locations must be right near the War Department where Strother was yesterday. Did Walt Whitman, who worked a while in the paymaster’s office, hand Ephraim his pay? Have Ephraim sign the roll with his name as a receipt? Well, no. He doesn’t come to D.C. until December, ’62 following the Battle of Fredericksburg to find his injured brother. It won’t be until next year that Whitman works at the Army Paymaster’s Office. So, they maybe walked through the same door, at least.

In 1865, Whitman, Walt, Clerk (1819-1892) will get fired from the Dept. of the Interior, or, from the Bureau of Indian Affairs under its auspices, due to his “controversial” poetry in Leaves of Grass; shortly after, he was hired on at the Attorney General’s office. Pictures of Clerk Whitman, a letter he penned for (on behalf of) Andrew Johnson dated July 17, 1865, & discussion of the newly discovered (2011) 3,000+ of Whitman’s handwritten papers from his time working in D.C. variously from 863-1873 are stored at the National Archives at College Park, MD., can be found at www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/2011/winter/whitman.html

Note that the College Park archive is different than the U.S. National Archives in D.C. Currently, over 40 national archive facilities exist in America. If anyone’s inclined, Whitman’s papers haven’t been much explored or made public, so it’s a rich area for a scholar out there.

**Bumgardner Hotel was at the corner of 6^th St. and the Reading Railroad. Proprietor was John Brady. In 1860, it is listed in Boyd’s Business Directory of Harrisburg. In 1884-85, the same directory lists it as “Baumgardner House,” at the corner of 6^th and Pennsylvania canal.

Please note: Just one week after Ephraim leaves (June 13) the field for good, Dr. Hays, surgeon of the 110th, gets summoned to D.C. to defend himself before the Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War. Note various HAYS ways he gets spelled. Hay’s. Hays. Hayes. I’ve given up catching all my mistakes. Forgive me Lordess. 

Today’s entry is pushing 30k. It’s a work in progress is about the best I can say about it late tonight before posting it for the 16th (did you see that moon last night?!). I sit entirely unsatisfied with what I’ve written, & blocked about how to continue with it. It, like the war itself, is a huge topic, especially for someone with zero background in history. Several years back, I asked the Museum of Civil War Medicine about Hays’ case but never heard back. A few new CW books out a week into the world, everyone loves the CW, but no one actually wants to talk about it, including me, who managed, instead of revising this entry, to clean the entire front porch & do several loads of laundry.

But I screenshot the entire debacle— the court proceedings each day & what each party thought about Hays’ fated night—. Still debating anyone’s interest out there to comb through this testimony, which will come if it does in a separate post. I think it’s a fascinating, wild ride. It’s like the parable of the blind men & the elephant. And we got Gooch acting like Inspector Clouseau with that comically big magnifying glass desperately trying to trip Hays & everyone else up, but coming up with squat besides maybe they did have champagne & not tea.

Those 4-5 hours Dr. Hays went to get some shuteye will haunt & hound him the rest of his life, & then some, like he had fatally stepped into some kind of vortex he could never escape. Questions remain, at least for me. There’s too many gaps re the chain of custody of the dispatches, & what reads like unexplained, outright aggression toward Dr. Hays. These Joint Committee officials should have known better? Then there’s the ongoing honorable or not discharge issue in his record to the point where even his wife & kids get impacted; it arrives at the 9^th hour, Hays’ 9^th Circle of Hell: “malarial poisoning.” Didn’t see that one coming as justification for the second denial of Hays’ pension. Mary Hays lives until 1920, but Mary must force an Act through the 57^th Congress to get her $12.50 a month in 1902, including showing testimonials to the Chairman of Invalid Pension Subcommittee from the supposed abandoned on the D.C. train soldiers, like “he did not leave us on the night we arrived in Washington until he had made every arrangement for our comfort.’” What is it with these Hays and Congress?

The irony: Hays’ obit says he was “United States Examining Surgeon in pension cases from 1865 to 1882.”

After all the bureaucratic Catch-22 nonsense is said & done, we still have Ephraim’s entries about medical neglect to consider…. he– Ephraim– mentions doctors just twice in his 22k+ word diary. A “Dr. Hays” gets 4, if I counted right, mentions. Medicine as a word gets 7. His first mention of Hays is March 4, when he travels with Hays to Cumberland then Ephraim gets left back in Cumberland “to attend to the getting of medicine down.” March 8 Ephraim writes Dr. Hays has gone back to Cumberland.

March 23, is Kernstown, where he notes: the doctors was buissy dressing the wounded men we was running around until 12 at night. 

March 24 has Ephraim & Hays travelling together for medical supplies? Whether together or not, they’re near enough each other that they both get word Hays must return at once to the Winchester hotel/hospital, so Ephraim goes back to Winchester after he had slept on the battlefield the night before, & had written it was very cold “all night” (the emphasis may mean he laid awake at least part of that night). He had marched many miles, & that day he only ate one meal. The hunger part he emphasizes with “had a few pieces of hard crackers.” After this late, cold night, freezing out on the battlefield with god knows what surrounding him in the vicinity of the ground near him, he’s up & at ’em again by 6:30am., walking toward Strasburg. So the mass of men are marching. However: when we was 11 ½ miles from the town Winchester. Doct Hays got a dispatch to come back to Winchester to help to attend to the wounded so I had to come back get in this evening at 8oclock. I was nearly exhausted. When I got into that town I came to the Hospital the Union Hotel where I stayed all night. I slept on the floor all night. It was a fine day all day but we are of sadness too many more that have been wounded.

Yet the very next day, March 25, when Dr. Hays was in charge of this hospital, Ephraim writes, very unsettled, about watching soldiers get neglected: The poor wounded have to suffer much. I think the Doctors do not do their duty or as much as they have a right to do and many a poor soldier die for the want of proper attention. Oh I hope they will be attend in due time. They complain very much of having too much to do but what are they for. I do solemnly say they do not do as much as they are bound to do by their solemn vows…. — Ephraim had to have felt very bothered by the scene to write that down. And he spent the whole night there at the hotel/hospital.

I think Ephraim felt very strongly about the doctors’ behavior at the Union hotel/hospital post-Kernstown, March 25, as this is the longest topic he’s delved into specific to how the medical side of the war is run thus far. He seems crushed. Any other medical-related words Ephraim ever used regarding his work as Steward were short, like packing up the medicines, losing the medicine box during battle, or noting briefly it’s hard to see men have limbs taken off.

Plus, Ephraim had, right up until the night of March 25^th, when he sat to write his entry, been quite direct with his thoughts and feelings about his surroundings. Up to that night he had yet to write anything negative about anyone but the Secesh. Not until March 30 will he will complain about anyone again, & yet again, names no names: some of our chaplins are rather careless and I think that some of them don’t think much about the future wellfare of their fellow men. Ephraim had to have known the 110^th Chaplain’s name was Jeremiah Schindel… Schindel will get court-martialed eventually (see March 30).

So why Ephraim did not include any anecdotes or asides about the doctor he worked with daily (& even travelled with outside camp) for 3 ½ months is a mystery.

Edited 3/29/25 to add that EB had also lent the doctor cash at some point:

Ephraim left 3 days ago, the 13^th, so Ephraim’s timing leaving the war could not have been influenced by Hays’ train situation on the night of June 14. I assume had he not been granted furlough, Ephraim, as Hospital Steward, would have otherwise had to accompany Hays on the train to Front Royal, then on to D.C. So Ephraim missed the entire debacle by just 2 days.

Or did he? Was he on Hays’ train? Did he catch it at Front Royal? Hays & Ephraim both got into D.C. the night of the 14^th from Front Royal via a train with hundreds of injured men. 8:30 is when Ephraim writes he arrived. Hays, however, supposed it was between 8 & 9 o’clock by the time they got across the Long Bridge. How many trains ran on the night of the 14^th into D.C. from Front Royal? Ephraim doesn’t mention Hays. He mentions riding atop the train, & he mentions prisoners. Hays mentions Rebels firing on prisoners. I believe on the way to Front Royal, everyone was in wagons in Hays’ party. Then all the men boarded train cars there in town to ride on to D.C. I’d think Ephraim would have mentioned Hays had he known they were on the same train or otherwise would have worked in his capacity as hospital steward. At any rate, Ephraim went to the Soldier’s Retreat, & Hays to the Willard.

Ephraim & Black & Plaster walked and rode the horse 27 miles to get to Front Royal in the first place, their first leg of their trip, then on to D.C. to eventually find their (at least Ephraim’s final destination) way to PA. They didn’t end up riding in one of the “100 waggons” in which Ephraim notes the wounded went ahead to Front Royal on the 12^th, which seems the same day he got his furlough. Ephraim & his 2 friends left for Front Royal the next day, the 13^th. I can’t find the date Hays was informed he himself would have to testify, but assume it was the 15^th of June, because the 16^th he was before the JC. Hays knew he was in hot water when told the next morning he would get struck from the rolls.

Still, I have to wonder why– as someone who worked closely, if not the most closely– with Dr. Hays, Ephraim did not have to testify. His ill health & having gone back home to PA. may have precluded appearing before the JC. Ephraim must have heard Huyett was about to appear before the JC in a week (the 21^st). Because what happened with Hays was big news, word would have spread from D.C. to VA. to PA. real fast via word-of-mouth, letters (the mail was fast: 2 days from PA to VA, anyway), & newspapers, so Ephraim must have known about the controversy, if for no other reason than Huyett told him. What did Ephraim hear on the wind when the story made its way to him? What did he make of it all? And what did Huyett say after his JC appearance? Surely Ephraim & Hays ran into each other in town after the war. They were probably both in GAR Post #39. #39 was definitely Hays’ Post.

Jackson had retreated by June 14^th at the latest; surely Ephraim was aware of that fact, so perhaps that entered into his decision to skedaddle. In the end, Ephraim stated outright several times he was about done for, so his leaving likely boiled down to his deteriorating physical, & probably mental, health. As I wrote in March 25: Nevertheless, I wonder that something was yet to come on the wind between now & mid-June that leads Ephraim to figure Hays would inevitably get in hot water. I’m dwelling ad nauseam on this because his March 25 diary entry leads me to believe Ephraim is desperately let down by the doctors, if not Hays himself, yet for some reason does not specifically refer to Hays when he sits down to write tonight. We watch, day by day, as he sinks further into his bones, then reaches his breaking point where he just can’t take it anymore.

Again, contrast how much “the ladies” tried to alleviate suffering while the male doctors neglected basic duties; Ephraim’s March 25th entry would have been the prime place to write about Hays, have him shine for all the work he did around the clock at the hotel/hospital. After all, Ephraim took time to note when things went right that he saw around him. So why not note Hays?

It’s clear Ephraim is disgusted with more than one doctor because he refers to them in the plural. Were Ephraim not referring to Hays, he might have written something along the lines of (if this were in his voice), “Except for our 110th Dr. Hays,” or, “I am thankful to the Lord our doctor worked hard for the suffering.”

Note as well: Women were a constant & significant on-site presence both before & after battles. After the Battle of Port Republic (6/9/62) the 6/19/62 NYT reported, “I feel it but just to add that the ladies sent by the New-York Central Aid Society, when it was known that JACKSON was coming, resolved to stand and did stand by their posts in the hospitals, and are still here….”

However, doctors definitely were overwhelmed by the intense scene:

Shenandoahcivilwarhistory.blog/2020/01/11/the-union-hotel-and-unconditional-release

The Union Hotel and Unconditional Release by Peter Dalton (Excerpt)

“On March 25, just two days after the battle, Mary Greenhow Lee, a woman who had repeatedly acknowledged she could barely stomach the sight of Yankees, went to the Union Hotel to take care of injured Southern soldiers. “The dead, the dying, the raving Maniac, & agonizing suffering, in its revolting forms, were before us; our men and the Yankees, all mixed together. She found herself “down on the floor, by the Yankees, feeding them. Mary discovered her humanity in this facility. She found she “could not give to one sufferer, and pass another by in silence.”

Mrs. Lee would return to the hotel the following day. She observed: “The poor men are neglected as the doctors are overwhelmed with the numbers of patients they have to contend with.” “The surgeons do not dress their wounds, even once a day, and there is no one to hand them a cup of water, after the ladies leave; they promise things will be better tomorrow;” but they never are.

“neglected as the doctors are overwhelmed with the numbers”— alright, the “ladies” are working while doctors are deluged. “they promise things will be better tomorrow;” but they never are.”—this reads like doctors could be working harder but aren’t.

But at the start of the war, the largest Army hospital had just 40 beds (P. 26, Adams in Doctors in Blue). P. 172-173, Adams: “With all their flaws the Civil War Hospitals may be considered a credit to the nation. A country which lacked experience with military hospitals, and had had very little experience with large civil hospitals, had created a vast system with a capacity of 136,000 beds. This had been done in less than four years and in the midst of the confusion of a war which had not been prepared for. The hospitals had not fed their patients well, some had faulty plumbing, and complaints indicated neglect of the individual ego; but their mortalities were low. Samuel Johnson remarked apropos of a dog walking on its hind legs, the significant thing was not whether it was done “well or ill,” but that it was done at all.” As far as contemporary Virginia hospital bed capacity, at the outbreak of the 2020 Coronavirus, in the state were 18,500 hospital beds, & 2,000 ICU beds. The NYT nationwide map of Covid hotspots by summer 2021 made it apparent the Confederacy was rising again, said some, oddly.

In the following days, Ephraim wrote of amputations, how he wasn’t feeling right, that the Chaplins sucked, & that the women of Winchester were excellent. Had not a bad word to say about them, contrasted with some accounts that “the ladies” paid no attention to Union soldiers. That’s debatable. This isn’t: Ephraim’s having written 3 times within 3 days that “the ladies” helped contradicts Cozzens’ claim (March 23) that they refused. Since Cozzens wasn’t there working alongside “the ladies,” & my grandfather was, I’ll take my grandfather’s word for it. I wonder if the belligerent attitude someone like Shields had toward the enemy led to his viewing them through a negative filter at the hotel/hospital. He thought he saw what he expected to. The Confirmation Bias.

That said, it was not uncommon for medical personnel on both sides to prioritize care for their side’s soldiers. Next year, Lincoln will sign Gen’l Order No. 100 (Lieber Code); Article 79 says, in part, “Every captured wounded enemy shall be medically treated, according to the ability of the medical staff.” As well, the Red Cross (birth, 1863) and Red Crescent will eventually come to be recognized as universal symbols on clothing that reads, “Don’t shoot– we are not part of the fight.” The IHL– International Humanitarian Law (Geneva Convention laws) was created in 1859, but not yet followed in 1862. It was signed into law in 1864.

[Aside: I attended a Red Cross volunteer orientation in San Francisco, & they take not taking sides seriously. They emphasize that first is the human, not the politics. You disregard everything but what medical care everyone needs. Everyone is equal & deserves care & respect no matter what circumstances brought them to your aid. You’re not to get involved.]

Then by March 26, Ephraim: I have nothing new to put down this day the men on the battlefield have all been buried and the trees looks as if there was a hard fought battle. Understated like usual. And probably numb, trying to close himself off from the depth of what he & everyone else had just been through. That kind of suffering for the still-alive lingers for years, if it ever goes away. It can’t entirely, can it?

The Willard: See March 24 here & surrounding dates in this manuscript for a lot more on the post-Kernstown situation, plus read all about the Willard Hotel, D.C., where Hays blew that night of his life, or, blew his life that night. Around since 1818, plenty of history. If you check-in tonight, June 16, 2022, & check-out tomorrow, it’s $449 to $7,524 but you get that King Bed & a free breakfast. Probably not a few pieces of hard crackers.

Even by 1861, as William Russell wrote in My Diary North and South of the place, “….it probably contains at this moment more scheming, plotting, planning heads, more aching and joyful hearts, than any building of the same size ever held in the world” it’s evident the Willard was already infamous. (See 3/24 here for more of Russell’s hotel description.)

And it’s said Grant & Lee will meet just once after the war: May 1, 1869, at, yes, the Willard, but not broach the war at all. Grant apparently makes some crack about rail roads, destroying them, but Lee doesn’t laugh. You can just see the withering air between them in the backdrop of the grand room where they sat facing each other yet again, not a simple, crowded parlor at Appomattox this time but gold filigree wallpaper & chandeliers lumbering down from the ceiling. Something ornate there put in the position to capture the air Lee must have sucked in, along with anyone else observing from a distance. Perhaps they sat in the Willard Room if it was there then. Now the place goes by the laborious “Willard InterContinental Washington, D.C.”

And see March 3 here for a poet’s visual of Lander grandly mounting a horse out front of the building. Finally, on May 23, the first day of the Grand Review, the 110^th, or what’s left of them, will wade past the Willard. PA Governor Curtin will wave down at them from the hotel balcony. I bet that was a proud moment all around. Over 374,000 Pennsylvanians fought for the Union, a number exceeded only by New Yorkers.

I haven’t researched far into what transpired at the hotel/hospital post-Kernstown. There would be clues there. Due to his leadership there, Dr. Hays is likely noted in other diaries, accounts, etc. at least the 3^rd week of March. Now all that’s left is the carcass of Hays’ story, & no one gives a shit…. beyond selling his possessions. This bracket, this caption, the dates everyone gets but are different was his: 1833—1898. Imagine going the rest of your life known as the one Lincoln had to write a Special Order over, & that newspaper headlines screamed that you, personally, neglected hundreds of wounded men who bravely fought & died for this country. Then they get your wife from the grave for it. She’ll need to fight to get an Act passed in Congress, too! All because your two telegrams never got delivered. Those Hays must have had a record as the sole husband-wife team getting acts through Congress.

Back to the war for a moment, then into Dr. Hays at the Joint Committee:

Civil War Weather in Virginia Robert K. Krick P. 62

D.C. weather: “7A.M. 54; 2P.M. 68; 9P.M. 54.”

Walt Whitman, in a letter to sister-in-law dated 1/2/63. Whitman worked at the Paymaster’s Office in D.C.

“The poor soldiers are continually coming in from the hospitals, etc., to get their pay—some of them waiting for it to go home. They climb up here, quite exhausted, and then find it is no good, for there is no money to pay them; there are two or three paymaster’s desks in this room, and the scenes of disappointment are quite affecting. Here they wait in Washington, perhaps week after week, wretched and heart-sick—this is the greatest place of delays and puttings off, and no finding the clue to anything.” civilwarmonitor.com/blog/extra-voices-payday 3/13/20

Lincoln Day by Day: A Chronology 1809-1865 Volume III: 1861-1865 C. Percy Powell P. 121

“June 16, 1865: President orders Gen. R.E. Lee’s house at Arlington Heights converted into hospital. In letter to Gen. Frémont, Lincoln reviews their understandings relative to number of troops for Mountain Dept. He concludes: “I am not demanding of you to do the work of thirtyfive thousand. I am only asking of you to stand cautiously on the defensive, get your force in order, and give such protection as you can to the valley of the Shenandoah, and to Western Virginia.’”

Note: “He did not report his arrival at this office until after 9 o’clock this morning.” Patently absurd. Context at this late remove suggests that although Dr. Hays got scapegoated by the following officials, which includes Lincoln, ideally Hays would have known it’d look bad to walk off from his men for the Willard Hotel to eat & sleep, much less drink champagne. “Ted Cruz Abandons Millions of Freezing Texans” for Cancún, with countless memes of him wheeling his suitcase through the airport is a recent example of actually abandoning ship, while FEMA scrambled for generators & Houstonians were out in the streets scavenging fallen trees to torch all while 246 to 702 Texans fast died in the state’s worst power infrastructure disaster in history.

Cruz awarded bonus points for “ditching” the dog in a “freezing house,” and “Justice For Snowflake!” That Mexico seemed a destination in a pandemic in a storm impacting 4.5 million, while the rest of the globe was told not to travel, much less internationally, well. There’s no accounting for it, & no damage control for a trip like his. Snowflake, poor thing. Not.

Hays might have known that when the train cars were met that June 14^th night by the silence of a blank, dark, hollow street, the circumstances were odd. That this rare circumstance was about to put worse strain on hundreds of his wounded men. That the neighbors there were about to step up & help these soldiers throughout that night, that someone in charge had obviously messed up bigtime, & finally that a reckoning was coming at first light…. Hays may have asked himself Is this the time to walk off for a nice meal, some bubbly, & clean bedsheets for myself. Will the next 4 or 5 hours be worth it?

Yet Hammond et alia treated Hays as if he had somehow duped officials, got a fast one over on them all. Did anyone see Hays send the telegrams? Were copies kept of outgoing telegrams? Were copies even made at the originating end, generally? Did the Committee bother to ask the operator who supposedly sent them on Hays’ behalf? “MANASSAS, June 14, 1862—4.14 p.m. The train will arrive at Washington by 8 or 9 o’clock p.m. D.S. HAYS, Surgeon in Charge.” Was the preceding recreated from Hays’ memory for the hearings, or did officials have a physical copy of this telegram Hays sent to D.C. to arrange ambulances to meet his train? Because it’s the day before the debacle unfolds, & Hays provides the requested warning his train’s coming. ”all the telegrams received at and sent from this office relative to the sick brought by Dr. Hays” reads like Hays’ telegrams were received. So which is it? They got the dispatches or they didn’t? So who were they left with? Who found them later? The Telegraph Office received them but never delivered them, then they went missing?

Hays: “I then asked if he would take a note to his house if I would write one. He said he did not know where he lived, and that there were some despatches waiting for him there then.” Were Hays’ dispatches in the pile? How much does it matter if they were? At least one official already knew Hays was inbound. That official was the Surgeon General himself:

“SURGEON GENERAL’S OFFICE, Washington City, D.D., June 13, 1862. Send your sick on to this city. Telegraph when they leave. You will be ordered to report in person to the surgeon general. WILLIAM A. HAMMOND, Surgeon General.” Literally the very next day Hays arrived with hundreds of men. Did this impending arrival slip Hammond’s mind?

Hays: “it was very near 10 o’clock. Supper was over at the hotel, but Colonel Lewis and myself went in and took some tea. It was raining when I came out. Someone told me that I should find the surgeon general’s office in the War Department. I drove around to the War Department and went into the hall. There was a man there sleeping on the floor, and I proceeded to wake him up.”

Tea, not champagne, according to Hays. And no supper was had. So, Hays had to be told by “someone” he should go find the Surgeon General? That didn’t occur to him when ambulances weren’t in the street? Packed in train cars, hundreds of injured men awaiting help, no one knows where Hammond even lives, & meantime the D.C. War Department has a guy passed out on the floor. Okay.

What transpired the night of June 14, 1862, well, it seems a lackadaisical response at best, all the way around, except for citizen response— those who removed men to houses or elsewhere— and the town doctor who took Stidger back to his office to fetch brandy & morphine. The rest of that night is a blur of bloody bandageless stumps, alcohol, & confusion.

That night, Hays gets to the Willard Hotel about 4a.m., soon after wakes up in his Willard’s Hotel bed, “I do not know how long I slept,” then stops for breakfast, “but as soon as I got my breakfast I went around to the surgeon general’s office. I am not quite certain, but I think he was not in when I first got there.”

Hays then mosies over to ask “the medical director” (whose name he can’t provide) what happened to the ambulances. “He told me that he had not received any despatches.”

All of this on the heels of a Dr. Cox who– the night before Hays’ & his trains got to D.C., when Hays & the train cars were at Front Royal– refused Hays any medicine or dressings. Hays has to go knocking on nearby homes for sheets instead. Hays telegraphs Hammond for help, who says nothing advisory other than to head on in to D.C., & telegraph right before he leaves.

But as with any material from that era, the circumstances ideally will be considered in the context of that era’s mores and war emotions. There must be context, subtext, some history about the men & the events not making the pages here I can’t parse because I have zero education in this field. Just all seems very off that 2 dispatches went into a mysterious black hole, & the effects were so severe that in another 37 years, men who were on the train that night are going to have to write a letter on behalf of the now-dead Hays just so his brokeass wife Mary can brighten her life to support her children.

HERE’S HOW the Cleveland Morning Leader printed the debacle June 20, 1862:

The Joint Committee, formed on December 10, 1861, the entity that called Hays to the carpet, usually met in secret, & dealt with problems like generals in some kind of hot water about the war’s progress or lack thereof. The Committee investigated military defeats & increasingly threw around words like “traitor” & “disloyal,” a kind of precursor to House Un-American Activities Committee. The 8 men preferred political appointees over West Point educated generals. “During the Civil War, West Point and the professional military were persistently attacked by the leading Republicans on the Committee on the Conduct of the War” writes Bruce Tap, in “Amateurs at War: Abraham Lincoln and the Committee on the Conduct of the War.” Tap concludes with “Most of the time, they consumed time and resources with little practical influence on the Northern war effort. Fortunately, for the nation, Lincoln’s influence on political and military affairs had greater and more lasting impact than did the Committee on the Conduct of the War.” Read his thorough piece here: https://www.essentialcivilwarcurriculum.com/the-joint-committee-on-the-conduct-of-the-war.html

272 meetings were held in all.

CHAIR: Benjamin Wade (R-OH)

John Covode (R-PA)

Daniel W. Gooch (R-MA)

Zachariah Chandler (R-MI)

George W. Julian (R-IN)

Andrew Johnson (D-TN)

Joseph A. Wright (D-IN)

Moses Odell (D-NY)

Medical treatment of wounded was one area the Committee was set up to investigate (a few more areas, not comprehensive: illicit trade with the enemy, treatment of captured in prisons, various military contracts, battle losses & where fault did or didn’t lay, availability of horses, etc.). Harry S. Truman actually read various proceedings from the Joint Committee before the first meeting of the Senate Special Committee to Investigate the National Defense Program, & is quoted, “The nature of the congressional investigating committee has suffered violence at the hands of some who have not understood or appreciated the scope and function of such a committee.”

Or, in the words of Dr. Hays, June 20, 1862: “Am I not made the scape-goat of other men’s sins?” The whole truth & nothing but the truth so help him God…. Note below Gershman on the Joint Committee’s witch hunt nature. These organizations have merely changed names through the centuries like a snake shedding skin then crawling back in, the cast-off skin from a snake from another incarnation, ashy sluff:

The Legislative Branch of Federal Government: People, Process, and Politics Gary P. Gershman P. 209

“….the lack of any real opposition saw the fragmentation of the party in power and growing tension between that party and the President. The proceedings of the Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War highlighted these tensions. Run by Radical Republicans and originally charged with investigating Union military commanders and published several volumes on military defeat, misconduct, and scandal during the war. The highly partisan investigations were more like witch hunts than fair inquiries.

Some historians have suggested the committee was the product of a presidential system in which failures in the prosecution of the war left Congress no chance to challenge it except by the mechanism of investigation. In a parliamentary system, the steady stream of defeats that faced the Union in the early part of the war would probably have resulted in the fall of the government and a new administration. In the United States, defeat after defeat left Congress frustrated with the president and the military hierarchy. The conflict reiterated the weakness of Congress in wartime (a weakness played out in every conflict since). The only apparent congressional power was publishing reports at the least and destroying a career at the most. Attempts to meddle with military policy were disastrous and were regularly repelled by the administration. Conversely, some historians argue that the Civil War and the Joint Committee marked a new era and a new type of warfare in which generals on the front lines had to be cognizant of the politicians and public opinion in the rear.”

Note too: Hammond personally appointed Letterman, to the consternation of some. In court today, the two are in cahoots against Dr. Hays. The rivalry among those of the highest medical department officials was intense. See Doctors in Blue: The Medical History of the Union Army in the Civil War for detailed discussion of the administrative conditions & politics of the era. 31-33, under the heading, “The vexed career of Surgeon General Hammond” the rivalry is discussed: “The rivalry of Hammond and Asst. Surgeon General Wood was now in the open. Each was telling the commission what a fatal mistake the appointment of the other would be. A campaign of letters, delegations of physicians, and appeals by the commission on Hammond’s behalf bore fruit. On April 25, 1862, he received the appointment, and Dr. Wood was reappointed Assistant Surgeon General. It was a severe setback to the seniority ring. Their champion, that “fine gentleman” Finley, had been forced out of office to be succeeded by an “ambitious and arrogant” young man. In one stride a mere professor had stepped over the heads of all the ranking Army surgeons from captain to brigadier general. But the seniors were to have their revenge.

The effects of the new appointment soon became evident. In the fiscal year 1862, toward the end of which Hammond came in, the Medical Corps failed to spend even its meager budget of $2,445,000. In the following year under Hammond appropriations demanded by him reached $10,314,000 and its expenditures came to $11,594,000. Hammond spent more on refrigeration in one year, than the total expenditures of the department in 1860.

Hammond began to replace certain medical directors, with younger men “not quite so thickly incrusted with the habits, forms and traditions of the service.” Of these new administrators many of whom were to win laurels in the field, the outstanding figure was Jonathan Letterman, who was promoted from assistant surgeon to medical director of the Army of the Potomac. In his letter of instructions to Letterman the Surgeon General explained the new department policies. Red tape was out; efficiency and results would be all that counted. Letterman was given carte blanche to “order” any supplies he might need from the medical purveyors at Washington, Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New York, whether or not the supplies were listed in the official army table and regardless of form. If additional nurses or physicians were needed Letterman might employ them on the spot, without special authorization.

The battles of 1862, particularly Manassas (second battle Bull Run), demonstrated the need of a better ambulance service. After the bloody horrors of Manassas, where some wounded men were left on the battlefield for a week, Surgeon General Hammond demanded War Department authorization to form an ambulance corps. The proposal was vetoed by both Stanton and General Halleck.

Without waiting for their conservatism to give way Medical Director Letterman, acting under the authority of General McClellan, organized ambulance services for the Army of the Potomac. His system worked so well that it became the model of the world’s armies for the next two generations. However, hindrances remained which could be only dealt with by legislation. For some time the Letterman system was restricted to the Army of the Potomac.

Hammond who had received Stanton’s promise that an order would be issued conferring additional powers on him, persisted in his requests for remedial legislation. Public opinion, spearheaded by the Sanitary Commission, finally led Congress to create an ambulance corps, based upon the Letterman experiments, for all the armies in the field. In operation during the last year of the war the ambulance system elicited widespread admiration.”

Note: According to Gary P. Gershman in The Legislative Branch of Federal Government, P. 209, John Covode (1808-1871), “an important man of the times” as they liked to say, was elected to the 35^th Congress in 1856, & one of eight members of the Committee, which disbanded in May, 1865. He was behind the resolution to impeach President Andrew Johnson. Also tried to impeach President Buchanan. His son will die in the war.

This was the story, what happened that Hays was scapegoated for:

Army Life According to Arbaw: Civil War Letters of William A. Brand 66^th Ohio Volunteer Infantry Edited by Daniel A. Masters P. 75, Footnote 110

Out of the Cleveland Morning Ledger, June 20, 1862, P. 2. “Our Wounded Men in Washington” (words in red my emphasis)

“A detachment of over 300 wounded or sick men from Shields’ division arrived in Washington under the care of Surgeon David S. Hayes [sic] of the 110^th Pennsylvania. Congressman Albert G. Riddle wrote, “When they arrived at Maryland Avenue at midnight, there was not a surgeon, hospital steward, or official of any kind from the hospitals of Washington to meet them. The soldiers were packed closely in the cars and were actually suffering from want of room, food, and proper attention.”

“Washington residents from the Seventh Ward took the soldiers in and cared for them until hospital officials gathered up the men the following day. The incident drew widespread comment throughout the Midwest.”

“Despite having repeatedly telegraphed Washington that he was in-bound with hundreds of wounded men, Surgeon Hayes [sic] was dismissed from the service for “shamefully neglecting them after their arrival.’”

Note: General Orders No. 66 dismissing Dr. Hays from the service was dated today, June 16, 1862. It appears No. 66 was put into effect at the time Lincoln drew it up; however, on August 16, 1862, Lincoln rescinded General Order No. 66 because Hays “has previously enjoyed a good character as an efficient, energetic & kind hearted surgeon.” Unless I can find more about Hays in the months between June 16 to August 16, what actually transpired remains murky. Where did Hays go, exactly? Hays may have gone back home to Hollidaysburg, rested up in the two months it took until Lincoln came to his senses & reinstate him.

But one thing is clear: men were already angling for Hays’ job…. Joan, a librarian at Handley Regional Library in Winchester, was kind enough to email me a photocopy of the original letter, handwritten, that exists in a box of the Lewis papers stored there, a “request from Surgeon T.W. Ross to replace discharged Surgeon Hays, July 10, 1862, 4 pages, manuscript.” On blue-lined faded dark eggshell colored folded thick paper, here it is, in full. Note that Ross shaped each second-to-last “s” in each of his words as if they were a lower case “f”. For instance, “Ross” resembled “Rofs,” “passed” looks like “pafsed,” and “Address” like “addrefs.” The letters “F” and “S” are virtually the same cursive in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, & no different here. Where the note was folded as if to be the front of it, it reads, that is, if you crane your neck:

“Address—

Assistant Surgeon TJW Ross

Kimbles Brig. 7^th va.

Smiths Division

Army of the Potomac

6^th Army corps”

“Camp Near Harrison’s Landing

July 10^th 1862

Col Lewis

Dear Sir

I have learned that the charges upon which Surgeon Hays of your Reg’t was discharged have been investigated by the proper authorities and decided sufficient for his removal from the service. This I suppose renders his reinstatement impossible for which I am very sorry.

Should it meet your approbation I would be pleased to have the position of Surgeon in your Regiment.

I am a Pennsylvanian as you are aware—was born and raised in the old Key Stone State, have lived there nearly all my life; enlisted there passed the Board of Medical examiners in the City of Wheeling—and commissioned as assistant—Surgeon by Governor Pierpont—of Virginia nearly one year ago [space] was assigned to duty in the 7^th Reg’t va. vol. In.

If you still have no surgeon nor any one in view I will be under many obligations to you if you will give me your influence to the Governor of Penn. for my promotion. I am anxious to get into a Pennsylvania Reg’t in as much as I am a Pennsylvanian.

I can give sufficient—recommendations from the army surgeons here to secure me the position. Please let me know, by letter immediately whether there has been any application made for the vacancy.

Very Respectfully your

obedient servant—

T.W. Ross asst. Surgeon

7^th Reg’t Va. vol.”

Note: Ross took his pen & drew a wiggly line to close in at a right-angled slant his sign-off words, from “Very” through the last word “vol.” This was the first item, besides my grandfather’s diary, that I’ve seen close-up. To know General Lewis held this paper & read these exact words I have, as they appear on these pages, is a phenomenal feeling.

Requested citation reads: Col. WD Lewis Papers, Collection number 573 wfchs, box 1: “Request to Replace Surgeon Hay’s from Surgeon T.W. Ross- July 10, 1862”. Stewart Bell Jr. Archives, Winchester, Va. (I paid for the research)

37^th Congress, 3^rd Session Senate Report of the Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War. (1863) https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=hvd.32044021676465

Note: The testimony regarding Dr. Hays “abandoning” the trainload of injured soldiers fresh off the battles of June 8 and 9 runs from pages 492-548 and is titled “Wounded From Front Royal, Virginia.” Below are selections of the testimony from those pages. The Joint Committee convened over the course of several days from mid-June to July, 1862, in D.C. The last of the testimony occurred on July 5^th.

In the House of Representatives, June 16, 1862: The motion, brought by Mr. Shellabarger, reads “Resolved, That “the committee upon the conduct of the war” be directed to inquire and report to this house whether our soldiers who were wounded at the Battle of Port Republic upon the 8^th and 9^th instant were subjected to any unnecessary neglect, either by refusal by any officer or surgeon to permit them to receive surgical attendance or medical supplies from other than their own brigade or division, or from any other cause. Also, whether they were subjected to any such neglect by being left upon the cars, or otherwise, after their arrival in this city; and if any such neglect occurred, that they ascertain and report the cause thereof.”

Note: Edwin Stanton (Secretary of War) produced for the House the following letter which he called “all the information in possession of this department in relation to the alleged neglect of our soldiers wounded in the action at Port Republic.”

“MEDICAL DIRECTOR’S OFFICE,

Military District of Washington, June 15, 1862.

GENERAL: I have to honor to invite your attention to the conduct of Surgeon David S. Hays, 110^th Pennsylvania volunteers. He stated to me that he arrived here last night, between 8 and 9 o’clock, in charge of about four hundred sick and wounded men from Front Royal. He did not report his arrival at this office until after 9 o’clock this morning. Ambulances were at once sent to convey the men to hospitals; and I also sent my assistant, Dr. Sheldon, 78^th New York, to superintend their removal, which he did well. As this is the second time that men have been neglected in this way by the medical officer in charge, I respectfully request that efficient measures be taken to prevent its repetition. The conduct of Surgeon Hays is, I think, highly culpable, and without excuse. It is, I feel assured, only necessary to bring the facts to your notice to have him dealt with as he deserves.

I am, general, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

JONA. LETTERMAN,

Assistant Surgeon, U.S.A., Medical Director

Brigadier General W.A. HAMMOND,

Surgeon General U.S.A., Washington, D.C.”

Note: The following are the dispatches read aloud in court today; also following are various principals’ testimony:

“SURGEON GENERAL’S OFFICE, June 16, 1862.

Respectfully transmitted to the Secretary of War. Surgeon Hays has exhibited a total want of comprehension of his duties, if not the grossest inhumanity. Whilst the men were being removed to the hospitals he absented himself, leaving the whole duty of taking care of these wounded soldiers to the medical officers having charge of the ambulances.

I therefore respectfully recommend that severe and summary punishment be awarded to Surgeon Hays. This is the second time within a short period that surgeons bringing sick and wounded to this city have neglected them. An example would be highly beneficial.

WILLIAM A. HAMMOND,

Surgeon General.

Referred to the adjutant general, with instructions to dismiss Surgeon Hays for neglect of duty.

EDWIN M. STANTON,

Secretary of War.”

“SURGEON GENERAL’S OFFICE,

Washington City, D.C., June 22, 1862.

DEAR SIR: I enclose you for the committee all the telegrams received at and sent from this office relative to the sick brought by Dr. Hays. I also enclose a copy of an order I had issued to Brigade Surgeon Cox for not having hospitals and stores.

The watchmen will report to-morrow. They both say positively that Dr. Hays never came to the office till Sunday morning.

Yours truly,

WILLIAM A. HAMMOND.”

Note: This can get confusing. The below first two dispatches only— Hays to Hammond, then Hammond back to Hays— regard FRONT ROYAL, where Hays was PRIOR to moving the train on into D.C. D.C. is the city of issue, where Hays & his train were not met by ambulances as they should have been. The third telegram below is Hays informing Hammond, as Hammond had requested, that Hays & the train cars would arrive later that same night, the 14th. This third telegram was the one that vanished into thin air, that Hammond supposedly never got or otherwise knew about.

“FRONT ROYAL, June 13—3.50 p.m.

SIR: I arrived here this morning with two hundred and eighty (280) sick and wounded from Shield’s division in charge. I reported to senior medical officer at this place, but General Ricketts, first brigade, second division, refuses to allow him to act. I am, therefore, without any medicines or dressings, which Dr. Cox is not permitted to furnish. Please telegraph me what disposition I shall make of them.

I am, sir, your obedient servant,

D.S. HAYS, Surgeon in Charge,

Surgeon General HAMMOND, U. S. A.”

“SURGEON GENERAL’S OFFICE,

Washington City, D.D., June 13, 1862.

Send your sick on to this city. Telegraph when they leave. You will be ordered to report in person to the surgeon general.

WILLIAM A. HAMMOND,

Surgeon General.”

“MANASSAS, June 14, 1862—4.14 p.m.

The train will arrive at Washington by 8 or 9 o’clock p.m.

D.S. HAYS, Surgeon in Charge.”

Court:

“WASHINGTON, June 20, 1862.

Dr. DAVID S. HAYS sworn and examined.

By Mr. Gooch:

Question. What has been your position and rank in the army?

Answer. Surgeon of the 110^th regiment of Pennsylvania volunteers.

Question. Will you state, as concisely as possible, the history of your connexion with the sick and wounded who came to this city under your charge from Front Royal?

Answer. After the battle of Winchester, on the 23d of March, I was in charge of a hospital in that place, and I retreated with General Banks’s column at the time they left. I belonged to General Shields’s division, and Dr. King, at Williamsport, relieved me, and directed me to rejoin my regiment as soon as I could. The rebels were then in Winchester, and I rode to Frederick on horseback, and there got into the cars and came to Washington, and went from here to Alexandria, and from there to Manassas. I was ordered from there to Front Royal. When I got to Front Royal I learned of this fight on Monday. I got on my horse, and, with two other surgeons, rode to Luray, where we arrived about 2 o’clock in the day. Our medical director was not there. There were a number of surgeons there, and there were several hospitals opened. Several of us went to a hospital on the hill, where there were quite a number of wounded who had just been brought in. We were there with them that day, and the most of the night, dressing their wounds. The next morning (Wednesday morning) our medical director, Dr. Bryant, placed me in charge of a hospital there. I had not then received any orders from him, and was going on to join my regiment, but he stopped me and put me in charge of a hospital there. There were no supplies or anything there. I sent to the provost marshal, and had attendants sent down, and also a steward, and proceeded to organize the hospital as soon as I could. I drew rations and had them cooked, and proceeded to dress the wounds and take the names and regiments of the wounded. About 9 o’clock that night I received orders from Dr. Bryant to have my wounded ready, with two days’ rations, to leave for Front Royal, there to report to the senior medical officer. I was up at work the most of that night. I again drew rations for two days for the wounded. It took us the most of the night to dress their wounds, and arrange all the other matters. We had to send around to the houses there to make bandages and dressings for the wounded men. Our orders were to be ready by 9 o’clock the next morning to proceed to Front Royal, but we could not get the wagons ready until about noon. We started about noon on Thursday, and drove fourteen miles, and encamped in a clover field for the night. We had the rations for the wagons; and each surgeon also received orders to have rations prepared for his own men. I received an order to have rations prepared for the men in my own hospital.

I then rode on, leaving three surgeons with the wounded, to report and provide hospital accommodations at Front Royal. I rode on about four miles, and as it was then getting dark, and as we were told that the rebels had fired upon our prisoners, we stopped at a house some five or six miles from Front Royal.

The next morning I rode into town and reported to General Ricketts. He told me that Dr. Cox, his brigade surgeon, was the senior medical officer there, but he was sick. I then went to the provost marshal to get hospital accommodations. With his assistance I obtained one hospital. I found Dr. Cox a short time afterwards, and reported to him. He directed me to prepare hospitals for the wounded, and I went to work and got three churches, into which I had the straw from the wagons carried, and then the sick taken in. It took some time to make these preparations. I then drew rations again, and as there were no accommodations for cooking there, I had to get camp-kettles and do the best I could.

Dr. Cox in the mean time had received orders from General Ricketts to join his brigade, and I had then to continue in charge. I had no dressings there, and there were none in town, as Dr. Magruder had broken up the hospitals there. I sent around to the houses, and got some sheets to make bandages of. About dusk, Dr. Mosely, a brigade surgeon, sent me in some assistants.

As soon as I had reported to Dr. Cox, he telegraphed to the surgeon general to learn what should be done with the wounded. That was in the morning, some time before 12 o’clock. No answer coming, about 3 o’clock that evening I telegraphed again. The next morning Dr. Cox received a despatch from the surgeon general, directing that the wounded should be brought to this city.

By Mr. Covode:

Question: How many wounded had you there?

Answer: Before we went to Front Royal I made out the list in my hospital, and one of the surgeons in charge of another hospital made out his list. But the other surgeons in charge of another hospital made out his list. But the other surgeons had not time to do so. When I got to Front Royal I set my steward to find that out, and he made it out to be 325 sick and wounded.

Question. How many surgeons had you along to take care of them?

Answer. There were four assistant surgeons besides myself.

Question. Was that enough to dress and take care of that number of sick and wounded men?

Answer. No sir; I do not think it was. On Saturday morning, about eight o’clock, Dr. Cox received a despatch from the surgeon general directing him to have the men brought to this city, and to report to his office.

We came on to Manassas, and I got off the train there and immediately went to the telegraph office, and telegraphed to the surgeon general that the train would reach this city between 8 and 9 o’clock that night. We were at Manassas about an hour, I suppose. I had dinner cooked and served there, and then started on again.

A short time after we started the train stopped, and one of the assistants came to me and reported that two cars with sick had been attached to the train at Manassas, and that two of them had died. I had known nothing about that before; no one had reported to me that those two cars were to be attached to the train. I sent my assistant to see about it, and it was reported to me that the two had died of fever.

At a station between Manassas and Alexandria, I went into the telegraph office to telegraph to the superintendent that we wished to cross Long Bridge. The conductor said he would attend to that himself.

We then came on to Alexandria, and I immediately went to the superintendent’s office. They asked me there if it was known in Washington that I was coming. I told them that I had telegraphed twice to the surgeon general, and I supposed they knew we were coming.

It was after dark when we started from Alexandria, and when we got across Long Bridge I suppose it was between 9 and 10 o’clock. I expected to find ambulances and surgeons in attendance, but there were none when we got here. We waited for some time, and could not tell whether the cars were going to run down to the depot or not. I inquired of the conductor, but he could not tell. I told my assistant surgeons that I would go down and see if I could find out anything about it, and would be back in a short time. Dr. Stidger and myself then walked down to Willards’. Colonel Lewis and Captain Marshall, quartermaster, were with us. When we got there I asked what time it was, and found it was very near 10 o’clock. Supper was over at the hotel, but Colonel Lewis and myself went in and took some tea. It was raining when I came out. Someone told me that I should find the surgeon general’s office in the War Department. I drove around to the War Department and went into the hall. There was a man there sleeping on the floor, and I proceeded to wake him up. During the noise I made for that purpose some one came down the stairs. I told him I wanted to find the surgeon general’s office, and he directed me to the place. I drove around there and went in, and found a watchman sitting there. I inquired if the surgeon general was in. He said he was not. I asked if any of his clerks were in, and he said there was no one there. I then asked if he would take a note to his house if I would write one. He said he did not know where he lived, and that there were some despatches waiting for him there then. Not finding any preparations made, and no one about, I concluded that it was not the intention to do anything with the men I had brought in before morning. I then got into a carriage and drove out to the train again.

By Mr. Covode:

Question. At what time was that?

Answer. I do not know the time. When I got back there I found that the citizens had been there and had got suppers for the men. They told me that all had had their suppers. Some of them—I do not know how many—had been taken from the cars and carried into some churches, and into a house just opposite the cars. I told Dr. Stidger that we better stay there until morning. “No,” said he, “they are pretty comfortable now. The citizens will have them taken over to the churches, and you had better go and get some sleep, and report as soon as you can in the morning.” I then went down to the hotel and went to bed. That was about 4 o’clock in the morning, for when I went in I inquired of the man there what time it was, and he said it was about 4 o’clock. I do not know how long I slept, but as soon as I got my breakfast I went around to the surgeon general’s office. I am not quite certain, but I think he was not in when I first got there. However, when I saw him I reported to him. I gave him my order, in the first place, to take my wounded to Front Royal and report to the senior medical officer there, and I also gave him General Rickett’s letter. I told him I could not have got along at all had it not seen for Dr. Mosely, who sent me some assistants, the night I got to Front Royal, to dress the wounds of the men. The surgeon general remarked: “Dr. Mosely, and you, too, deserve credit for the way you have acted;” and he told me to call around again the next morning, as he wanted to see me about Dr. Cox not receiving the wounded men when they got to Front Royal.

He then sent me to the medical director’s office, and I went there and reported to him. I then told him that I had got in the night before, but had not found any ambulances or surgeons in attendance, and had gone to the surgeon general’s office, but had not been able to find him. He told me that he had not received any despatches. He made out orders for ambulances to be sent over there, and I went over immediately to the cars again. I found that nearly all the men had been taken out of the cars and carried into the churches and some houses there, and the citizens were engaged in preparing breakfast for them. I asked for some bandages and some warm water, and proceeded to dress the stumps of some of those who had limbs amputated. I suppose it was a half an hour or so after I got there before the ambulances arrived. The medical director came over there and told me to set my medical assistants at work to move the men, but to leave the worst cases in the churches. I set my assistants at work. A surgeon came there and took charge. After all had been got off but four of the worst cases, I told the assistant medical director that I would then go down and get my dinner, leaving my assistant surgeons there, and if they needed me for anything they would let me know. I then went down to the hotel. The next morning I went around and reported again to the surgeon general. Said he, “I am going to have you dismissed.” I asked him upon what grounds he was going to have it done. He just handed me the charges and told me to look them over. I glanced at them, and asked him if he would not bring charges against me, and allow me an opportunity to defend myself. “No,” said he, “that is too tedious a process.” He then told me that he was going to send the charges right over to the Secretary of War, and I could go and see him about it. I then went up to the War Department, and went into the Secretary’s office. The Secretary took up the paper and proceeded to read it to me. I told him I had glanced over it, and asked him to allow me to make some explanations. He asked me if I did go to bed. I told him I had towards morning, and was proceeding to explain, when he told me he would not hear me; not to interrupt him. He then immediately wrote an order to the adjutant general to strike me from the rolls. That is about as near as I can state the circumstances of the case.”

Note: “He asked me if I did go to bed. I told him I had towards morning, and was proceeding to explain, when he told me he would not hear me; not to interrupt him. He then immediately wrote an order to the adjutant general to strike me from the rolls” may be the crux of the issue. Officials thought it unseemly the surgeon in charge rested. From this point in the proceedings, there’s pages of questions, and Mr. Gooch reads aloud the letter Dr. Hays’ wrote, the Monday letter (the same day charges brought down on him) to the newspaper. Here is the end of the letter (the bulk of which is covered above about what transpired once Dr. Hays got into town but found no waiting ambulances):

June 20 testimony, Dr. Hays:

“This morning (Monday) charges were preferred against me by the medical director and surgeon general, (without notifying me of the fact,) alleging gross neglect of duty, and the Secretary of War ordered my name be struck from the rolls, without allowing me to make either argument or defence. Under these circumstances, with these facts existing, I ask my friends, I ask the public, if I am not being sacrificed in order to shield some one in a position much higher than I am from charges of gross negligence? Am I not made the scape-goat of other men’s sins? Who are the men in lucrative offices who should have prepared most bountifully for the reception of these sick and wounded soldiers? Ask the sick men, the wounded men themselves, if I neglected them. Ask the assistant surgeons and attendants. They know if I shirked my work or shunned any responsibility; and let them and the world say if the man who watched over these poor fellows, day and night, for almost a week, ought to be disgraced because somebody failed to provide for their comfort here.”

Note: They adjourned, but the next day Dr. Hays requested to add to yesterday’s testimony. He spoke about how after initial amputation, or wound dressing, a doctor does not need to be present, that doctors need sleep like anyone else, and that the men that night, “they were more comfortable than they could have been in any hospital in town.” He says that on the 23 of March (Kernstown) that the Surgeon General was with his division and commended him for his work after that battle. Then a letter by the Surgeon General of Pennsylvania was read:

“WILLARDS’ HOTEL, June 21, 1862.

SIR: Having since last November frequent opportunities of judging of your professional skill and actions as a medical officer of Pennsylvania volunteers, I cheerfully testify to my high appreciation of the manner in which your duties have been performed. After the battle at Winchester, March 23, 1862, I personally witnessed your untiring devotion to your duties in the Union Hotel hospital, and on my return to Pennsylvania I repeatedly spoke of them in terms of praise.

The charge recently made against you of “gross negligence of your wounded and inhumanity” has surprised me and all who know your energetic habits, and, I trust may be entirely disproved before a court of inquiry, as, I doubt not, they will.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

HENRY H. SMITH,

Surgeon General of Pennsylvania”

After that, Dr. Hays tells all present: “The witness: I can prove by the surgeons in General Shield’s division now, and by the wounded men themselves, how I labored for them, and, positively, I never had the slightest idea that I neglected my duty during that journey until the subject was mentioned to me by the surgeon general.”

This all must have been so tense. If only there were a recording of these men’s voices, the rising pitch & timbre. Hays is holding up remarkably well considering the bullying he’s experiencing. His entire medical practice, much less reputation, is on the line that pulled in with the unmet train.

Court the next day, another letter is read aloud, one written by the “Brig. Surg. 1^st Brig.” who was surgeon Jas. H. Fais, commending Dr. Hays, after which the interrogation continues for pages in the record, pages of questions about who was attending to the wounded while Dr. Hays was asleep at the Willard Hotel. (Evermore Digression: This hotel, at 1401 Pennsylvania Ave., was originally six small houses, & by now every U.S. president since Pierce has moved through its doors. MLK wrote the speech there. Hawthorne: “The Willard Hotel more justly could be called the center of Washington than either the Capitol or the White House or the State Department.” Lincoln stayed here during the Baltimore assassination plot in 1861. The Willard, though, somehow never gets a 5 star rating. Known for “war rooms,” it’s said by “conspiracy theorists” like Seth Abramson that at various times, Trump, Roger Stone, Robert Hyde, Giuliani, Alex Jones, & others had such rooms there in late 2020 during “Stop the Steal” events, then on the day of the 1/6/21 Capitol Insurrection Trump kept a “second war room” there as an “operations center.” If you squint, the exterior vaguely resembles The Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, Colorado, where parts of The Shining were filmed. But back to the 1862 Hays’ stay):

Other character witnesses from the 110^th are called up the next day, such as Major John C. Johnson, who told those present Dr. Hays is regarded as one of the top surgeons of all the Pennsylvania regiments. Each man was asked, and attested to, Dr. Hays’ “reputation.”

At last, Ephraim’s hometown friend Huyett is sworn in on the 21^st (his name spelled incorrectly in the record as “Hewitt”): P. 511

“Question: What is your rank and position in the army?

Answer: I am captain of company D, 110^th regiment of Pennsylvania volunteers.

Question: Do you know Surgeon D.S. Hays?

Answer: Yes sir; I do. I have known him for a long time; I knew him before he entered the army.

Question: What is his reputation and character in your regiment as a surgeon?

Answer: It is good—excellent.

Question: You did not come to Washington with him when he came here in charge of the sick and wounded from Front Royal?

Answer: No, sir. In regard to his reputation, I have always thought he had a reputation beyond that of many other surgeons. After the battle of Winchester he was the head of the hospitals there. He not only had his own regiment to attend to, but a half a dozen others to see to at the same time. Among the men of our regiment his reputation is very good; and we all are very sorry, and regret, exceedingly, the misfortune that has happened to him.

Question: Do you know why he was transferred from his regiment to the hospital in Winchester?

Answer: I do not know. I thought it was because he was a more thorough-going surgeon than the others.

Question: Have you not heard it remarked that he was one of the best surgeons in your regiments, and that it was for that reason that he was placed at the head of the hospital?

Answer: I do not remember hearing that remark exactly. I thought so myself, I know. The men of our regiment, the 110^th, thought he was more competent than other surgeons. Of course, they had more dependence upon and more confidence in him than in any other surgeons.”

Note: The “military supervisor of army intelligence” was asked if he recalled any wires from Dr. Hays to Mr. Hammond, and he said there were two, which were “supposed” to have been delivered to him in anywhere from ten minutes to a half hour. The regular superintendant of telegraphs had been out sick, so wires were left with a Mr. Eckert, but “they have not been able to find yet or fix positively upon the orderly who delivered them.”

The assistant surgeon of the 29^th gets questioned, and then Mr. Hammond, who stated that the storm may have delayed the wires, but that he had also said to Dr. Hays, “You don’t expect me to sleep in my office all night. It is utterly useless for you to tell me that you could not find me in the city of Washington. They know at Willard’s where I live, and also where Dr. Letterman lives.” That there “are also watchmen in my office who know where I live, for I have frequently received despatches from the office after hours.” When asked if the telegraph operator working Saturday night when Dr. Hays walked in and asked for his home address, did, in fact, know where he lives, Hammond said he wasn’t sure. After pressed that Dr. Hays’ actions in trying to locate him were reasonable, Hammond insists that because Dr. Hays was the commanding officer of all men present, it was his duty to remain on scene and not delegate authority. (Delegating authority is, of course, a large component to Dr. Hays’ position.) Hammond calls General Ricketts’ not sharing his hospital stores with Dr. Hays “an outrage,” and “the organization of that part of the army is more deplorable than that of any other portion of the army,” and when asked his thoughts for a solution, he says, “he knows no other remedy than changing the commanding officer” and “I refer to General Shields.”

A parade of other witnesses in town that night were called forth, from the night watchman at the paymaster general’s department who had no recollection of either a dispatch or “any man with shoulder-straps who came to the door that night” (when asked how certain he could be of that, he replied he could not be certain), but that, to the night watchman at the surgeon general’s office, who insisted Dr. Hays never came, “I would not know him if he were standing here now, then ”to a laborer upstairs Dr. Hays was sent up a flight of stairs to question about Hammond’s address, who does report Hays asked for Hammond’s address. At one point Hammond says “I have an indistinct recollection of a despatch sent by the surgeon general up to my office. I have looked for that despatch and cannot find it, and I therefore think it must have been sent somewhere else. I had some intimation about the train coming. But I think it was from some other person that the despatch came.” When asked “If you had ordered that train loaded with sick and wounded to be brought to Washington immediately, would you not have felt that it was your duty to look after them, and not be away from your office for 10 or 15 hours?” the answer was, “Yes, sir, I think it would.”

The days whip by. Now it’s June 23^rd.

Ohio 7^th surgeon Dr. Francis Salter testified in glowing terms for Hays (who was present for everyone’s testimony), after which Hays asks him if he leaving was appropriate, to which the Ohio 7^th says “certainly.” Then a surgeon who worked in the surgeon general’s office insists no dispatches were ever received. Then June 24^th William Cooper, a town resident, when told, “Just tell us what you know about it,” said, when asked what time of night he saw Hays working, “I cannot say; but it was long after midnight. I did not look at the time of night at all then, because I was very busily engaged, in conjunction with my family, in trying to do the best I could for the soldiers, and I did not look at my watch, or make any inquiry as to the time of night, until this circumstance took place. My sister and myself, and one of my next neighbors, a lady, got into conversation together. I think one of the soldiers was there forming a part of the group. A conversation ensued in which the word “to-morrow” was used. I jocularly remarked, “what do you mean by ‘to-morrow?” It is time you ought to be thinking of going to church”—or something to that effect. “This is Sunday, recollect;” and at the instant, I pulled out my watch and looked at it; and at the same time this lady friend of mine said: “I think you ought;” that is, ought to think about going to church. I pulled out my watch at that time and looked at it; but whether it was twenty minutes past one o’clock, or twenty minutes before two o’clock, I cannot recollect; but it was considerably after one o’clock. Some minutes after that, I saw Dr. Hays—who, by the way, I did not know as Dr. Hays at the time—give a powder to one of the nurses, a youth there, whom I observed to be very handy, and it struck my attention—and the youth unfolded the paper, and poured the contents of it into a spoon that he had borrowed one of my family, mixed it with a little water, and then gave it to a patient that was lying upon the floor of Island chapel. I was on the east side of the church when this conversation took place, the time I pulled out my watch, and it was some time after that conversation that I saw Dr. Hays give this powder to the nurse, who administered it to a patient who was lying on the floor on the west side of the chapel. At that time it must have been very near two o’clock, if not quite.

When asked if he thought the wounded were cared for appropriately, he said as well as circumstances would permit. “I have not the slightest doubt that everything was done before he left that we were able to do. It was quite bedtime before the cars arrived; indeed it was after my bedtime, before anything was done to take the soldiers out of the cars; for we all thought that ambulances would come and take them away; and though my usual time of going to bed is about nine o’clock, yet having some curiosity to see whether the ambulances would come, I sat in a rocking chair near the front window of my house, waiting for them. I had dropped off asleep in my chair, when my daughter, who is married, came in and woke me up, and said, “There are a number of poor sick men here, and I think it is a shame that they are not removed;” and she said something about opening Island chapel for them. And then a number more of us got together, and got some bread and butter, and made some tea for the soldiers, which, of course, took some time. I had a hundred off loaves of bread piled up in my kitchen and about 200 pounds of ice; and I went over to Island chapel and to Grace church and told them that if they wanted any bread or anything of the kind, to send over to my house and get it. But no train arrived, and after keeping the bread until Tuesday, I sent it back. The ice, of course, all melted away.” When asked if Hays complained that night that no attention had been paid to his telegrams, he answered, “Yes sir. He appeared to be very much hurt, indeed, to think that the men had been so neglected. And he said that the more neglected he thought the men had been, the more deserving of credit he thought the citizens there were for what they had done.”

“Question: You are certain that you saw Dr. Hays bestowing attentions upon those men continuously up to 2 o’clock?

Answer: I did; and when I read the order, No. 66, I had no more idea that the doctor I had seen there was the surgeon in charge, there referred to, than that I was; and I said, “served him right.” But when I came to find out who that surgeon was, I said it was essentially wrong.

Question: That is, you approved of the act of dismissing Dr. Hays until you learned it was the same man you had seen attending the wounded men there?

Answer: Yes, sir. And I had no idea that this gentleman, [pointing to Dr. Hays,] whom I had conversed with, and whom I had seen going about among the patients, and exerting himself to the best of his ability, as I thought—I had no idea that he was the surgeon in charge, but thought he was only secondary; and therefore when I read the order, which I did on Tuesday morning, at a friend’s house. I said, “Served him right.” I agreed with the order then, and so did my family. But my sister says, “How can that be? That gentleman I talked with was Dr. Hays—at least, they called him Dr. Hays.” Says I, “What kind of a man was he?” She described him. But it could not be Dr. Hays, for I knew that very often, in decribing persons in that way, people mistake one person for another; and it was not until yesterday that I was positively convinced, of my own knowledge, that the surgeon I saw there that night was Dr. Hays.

Question: And you are certain now that this Dr. Hays [pointing to him] is the identical man who was attending to the soldiers that night.

Answer: This is the identical man.”

Then another townsperson was interviewed, saying, “He told me that he had telegraphed three times, once on his way down here, informing the authorities here that he was on the way here with soldiers, sick and wounded; yet they were not provided with ambulances when they arrived here. I saw him at times until a very late hour in the morning; and all the time he was doing his utmost for the relief of the soldiers.” He said that not one soldier complained about their medical treatment, and that every man seemed as if he had not had anything to eat in two or three days. “One of the soldiers told me that he thought that, if it had not been for the assistance they had received from the citizens of the island, many of those who were low of typhoid fever and of exhaustion would have died. In several cases we had to take them to the churches almost be main force. They were so much exhausted that they seemed to have lost all energy whatever. I some instances I saw some soldiers carrying other soldiers on their backs.”

Next up was a middle-of-the-night clerk at Willards Hotel, who said Hays and Lewis and another man arrived, and Hays had tea for 10 minutes, and kept inquiring where the surgeon general lived. He left to try to find him, but didn’t arrive back to the hotel until 4 a.m. Then June 25th a hack driver testified Hays asked for the address, which he did not know. When asked if he had champagne at supper, it turns out the driver “took some with Colonel Lewis, but not much.” This is all Lynchian, isn’t it.

An asst. surgeon out of the 1^st Virginia was up next, by now July 5^th, a Dr. S.B. Stidger, who rode on the train cars into town with Hays, & said when the train was met by no one, they waited for the ambulances, but no one ever came, so eventually they went “up town” to report in person at the surgeon general’s office and inquire why no arrangements had been made. Stidger tells Gooch there were four other surgeons besides Hays on the train, that the men were fed and cared for in churches, halls and private residences. He stated Hays had been complaining for days he did not feel well, and that he told Hays to leave and rest, that he would see to it the men were all cared for, that a doctor who lived on the street where the train came in asked “how it was we were left there,” and Stidger told him they were “in a rather unpleasant situation, as we had no medicines and nothing to dress the wounds with.” So that town doctor took Stidger to his office where they got brandy and morphine. Citizens also brought dressings. “As far as my own opinions were concerned, I thought we had reported when we sent our telegraphic despatched here. Our object in going was to ascertain, if possible, why there was nobody there to receive the men.” When asked after Hays’ health, “I heard him complain mostly on the way to Front Royal, when riding on horseback. I believe I heard him complain at one time when attending to the sick at Luray. He said he was suffering very much.” “Was it the knowledge of his condition that induced you to advise him to go and lie down?” “Yes, sir, and also because I did not think there was any necessity for his being there. I must confess that I had a very strong inclination myself to go. I felt a very strong inclination to accompany him when he retired.”

Then Stidger gets grilled whether he and Hays ate a ready to go supper or a cooked to order supper at Willard’s after trying to find the surgeon general in the flesh. “Did you not have a champagne supper that night” he is asked, and answered, “No sir; I think not. We had some champagne the next morning, I think, ordered by Colonel Lewis.” “Did you not have a champagne supper that night?” “I cannot be positive. I know we drank champagne with Colonel Lewis.” “You drank it that night, did you not?” “Well, sir; I think we did.”

“Then when you and Dr. Hays came up to report why did you not go to the surgeon general’s office?”

“We were told, on inquiring about the surgeon general’s office, that it was closed.”

“Who told you that?”

“I cannot tell you that.”

Questions go on four more pages. Then ends this episode of the Wounded From Front Royal. Give it some years. The next page in the Report of the 37^th Congress Joint Committee is dated 12/4/62 & regards financial abuse at Camp Convalescent, near Alexandria, as sick soldiers received zero pay for 3-9 months.

Note: It’s clear these interrogators, this Joint Committee that consisting of famous & powerful Civil War players, assumed they knew what happened then fit actual facts into their own contortive assumptions. Stanton, Hammond, Letterman acted very poorly. Hays’ suffer[ed] violence from this committee & had this episode happened in 2022 terms, these men would’ve been sued to the moon & back for real harm, slander, & defamation. Plus overall maliciousness, if that’s a thing. At some point I’d like to locate the original newspaper coverage. OpEds, letters re Hays from June, 1862.

Hays wasn’t the only one the JC scapegoated & misled Lincoln about. Lincoln, too, failed to intervene on behalf of Brig. Gen. Charles Pomeroy Stone (1824-1887, the first volunteer officer to enlist in the Union Army) after the Ball’s Bluff one, even imprisoning him when the JC blamed Stone for the casualties. That battle had dead Yankees floating down the Potomac right behind the White House. Union losses: 921-1,002 out of 1,720 strength. Confederate: just 36 killed, the rest captured or wounded out of 156. Strength was 1,709. And…. that’s right, Stone wasn’t even there at the battle. He put Col. Baker, also the Oregon Senator, in charge, & 4 bullets had him dead “before he hit the ground.” Lincoln & the JC tossed Stone in the clink for 6 months, yet he never had a trial, or even charges levied. That’s right, Stanton & Sumner strike again, as does McClellan (he put a gag order on Stone about McClellan’s own troop movements that day, so the JC never got the full story). However, the JC did get the full story re Hays, that he sent the two dispatches saying his train was arriving, so no excuse there on the JC’s behalf. Winfield Scott, upon Stone’s arrest, said, “If he is a traitor I am a traitor, and we are all traitors.” Eventually the JC hears the full story of that day so reverses its curse on Stone, which is more than they did for Hays. The NYT, according to Wikipedia which cites Donald Winkler, author of Civil War Goats and Scapegoats (2008) as the source, P. 55, “General Stone has sustained a most flagrant wrong—a wrong which will probably stand as the very worst blot on the National side in the history of the war.” Stanton kept after him anyway, kicking him out of his rank & back to the lower colonel rank. Stone eventually quits the army in ’64. Didn’t even get to serve until the end, after being the first one in line for the whole thing.

In large part due to the Ball’s Bluff disaster, the JC was formed it was one of their first orders of business. Here’s a resource: A Little Short of Boats: The Battles of Ball’s Bluff and Edwards Ferry, October 21-22, 1861 by James A. Morgan III (2011)

Also, see the description typed up by tmh10 at civilwartalk.com out of the Encylopedia of the American Civil War: A Political, Social, and Military History (5 vol.) by David S. Heidler, Jeanne T. Heidler, forward by James M. McPherson (2000). No, my library can’t get this 1,600 entry, 300 contributor, 500 illustration, 75 map, cross-referencing index, glossary with usage particular to the period, special 16-state local battlefield map, exhaustive chronology with 250 primary source document $274.96 collection into my hands, & no e-book available. So thank you, tmh10.

I hope someone takes up Hays’ case to delve deeper. He died at just 64 years old. (The local library deigned my order to go through, of the above Civil War Goats and Scapegoats, so maybe Hays will be there though he’s not in the index. Stay tuned.) And this all must have been hard, too, on men like Huyett & maybe Ephraim & others who knew Hays from home before the war, & the town a bit under a shroud for it. This seems one of the forgotten stories of Jackson’s Campaign, & of the war in general. I only found out about it by accident when I googled David Hays. At first glance, I figured Hays guilty. After all, Congress had to call him up to account for himself. Then even Lincoln kicked him out? Wow. Some bad deeds by a bad guy. But. But… I kept reading. Yet even now, when I try to locate what I first read years back, it’s gone. Gone into the ether like his two telegrams. What else went there? The Real War?

Again, the link, re-added 2/25/25, because apparently I’m afraid it will get gone in the ether of 160 plus years worth of still fading civil war smoke outta muskets, cannons, men’s mouths making O- rings before walking forward to their deaths in a few short minutes: https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=hvd.32044021676465

For now, the last word on Hays should come from Charles F. Faust, in 1992, at:

https://emu.usahec.org/alma/multimedia/184589/20182819MN000027.pdf

“SURGEON DAVID STERRET HAYS 110TH PENNSYLVANIA VOLUNTEERS CIVIL WAR” By Charles F. Faust July, 1992

Note: Who was Charles Faust? See end of this article. These I cut & pasted.

“David Sterret Hays has been dead for nearly 100 years. Forgotten by most, he was a victim of a military and political hierarchy that charged him with their own failure. Surgeon Hays was accused of, and dismissed from the service for, neglect of duty; yet few Civil War surgeons were as devoted to duty as he. His appeal went to the top and was heard. After his death, his wife became a second victim of the bungling Washington bureaucracies.

To the Soldier’s Aid Society of Huntingdon Winchester, Virginia April 26, 1862 Madam: In behalf of the sick and wounded of the 110th Regiment P.V., I tender thanks to the ladies of the Soldier’s Aid Society of Huntingdon for their generous donation of sanitary stores for our Regiment. Arriving at a time when our stores were exceeding- ly limited and means of obtaining them difficult, they were rendered doubly valuable, and enabled us to add materially to the comfort of our disabled soldiers. To say that the philanthropic motives of the benevolent donors are fully appreciated would be but a slight expression of the gratitude awakened in the hearts of the wounded sufferers, and could that gratitude be depicted to the minds of those whose efforts have been directed in their behalf, it would be at least a partial recompense for their labors. The wounded of the Pennsylvania Regiments were taken to Philadelphia by Surgeon General Smith, while those from other states are quartered in this city, and have all necessary comforts – and nothing is neglected which has a tendency to promote their welfare, both temporal and spiritual. Yours Very Respectfully, D[avid] S. Hays, Surgeon, 110th Regi- ment, P.V.” Reveille in Washington, a book about the city in Civil War time, described the neglect of sick and wounded soldiers and the poor conditions for their care. Ambulances were jarring and the trips often long. The journey by rail was mercifully shorter…. They were closely packed on the floor of the cars,” on mattresses, straw or bare boards. If on flat cars, they were exposed to the elements. “Often there was a tedious wait for ambulances at the Maryland Avenue depot, the terminus of the trains which crossed the Long Bridge from Virginia. On a Saturday night in June [the 14th] 1862, four hundred men arrived unexpectedly from Front Royal…- No ambulances came to meet them and no hospital official appeared. After a fruitless effort to find the Surgeon General, the doctor in charge deserted them, and went off to eat and sleep. Aroused from their beds by the news of the soldier’s predicament, No ambulances came to meet them and no hospital official appeared. After a fruitless effort to find the Surgeon General, the doctor in charge deserted them, and went off to eat and sleep. Aroused from their beds by the news of the soldier’s predicament, near-by residents of the Island hurried to the depot with hot drinks, food, stimulants and fresh bandages. Grace Church, Ryland Chapel and Potomac Hall were opened, and the wounded were carried in and cared for. Next morning, the congregation of Grace Church, coming to worship, took one look at the figures on the pew cushions and dispersed to bring a fresh supply of food and drink. This was an exceptional case of neglect, and resulted in the doctor’s dismissal from the service; but delays and maladjustments were unending..– Newspapers quickly picked up the story of Dr. Hays’ dismissal. The Harrisburg Patriot and Union quoted the Secretary of War who characterized the episode through Adjutant General Thomas as “shameful neglect after arrival at Washington” and “gross dire- lection of duty.”? David Hays was a fighter who knew he was in the right and he was determined that the coverup by the Surgeon General and the War Department at his expense would not scour. He wasted no time in making his defense in the local papers. On June 24, the following appeared in the Huntingdon Globe.

“The Case of Surgeon David S. Hays Surgeon D.S. Hays, of the 110th Regiment of Pennsylvania Volun- teers, who was dismissed from the service for leaving 325 wounded men in the cars at Washington all night, has published a card, in which he states that he had been with the men for five days and nights, with little or no sleep or rest, that he reached Washington with them between 9 and 10 o’clock at night, a stranger in a strange city, and failing to find any arrangements for their reception, although he had twice telegraphed his approach to the Surgeon General, and being unable to find him, was induced by his assistants to go to a hotel and take a few hours rest, at 4 o’clock in the morning. His card concludes as follows: “After making every search in my power for someone in authority to take charge of the sick and wounded, I returned to the train. Here I found the kind people of the neighborhood doing all in their power to make the poor fellows under my· charge as comfortable as possible under the circumstances .. Many were then being taken to the churc hes and houses that had been so generously opened for them. Before the Surgeon General was at his office in the morning, I was there to make my report and receive my orders. Immediately upon making my report and receiving my orders (which to me appeared strange, when considering that the Surgeon General was telegraphed of their coming my orders from the Surgeon General were to find and report to the Medical Director, and he would send ambulances). I returned to my charges and found them exceedingly comfortable and cheerful. This morning (Monday), charges were preferred against me by the Medical Director and the Surgeon General (without notifying me of the fact), alleging gross neglect of duty; and the Secretary of War ordered my name struck from the rolls, without allowing me to make either argument or defense. Under these circumstances, with these facts existing, I ask my friends, I ask the public, if I am not being sacrificed in order to shield someone in a position much higher than I from charges of gross negligence? Am I not made the scapegoat of other men’s sins? Who are the men in lucrative offices who should have prepared most bountifully for the reception of those sick and wounded soldiers? Ask the sick men, the wounded men themselves, if I neglected them. Ask the assistant surgeons and attendants; they know if I shirked my work or shunned my responsibility; and let them and the world say if the man who watched over those poor fellows day and night, for almost a week, ought to be disgraced because someone failed to provide for their comfort here.”

We copy the following from the Washington “Republic” of Thursday: “The following statement has been signed by 72 soldiers who were under the care of Dr. Hays. These signatures were obtained in a visit to only about one-fourth of the number who were under his care at the time alluded to, the ladies having charge of this matter having time to visit only three of the twelve wards where the soldiers are now placed. “We, the undersigned sick and wounded soldiers from the Ohio and Indiana Regiments, under the care of Dr. D.S. Hays of the 110th Pennsylvania Volunteers, do most respectfully and sincerely regret Dr. Hay’s discharge from the service, on the plea of “gross neglect” of those entrusted to his care, believing such accusations cannot be substantiated by any facts to our knowledge. He has never been guilty of neglect, but ever treated all under his care with the utmost tenderness, and has ever been most prompt in the discharge of his whole duties towards us.”

Governor Andrew Gregg Curtin, often called “The Soldier’s Friend” both during and after the War, soon came to the aid of David Hays. In a letter to Abraham Lincoln, he told of David’s devotion to duty and requested his intervention. Curtin and Lincoln were mostly on good terms as the governor was perhaps more supportive of the war effort than any of the Union heads of state govern- ment. Lincoln’s August 18, 1862 reply was, if “in view of the circumstances, the Governor sees fit to reappoint Surgeon Hays, he may be mustered.”? Governor Curtin, of course, saw fit. The Globe of September 2, 1862, reported in a brief article, “Dr. David S. Hays has been re-appointed Surgeon of the 110th Pennsylvania Regiment. He was honorably acquitted of any neglect of duty.”

This was not really the case, as Dr. Hays was not charged or tried and could not, therefore, be acquitted. Governor Curtin simply reappointed him to his position as Surgeon of the 110th. Overruled by the Commander in Chief, the War Department was not heard from again and the doctor resumed his place in the Regiment.

Apparently Dr. Hays was carried continuously on the roll of the 110th as Bates’ History of Pennsylvania Volunteers does not show any break in his service which ended with his honorable discharge by General order on June 3, 1865.

An undated newspaper clipping asserts that David wrote to Lincoln at some point, requesting service at the front. The request was said to have been granted. David was detached from the 110th for much of his service, though never transferred. At various times he was Surgeon on the Brigade staff, in charge of a field hospi- tal at Winchester in 1862 and another at Gettysburg in 1863. He also had charge of hospitals at Fredericksburg, Luray and others. His highest calling was Surgeon in Chief of the 5rd Division, 2nd Corps. Jonathan Jamison, Surgeon in Chief, 5rd Division, 3rd Corps commended his “skill, zeal and fidelity” when detailed to his command.

Surgeon Hoop of the 84th: “…I continued in the same Brigade with him and knew him intimately. I worked with him in Camp and on field, at all of the battles in which [we were] engaged up to the date of the Second battle of Bull Run on or about August 31^st, 1862…”

“After the battle of Bull Run, aforesaid, we encamped near Arlington Heights when and where Dr. Hays took sick with typhoid fever and dysentery. His condition was such that, on my order, he was removed to Officers Hospital, Georgetown, D.C. He remained absent under medical treatment for about two months, after which he rejoined his regiment. After he rejoined his regiment, and while in the service, he frequently complained of hemorrhoids, particularly when his regiment was moving [and] he [was] obliged to ride….”

William F. Cunningham moved up from Private of Company D, 110th, to Adjutant on August 12, 1863. In a letter, months before that appointment, to the Journal and American, he joined the many others who supported David Hays.

Headquarters, 110TH Regiment P.V. Lovettsville, Virginia, October 29, 1862 Messrs. Editors: – When I wrote you last, we were then quartered on Arlington Heights, but on the eve of the 16th, we received orders to be ready to move at a moments notice” After striking tents and laying around until after midnight, it commenced rain- ing, when we were ordered to put up our tents again and go to bed, as we would not move until morning. About daylight next morning, the long roll was beaten, the Brigade fell into line, and we took up our line of march to Washington, where we took the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad cars for Knoxville, five miles east of Harpers Ferry. After laying there for several days, we moved down the river to a place called Berlin, where we crossed the Potomac on a pontoon bridge. Our Brigade, commanded by General Carroll (a brave and able officer) had the honor of crossing the river as the first infantry, we being preceded by several regiments of cavalry some four hours before. We moved out to this place, which is three miles from the river, through a perfect storm of wind and rain. After arriving, we camped at the edge of town, which by the way is a strong Union one. Dr. [David S.] Hays, our efficient Surgeon, took possession of a stone church which contained two large ten plate stoves, and soon had the sick quite comfortable. It is now used as the Brigade hospital. After our Division (Whipple’s) crossed, then came Burnside, then Wilcox, and then Reynolds with his gallant and well tried Pennsylvania Reserves. Yesterday, General McClellan was here, he looks very well” He halted a few moments, was joined by Burnside, and both rode on to the front. Last night the men commenced moving, and have been going all day. We have orders to move on in the morning” The Rebels are reported to be in force six miles in our front. Our Brigade consists of the 110th and 84th P.V., 163rd New York and a battery from the same state. Our acting Brigade Surgeon, Dr” [Gibboney F .. J Hoop of the 84th, discharges his duties with credit and honor to himself and to the state from which he hails. [Edward] Green[berry] Dorsey, our Commissary Sergeant, as Artemus [Ward] says, is “a gay and festive cuss.” Today, we had another accident from the careless handling of loaded firearms; it happened in the 163rd New YorJc A young fellow was handling a gun which went off, the ball entering the hip of another man, going through his pocket and carrying with it a “greenback” into the wound. It was taken out and the man is now doing well. Our move tomorrow is intended as a reconnaissance in the direc- tion of the enemy. Our Regiment is much decimated, owing to the many hard marches and battles we have gone through. We are look- ing for a new Company commanded by Captain Bob Hopkins. More anon.

While Surgeon David S. Hays was on detached duty as Chief Surgeon of the 2nd Brigade, 5rd Division, 3rd Corps. His friend, Andrew J. Hartsock, Chaplain of the 110th, who had been pastor to the United Brethern Church of Johnstown, Pennsylvania, wrote from a hospital in Fredericksburg, Va. May 19, 1864 To Surgeon Hays, Greetings. I am still in this ill-fated city and from present appearances may have to stay some time” I am heartily tired of the place – had it not been for our boys – I wish I had remained with you. But I am glad I came. I never knew such utter destitution.

There were nurses detailed, I presume, but the way we drove, no man could keep up and I had to supply the men with water and anything I could get. We drove by Ely’s Ford as tho[ugh] Moseby was after us …….. Got on the North bank of the Rapidan at about 12 o’clock at night .. After seeing to wounded we lay down = just got into a deep sleep when the cry was raised “Moseby in our rear” and we recrossed the pontoons hastily – reached this place on Monday morning = then came the work. I worked till Wednesday morning when I took a violent fever and lay about 48 hours …….. The quinine & c. I had to take, but I got up and am at work as usual.

[Samuel] Johnston of Company C, leg amputated – died – I must say I fear his death was the result of neglect .. [Abraham c_J Makin of Company H died of his wound. All the others are doing finely – [W .. R .. ] Liveringhouse [Private, Company BJ shot through the lungs, is walking around. John Steward [John F. Stewart, Private, Company B or more probably, John PP. Stewart, Private Company A, who was discharged on a Surgeon’s Certificate, date unknown] is getting along finely – so is Hays. [There were four Privates named Hays in the regiment: Alexander Y., Company C; Samuel, Company B; William G., Company G; and John, Company I.] Colonel [Isaac] Rodgers is getting along very well” There is hope of his recovery. Surgeon General King has visited him frequently. Dr. Harris of N.Y. City attends him. It is a providence that the Colonel lives .. Our Surgeons looked at him when he was brought and said to me “He is [as] good as a dead man.” and would do nothing for him. Finally I secured the services of Dr. Harris.

He is very impatient. His the greatest charge I ever had” It is almost impossible to make him feel comfortable” His will seems to be gone altogether – but all that can be done shall be done for him = and all the regiment when I can work for them. [Note: In darker ink are these next two lines, obv. added later as an addendum by Faust] Despite the efforts, Lieutenant Colonel Isaac Rodgers died from his wound. Rodgers was a Cromwell Township farm boy who had risen in the ranks and commanded the regiment until receiving his fatal wound while leading a charge at Spotsylvania.

The Corps is full of wounded. It is one vast hospital. We have had about two hundred Sanitary Commission bummers loafing around the streets. The Provost Marshal could raise a few squads if he would arm them and send them [to the] front.

Adjutant [William H.] Shelow went to Washington today. They were glad to leave. Some of our wounded came from the Wilderness today. Surgeon Thompson gives a colorous account.

Well, Dr., I must close. Remember me to your Board and any Sur- geons or friends of mine with you.

Please send word to the Regiment [of] my whereabouts. The dju- tant ordered me to stay here as long as our wounded were sent to this place. I am willing to work anywhere but would like to see the Regiment. Your friend, Andrew J. Hartsock, Chaplain 12

A year later, it was all over and Dr. David S. Hays was discharged and returned to private practice; not at Mooresville, but at Hollidaysburg, Blair County. Dr. G.W. Smith said in an 1880 deposition: I met him [David Hays] immediately after his return from the service in June, 1865. I was then practicing medicine in Holli- daysburg and Dr. Hays located there. I was then in active prac- tice and called on him to visit one of my patients. He consented to do so and then said “I am greatly troubled with piles and walking or riding causes them to give me great pain. We have lived in the same town ever since.”

Mary Emma S. Price, a daughter of Charles and Eliza Price, orginally of Chester County, was born at Milesburg February 29, 1844. When Mary was fifteen, the family moved to Harrisburg. She was a graduate of Birmingham and Shirleysburg Seminaries. At Birmingham, she was the leading essayist. She later wrote for magazines and periodicals. Her father was said to be a friend of Abraham Lincoln and letters from him were family treasures. How they met is not known, but Mary was married to David S. Hays on June 10, 1868 at the Presbyterian Church in Hollidaysburg by Rev. D.H. Barron. They had at least five children. 14 David was pensioned for “malarial poisoning and dysentery and resulting piles.” In 1890, he applied for an increase in his $12 per month rate for bronchitis resulting from malarial poisoning. He lived eight more years. Death came on July 10, 1898 while walking on Union Street in Hollidaysburg. He was stricken with “brain paralysis.” He was buried on the 15th at Presbyterian Cemetery, Hollidaysburg.

A year after David died, Mary Emma applied for a widow’s pension. It was denied on the grounds that her husband was dismissed from the service. Again, the irony: Hays’ obit says he “was United States Examining Surgeon in pension cases from 1865 to 1882.” The Adjutant General advised the Pension Office that David had been dismissed for neglect of duty. On inquiry, the Adjutant General advised that the dismissal was not regarded as a dishonorable discharge. However, the Pension Act of 1890 provided that a dismissal was grounds for denial of pension rights. Her pension was denied. Apparently the fact that David had been reinstated by Abraham Lincoln’s letter to Governor Curtin carried no weight with the bureaucrats. They interpreted the law literally. She applied again in 1900 and was denied because David did not die of the disease for which he was pensioned. Dr. Smith testified that “… the cerebral paralysis caused suspension of the vital organs… the pathological connection..- must be apparent… in acute cases of malarial poisoning the patient may die in the attack…”

Hays’ 1881 War Department paperwork, plus Mary’s Declaration for Widow’s Pension, 5 pages total here. “Neglect of Duty” “dismissed the service” June 16, 1862, “reinstated August 20 in same grade” & where Hays’ name is & isn’t “borne” in Reg’t records: https://emu.usahec.org/alma/multimedia/184602/20182819MN000040.pdf

The Congressional Committee assigned recommended approval and Mary got her pension by a special act of Congress on April 29, 1902. First $12.50 was recommended, then $50. The Act specified $20 per month. 15 Mary lived on until January 5, 1920. On New Years night, she sank into a coma. She was suffering from uremia.

Her obituary listed five children: Charles Ferron, Elizabeth G. and Mary Edith of Hollidaysburg, Mrs .. Frank Kelly of New York City and Mrs. G.W. Jackson of Belgrade, Nebraska. She had four brothers who preceded her in death: Albert, Edward and Charles Price. 16 Five days after Emma’s death, Harry P. Hays wrote to the Commissioner of Pensions: …her quarterly pension arrived in due time, but as she was lying seriously ill at the time, being uncon- scious, the postmaster returned the check to Washington. Myself and two sisters resided with her, and we are in need of the pension money to defray the funeral expenses. [We] would be glad if you would kindly arrange to return the same as soon as possi-ble.

David’s brother, Samuel, had gone west but had not forgotten his service in the 110th. In the Globe October 27, 1910: The 110th Pennsylvania Volunteers Veterans Association met for the 27th time in Huntingdon last Thursday. The business meeting was opened by President John W. Plummer at 2 P.M. with twenty-one comrades present… A communication was read from S[amuel] D. Hays of Santa Monica, California who is 79 years old and was Quartermaster of the Regiment… Samuel Hays came to the 110th Regiment on July 8, 1864 from the 14th Regiment, U.S. Regular Army, where he was Quartermaster Sergeant. 19 It seems likely that his brother, David, had something to do with his transfer and promotion.

Emma’s obituary of 1920 listed her grandchildren: Robert Barras Hays, Doris Underwood Hays, G. Ward Jackson and Mary Ann Jackson.

Robert Barras Hays died in July, 1990. His sister, Doris, married Stephen Thompson. She survives as does her mother who was aged 103 on December 9, 1991. The Thompsons, of Fairfield, Connecticut, have a son, Peter. Sadly, the letter from Lincoln was stolen. Some relics of David Hays’ wartime collection remain in the family. 20 Nothing is known of the Jackson grandchildren at this writing.

The writer and Doris Thompson are cousins, having in common Nancy Ripple Foust as a great-great grandmother.

Notes. 1. Census, 1860, of Morris, Warriors Mark, Franklin, West and Porter Townships, Huntingdon County, Pennsylvania. 2. Hoop, Gibboney. Deposition in the National Archives file of David Hays. 4. Faust, Charles, ed. “The Civil War Era in Huntingdon County .. 5. Bates, Samuel P. History of Pennsylvania Volunteers, 1861- 1865. vol. III, p. 978. 6. Reveille in Washington, pp. 208, 209 7. David Hays file at the Manuscript Division, USAMHI, Carlisle. 8. ibid. 9. ibid. 10. Bates, Vol. III, p.985 11. Hoop deposition. 12. David Hays file at Carlisle. 15. David Hays file at the National Archives. 14. David Hays file at Carlisle 15. David Hays file at the National Archives. 16. David Hays file at Carlisle 17. David Hays file at the National Archives. 18. Bates. 19. David Hays file at Carlisle 20. Thompson, Doris (letters in file /104:12/)”

Note: Who was Charles Faust, you ask? He was from Huntingdon, same as Hays & Ephraim, &, as he noted in his Hays’ writeup above, was vaguely related to Dr. Hays.

https://memorials.kuhnfuneralhomes.com/Faust-Charles/1661163/obituary.php

Note as well: I read that embarkation of the wounded after the Seven Days Battles in late June, early July, 1862, at White House & Harrison’s Landing will be a disaster. 300 men are left wounded, with no medical care, no food, packed together on the floor of a train car for 3 days. See Doctors in Blue, P. 70-79. According to Adams, P. 72, at White House Landing, 5 surgeons, one steward, & zero nurses had to face 4,500 sick & wounded who arrived from Fair Oaks. After Second Bull Run, Adams writes that “almost incredible anarchy” reigned in field relief medical care. Incredibly, 3 days after battle, 3k lay wounded where they dropped, 5 days later 600, & even a week after, some were still there, through thunderstorms & beaming down sun, with no food. When civilian help arrived (most ran off), their conduct toward the wounded was “villainous” because they stole from them, refused them water, stole blankets & rations, etc. That’s humanity for you.

Charles F. Faust, 85, of Montrose Manor, died August 27, 2013, in Reading Hospital.
“He was the husband of Madalene L. (Hicks) Faust, to whom he was married for 63 years.
“Born in Huntingdon, PA, he was the son of the late Benjamin R. and Sarah M. (Freeland) Faust.
He was a veteran of the US Navy serving during WWII in the Far East.
Charles was a graduate of Shippensburg University in 1965 with degrees in Library Science and Elementary Education. In 1968 he earned his Master’s in Library Science from Kutztown University.
He was employed by the Governor Mifflin School District for 23 years, first as a teacher in the elementary school, and later as the librarian at the intermediate school, retiring in 1990. Previously, he had taught in the Harrisburg School District.
Charles was a Civil War researcher, and assisted others in the writing of Civil War books.”

Last note: “I thought if you told people facts, they’d draw their conclusions, and because the facts were true, the conclusions mostly would be too. But we don’t run on facts. We run on stories about things. About people.” Babylon’s Ashes  James S.A. Corey P. 169

I got some strawberrys today….

I saw the White House….

For the record, his name was David Sterret Hays, the one with the champagne froth. Only the champagne has gone south, & he tries to send it back to the kitchen & they said no.

Hays was like a ship captain who decided not to go down with his vessel. Had he stayed with the train cars, Hammond and Letterman would have been the guilty parties. The red herring was he left for four or five hours rest, then had champagne on top of it all. Whoever first took down the dispatches lost track of them, or whoever the dispatches were delivered to either lost them or, alternatively, decided not to arrange ambulances and dressings, etc. for whatever reason. Hays asked the public if he was “made the scape-goat of other men’s sins?” and “Who are the men in lucrative offices who should have prepared most bountifully for the reception of these sick and wounded soldiers?”

Excerpts from the Altoona Tribune 7/18/1898 and 7/11/1898

ˉˉˉˉˉˉˉˉ

“DR. DAVID S. HAYS.

ˉˉˉˉˉˉˉˉ

DIED SUDDENLY YESTERDAY EVENING.

Was One of the Best Known Medical Practitioners of Blair County—The Cause of Death.

Dr. David S. Hays, one of the foremost medical practitioners of Blair county, expired at his home on Union street, Hollidaysburg, last evening at 7 o’clock.

Dr. Hays was seemingly in good health, and actively fulfilled his professional duties up until Saturday evening. Sunday morning he complained to his family of feeling unwell. When his son Harry returned from church worship he found his father in a stupor. Dr. George W. Smith was summoned, but despite his medical skill, the patient never rallied and death resulted at the time above stated, of paralysis of the brain.

As a careful and successful operator Dr. Hays received special commendation at various times from prominent army surgeons and general officers, and his army record on file at the war department is high.

In 1858 he removed to Huntingdon county, where he continued to practice until the outbreak of the war of the rebellion, when he tendered his services to the government and was commissioned in October, 1861, by the governor of Pennsylvania as a full surgeon with the rank of major.

In November following he was mustered into the service as surgeon of the One Hundred and Tenth Pennsylvania volunteers, and with that gallant organization proceeded to the front, where the regiment was assigned to the old Kearney division of the Army of the Potomac, of which command it constituted a part until the close of the war in 1865, Although one of the youngest surgeons in the army, Dr. Hay’s abilities were speedily recognized by the surgeon general and his superior officers of the medical staff, and during the war he was repeatedly assigned to positions of great responsibility. He served for nearly two years as surgeon in chief of General De Trobriand, and also as surgeon in chief of the division, and chief operator at the hospitals of the Third division, Second corps. He was also assigned to duty as surgeon in charge of the hospital at Winchester in 1862, and at the battle of Gettysburg to a similar position, in charge of the field hospitals of the Third division, Second corps. He also had charge at different times of the army hospitals at Fredericksburg, Luray and other points.”

Note: Hays’ Inscription:

DR. D.S. HAYS

SURG. CHIEF, 110 REG. PA. VOL.

1833—1898

But there’s more: you can now buy Hays’ diary, if you’re feeling $6,622k worth of patriotic…. with GAR hat badge, PLUS a GAR cuff button: Cowan’s Auctions, Inc. Image of Hays’ diary at https://historical.ha.com/itm/military-and-patriotic/civil-war/historically-important-civil-war-journal-kept-by-surgeon-david-sterret-hays-110th-penna-vols-while-serving-at-letterman-ge/a/6024-57216.s

Another cut & paste job…   A bit patriotic….

“Description

Historically Important Civil War Journal Kept by Surgeon David Sterret Hays, 110th Penna. Vols., While Serving at Letterman General Hospital at Gettysburg, July, August, and September 1863 while treating casualties from the battle that had been transferred to Letterman from various field hospitals. 4½” x 6½” with soft brown leather covers. All entries in neat, crisp, unsmudged pencil script. Inscribed by Hays on the front leaf, “Dr. Hays, Ward B 3d Division, U. S. A. Gen. Hospital, Camp Letterman, Gettysburg, Pa. July, Aug. Sept.” Each of sixty-three numbered pages contains a separate entry for a soldier treated by Hays including name, regiment, date he was transferred, and detailed accounts of treatment, including, in most cases, the date the soldier died, or was transferred/discharged. Includes a number of Confederates from Texas and Alabama regiments, wounded on the second day, doubtless in the fighting at Little Round Top. A typical entry: Jerome Crowley, Co. G, 68th P. V., G. S. W. humerus, July 28th, Bat. Gettysburg, July 2d. Ball passed through humerus fracturing the bone. Struck by piece of shell in face…Also a G. S. W. of left side of face, ball entering mastoid…with additional info on treatment etc.

An absolute wealth of heretofore unknown information. Interestingly Hays subsequently used blank portions of the journal for entries in 1866 when he returned to civilian practice. Covers rough but interior perfect, as bright and crisp as the day it was written. An important new chapter in the medical history of the Battle of Gettysburg and the medical nightmare it left in its wake. Previously unknown and unpublished.”

Make Offer to Owner

This item’s Owner is proactively entertaining Offers.

Offers to date:
$6,602 on July 6, 2015”

“An absolute wealth of heretofore unknown information” – means Hays’ descendants decided to sell his diary to this auction house without transcribing it first, you know, for history. “heretofore unknown” means what, exactly? Up to now? It’s still unknown, so-far & hitherto. “An important new chapter in the medical history of the Battle of Gettysburg and the medical nightmare it left in its wake. Previously unknown and unpublished” – and it still is, I’m going to assume, from the unclear writing here. Obviously, Cowan’s Auctions has not transcribed it. For that content to get out, they want at least the $6,602 ransom someone supposedly posted a couple days after the 4^{th of July,} perhaps feeling a bit patriotic. “The archive was kept in the Hays family until a few years ago”– when something happened where, instead of donating it to the National Archives, or even the county historical society, they decided Cowan’s Auctions would be the final arbiter of its worth. An auction house where someone would write a barely literate blurb that extorts cash for historical information about Gettysburg where Hays was in charge of the field hospitals of the Third Division, Second corps during those 3 days, essentially holding a tiny part of Civil War history hostage. Descendants won’t be getting a half hour in heaven before the devil knows they’re dead, put it that way.

“David Serret [no] Hays (1833-1898) was commissioned in October 1861 by the Governor of Pennsylvania to serve as a full surgeon with a rank as major. He joined the 110th Pennsylvania as regimental surgeon in December 1861 and served continuously [nope] until his discharge in June 1865. Although he was one of the youngest surgeons in the Army, his abilities to perform advanced surgery were immediately recognized by his superiors. The 110th suffered heavily at Winchester against Jackson, at Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville. [missing famous battles, missing they almost trapped Jackson, were the sole reg’t to kick his ass] At Gettysburg, the under-strength regiment numbering about 150 men served in De Trobriand’s brigade of Birney’s division, 3rd Corps, fighting in the Peach Orchard where it lost 16 killed and 38 wounded. The veteran 110th continued its valiant service with the Army of the Potomac until finally mustering out in June 1865. It is suggested by the book that Surgeon Hays attended the dedication of the 110th Pennsylvania monument at Gettysburg held in September 1889. [do tell what “suggested” means?] In his remaining years he practiced medicine at Hollidaysburg [sic] in Blair County, PA. He lived until July 10, 1898 and is buried in the Presbyterian Cemetery in Hollidaysburg, [sic sic] PA. His army service records in the war department were impressive.” [the doctor Lincoln himself had to kick out of the army, that he, & his wife, got haunted till their dying days for that one June night because some fill-in clerk didn’t deliver a couple of his telegrams.]

“Accompanying this lot is a signed affadavit”– if they can’t spell affidavit, how would they know what a real one is– “relating the family history of ownership of this lot.” [Actually, that would be enlightening, show how this ended up at Cowan’s. Could be someone already transcribed it? Still. Not likely. Just hits me wrong, all wrong. Hasn’t Hays been through enough? And God knows the conditions in which this diary is kept awaiting a home. Or another flipper. Although I shouldn’t talk. EB’s is sitting on my desk subject to whatever humidity, air pollution, & cat hair that comes along.]

https://www.cowanauctions.com/lot/archive-lot-of-surgeon-david-serret-hays-110th-pa-volunteers-40760
Estimate: $1,500 – $2,500

Price Realized Including Buyer’s Premium

$2,415

11/16/2006

Have a Similar Item?

“Archive Lot of Surgeon David Serret [sic!] Hays 110^th PA Volunteers,

including an outdoor sixth plate tintype of Mr. Hays at a field hospital at Gettysburg and M18860 Colt Army revolver attributed to Hays along with Volume II. Pennsylvania At Gettysburg dated 1893 and signed “Dr. D.S. Hays April 9, 1894” on title page. Lot further includes a heavily retouched copy photograph in brass mat and retainer of the 6^th plate tintype. PLUS, a copy photograph of Dr. Hayes [sic! so sic!] at Devil’s Den, taken in his later years, 5”x7”, PLUS a stamped brass GAR hat badge, PLUS a GAR cuff button. The worn copy of Pennsylvania at Gettysburg also bears a penciled identification on the inside board, now separated, of a relayed Hays family member that reads, Robert B. Hays/110 N. 19^th St./Camp Hill, Pa. The pistol, tintype and GAR material are mounted in a modern burled frame measuring 18”x14”. The sixth plate outdoor tintype under mat and glass depicts Surgeon Hays wearing a double-breasted frock coat and kepi standing next to his horse. The buttons, shoulder straps and trouser stripes are gilded. [ok, super- random detail] The cased image is not otherwise identified. The attributed Colt Army with all matching serial #30700 retains about 10% original cylinder scene having been reblued [siiiic] with one replacement screw in frame. Wedge screw is broken, filed horizontally in half. Walnut grips without inspector cartouche lacking any trace of original varnish finish. PLUS, an unsigned oil on board painting of a Mr. Hayes [please, i’m begging you] in uniform with his horse at Gettysburg. Obverse is entitled On the Battlefield, 1862. A lengthy biography is attached to the back board of the painting. [that sounds like a threat] 18”x14” w/o frame, 21”x17” w frame. Condition:Tintype near VG with minor bends and strong clarity for an outdoor image. Colt Army G as detailed above. Both copy photographs are F, book with loose boards and toning. Painting with large chip near horse’s saddle blanket. Some nominal paint loss in top region.”

Press Release Regarding David S. Hays’ Death https://emu.usahec.org/alma/multimedia/184600/20182819MN000038.pdf (Typos in original)

“A special meeting of the Blair County medical society was held in the American house parlor yesterday afternoon to take appropriate action relative to the death of & member, Dr. David S. Hays, Dr, George W. Smiun, of Hollidaysburg, the president of the society, presided, and Dr. E.S. Miller, of Altoona, acted as secretary. Twenty one physicians were in attendance. A committee to draft resolutions in memorian was appointed. At the close of the meeting the members attended the funeral in a body. The funeral of the late Dr. Davids. Hays, yesterday afternoon, was largely attended by people of the yown and county. The pallbearers were Dr. George W, Smith, Dr. Charles Long, Dr. J.F, Arnold, Dr, P.N. Snyder, W.I. Woodcock, Esq,, and George R. Curtis. A beautiful floral wreath, representing a crown, cross and anchor, the tribute of the Medical society, covered the burial casket. The services were in charge of Rev. Dr. D.H. Barron. The following organizations were numbered in the funeral cortege; Blair county Medical society: Portage Lodge, No. 220, Free and Accepted Masons; Colonel William G, Murray Post, No. 59, Grand Army of the Republic; Boy’s Cadet Corps, and Company C’s firing Squad. At teh grave in the Presbyteran cemetery the impressive ritualistic ceremonies of the Masonic.”

Note: Hays at Devil’s Den, Gettysburg. Photo from FindAGrave, courtesy Jeff Kowalis. Hays: 12/10/1833–7/10/1898. He was just 64.

Anyway, if you’re not quite ready for him to be dead yet, here’s this from the Altoona Tribune, Altoona, Pa., Thursday, June 1, 1882, utterly fascinating glimpse back 140 years into Ephraim’s & Hays’ hometown area, with Hays in red:

HOLLIDAYSBURG HAPPENINGS.
What Our Correspondent Gathered Up During the Week.

“The grass and grain is booming.

The Juniata gets full every Saturday.

John Lingafelt, jr., had a slice taken out of one of his fingers with a grass sickle, which got very sore and painful, but it is now better, the crisis having passed.

A thief on Thursday night went into Colonel W. K. Piper’s side yard and stole from the porch several articles, and dug up a shrub tree and took it with them.

Mr. Wike, of Logan township, has been supplying our citizens with plants and flowers. He has sold several wagon loads of bedding plants in our town during the past week.

The dozen or more persons who have been suffering with chronic rheumatism are all on the improve and we hope the genial June atmosphere will bring them to the front again.

Mr. W. H. Banks who has been residing in Hannibal, Missouri, for the last two years and resigned his office on the Hannibal & Missouri railroad and will return with his family to the east.

Fred D. Young, who is in the lumber business in Bedford county, is home on a furlough, having met with a painful accident on Tuesday last, getting the index finger in the left hand split up to the first joint by a circular saw.

Messrs. James Denniston, H. C. Porter, J. K. McLanahan and C. B. Smith are said to be the gentlemen who compose the new firm who have taken the big rolling mill and nail factory, and have workmen at work putting things in order. Mr. C. H. Smith being the superintendent of the works.

Hon. Samuel Calvin and Hon. A. S. Landis were the only legal gentlemen to represent Hollidaysburg at the dedication of the Cambria county new court house. Court Crier Jones Rollins and Blair county’s extensive wool merchant, Julius Weil, also represented the county capital.

On Wednesday Dr. D. S. Hays went over to McKee’s to amputate part of Mr. Martin Carl’s right foot, which had been diseased with a dry cancer for over two years. We learn that the doctor skillfully performed the difficult operation without assistance other than the unprofessional skill of Messrs. H. C. Porter and W. Hartman.

[Unprofessional skill, shudder to imagine…..]

The fourth annual commencement of the Hollidaysburg public schools, under the direction of Professor Pinkerton, will be held in Condron’s opera house on Monday, June 5, and the alumni reception will be on the following day and consist in an excursion over the Bell’s Gap railroad, the exercises to be held in Rhododendron park at Lloydsville.

In addition to the regular number and kind of birds that annually visit us we have noticed several new and beautiful varieties that never before, or very seldom, have been known to visit us. They can be seen in the field and forest, and a person familiar with our birds will not fail to notice the beautiful strangers, who act as though they intend to spend the summer with us.

Dean, the little granddaughter of Hon. David Caldwell, caused her friends considerable uneasiness on Saturday by starting before breakfast for a romp in the wild wood. She returned about 2 o’clock in the afternoon very tired, and we suppose perfectly satisfied with the song of the birds, the perfume of wild flowers, and feasting on pure mountain air, as she did not find any cakes and pies growing among the flowers or on the trees.

Joe Madara, a Bedford county man who claims to be a member of Pinkerton’s detective gang, was in town on Tuesday and created quite a sensation by riding a spotted pony through the street at a 2.40 gait without a bridle. He averred that in coming to town his horse got frightened at a cow and jumping to one side broke a leg square off. It was evidently not the horse that Joe rode through town, for it had four remarkably good legs.

Charles Pope and Joe Meintel, two young mechanics of the county capital, went to work and made an artificial limb for Mr. George Lang, which, when adjusted was so perfect in all its parts that “one might have thought it there by nature grew.” It so changed the outward appearance of Mr. Lang that his most intimate friends passed him on the street without the usual salutation. So useful is the new limb that George will never again astonish his country friends by sticking his knife to the hilt in it as he done with the old peg.

The Baptists will soon own a parsonage. They are the only denomination in the town who do not have a home for their pastor. Some weeks ago when we learned that the Vowinckel residence, adjoining the church property, was for sale we noted it in our Happenings and advocated the purchase of a parsonage. It took well with the members of the church, but before anything was done the property was sold to Mr. C. H. Smith, who after learning that the church was in earnest and would purchase or build, very generously offered them the property at the original purchase, and in addition, although not a member of the church, agreed to make a liberal donation to assist them in purchasing the property. When the proposition was submitted to the congregation but one member voted no, and as very near the entire amount needed had been subscribed, the trustees were instructed to make the purchase.

There was a great commotion at the county almshouse on Tuesday evening, caused by the arrival of John D. Clare, a man suffering with small-pox. He was placed in the new county pest house and Darby Kays employed to attend to all his wants. It is claimed by some that it was cruel and dangerous to haul a sick man in a wagon six miles, and also an outrage to the poor and unfortunate inmates to take a man suffering with such a loathsome and dangerous disease to their only refuge, all of which we admit is true, notwithstanding the directors remonstrated against it and agreed to pay all the expenses of keeping him where he was. Yet Altoona is not to blame. They are only doing what they have been asked to do, and what any other town would do if placed under the same restraint. When they respectfully asked the county to assist in building a county hospital they were not only refused but insulted by being told the county had ample buildings and accommodations to take care of its sick wards. At the time we very modestly remarked in our report, that the demands were just and the county should assist Altoona to build a hospital. For this we were denounced as being a traitor to our own town, and working for the interests of Altoona. We then, and we now think the demand was both urgent and just, and that this is only the first fruit of what may be looked for if justice is not done and that quickly.

If the almanac makers can be relied on the winter will soon end, and now is the time for him who would get away from the noisy cares of business and the work shops to make their arrangements for spending a day or a week or a month in the country – in some deep wood, whose unspeakable beauty develops with each new disposition of light or shade that falls upon struggling vine or rugged tree trunk, there to forget the cares that perplex their minds and find pleasure in every object they meet; where they can drink from the pure brook with the thrush and bear home incense from nature’s altar in bunches of sweet ferns. Whether you desire to spend a day or a week in the country, now is the time to look about you and ascertain where that day or week can be spent with the most pleasure and for the least expense. Of course mechanics and men of limited incomes cannot imitate the custom so prevalent among the wealthy class, and as a result have to be content with an occasional picnic. That these holidays are highly beneficial there is no doubt but for the short time spent in fresh air can have but little influence on health. There are many beautiful places within a few miles of the city that is just as beautiful and healthful as any in the world and we suggest that a half dozen or so of families purchase a tent, pitch it in some one of our beautiful parks or quiet retreats near the city – Deli Delight, for instance – and then each family take possession in regular terms of say a week or ten days. Take the wife, children and the servant, if you have one. In this way the poor man can have all the benefits and pleasures of the rich at an expense that will not exceed living in your own dwelling.

DEATH OF AN OLD CITIZEN.

At 1:15 o’clock on Friday morning, John J. Williams, esq., an old and greatly respected citizen, died after an illness of over four months. The deceased was 76 years and 6 months old, was a machinist and boiler maker by trade, having worked for the last thirty-five years in the McFarland foundry. He was perhaps the oldest Odd Fellow in the county, having been a member of the order for forty years.

SUDDEN DEATH.

On Tuesday evening Mrs. Maria Johnston, widow of the late William Johnston, died very suddenly at the residence of her son-in-law, Mr. B. C. Eaton. The deceased lady was in the enjoyment of good health up to within one hour of her death. She had taken her little grand- daughter out for a walk, calling at Sheriff Metz’s. After returning home she conversed with the family in her usual cheerful manner and before retiring drank a small quantity of buttermilk. Shortly after going to her room Mrs. Eaton heard her hoisting the window and on going to the room found her using a fan, she complaining of pain in the breast and a difficulty in breathing. Dr. Humes was immediately summoned, but before he reached his patient her pure spirit had left its tenement of clay and had gone to join her loved ones who had preceded her to that better and happier home. Mrs. Johnston was a consistent Christian woman, mild, patient and kind, a model mother, wife and friend, whose example might well be imitated. Her loss to this community will be sadly felt and long lamented. Her vacant pew in the Baptist church will be a constant reminder to the other members of the church of the departure of one of their number who never formed an excuse for being absent from the house of the Lord or for serving her Master in a true, Christian spirit. We have been unable to ascertain her exact age, which is about 62 years.

TYRONE TOPICS.
A Grist of News From Our Regular Correspondent.

This week the trade on the Clearfield road averaged 650 cars.

Councilman Vail, of the Fourth ward, drives the finest Canadian pony in this neck o’ woods.

Last week two cows belonging to parties living in East Tyrone were killed by the cars near the latter place.

This week McCamant & Co., broke ground on Lincoln avenue for the erection of a dwelling house for Mr. John Hoffmans.

On Thursday evening, at the Methodist parsonage, by Rev. J. S. McMurry, Mr. Samuel Bloom, of Coalport, and Miss Kate Caskey, of this place, were united in marriage.

Dr. Rowan Clarke now drives a beautiful span of Kentucky horses, 6 years of age respectively and weighing, the one 835 and the other 795 pounds, and are of the most fashionable color – sorrel.

The farmers are complaining already that if the weather continues as it has been much longer the corn crop will be as last year – a failure. Very few have planted yet, and those who have say the corn will rot.

Tuesday Willie Voght, a 12-year-old son of Mr. Fred. Voght, whilst in search of honeysuckle blossoms on the ridge near town, accidentally slipped and re-broke the arm that had been broken in play about Christmas. The broken bone was promptly set by Dr. Clarke.

Thursday night Mr. S. S Blair lost an Alderny cow, the finest without any exceptions in this part of the country, and one which no small sum of money could have bought. Her death resulted from natural causes. Mr. Adam Wolfgang also lost an elegant cow of the Jersey stock recently.

A wreck occurred about half past 6 o’clock Thursday evening in the company’s yard, in which a man named Sanford Sessermary [sic] was so badly hurt that death put an end to his sufferings a few minutes after the accident. At this writing we can give no further particulars except that the track was made impassable and the passengers from the Bald Eagle mail walked through town to the station

The remains of Mr. Sanford Sessaman, the unfortunate young man who was killed in the yard on Friday evening of last week, were interred in the burying ground at Bald Eagle on the following Sunday at 2 p. m. Mr. Sessaman had been in the employ of the company but three days when he met his awful death, about twenty feet distant from where an elder brother was killed five years ago this month. The latter had worked only two days. The father of the deceased resides near Vail station.

The usual quiet of our town was set to bubbling on Thursday forenoon, and by 8 o’clock that evening was to fever heat, being the sorrowful topic of conversation by everybody, caused by the sudden and mysterious disappearance of one of our most influential and prominent citizens and leading business men, which took place on Wednesday night. The report struck all who heard it with amazement. ln many instances it was not for some time given credence to, but the terrible truth could not easily be gainsayed nor successfully contradicted. Since we are opposed to kicking a man when down, and not knowing the motives that may have prompted this action on the part of this esteemed and respected citizen, we refrain from giving any of the thousand and one reasons now afloat for this sudden disappearance. Only sorry that we have been called upon to pen what we have. We with many others only hope that the worst bas been told. His wife and family have the sympathy of the entire community, she being an excellent woman, the family one of the first.

In the procession Tuesday, which wended its way up the hill to the quiet city of the dead, could be seen, of the Grand Army of the Republic, seventy members in rank commanded by Grand Commander C. S. W. Jones; Neptune fire company, twenty in number, were commanded by their chief, H. W. Cutler; the Friendship hook and ladder company, numbering fifteen men, in charge of W. F. Henderson, and Dr. Ewing looked after the children, of whom there was a vast assemblage. Mr. George Davidson chief marshal. At the cemetery Rev. Graham led with a very earnest and appropriate prayer, which was followed by one of the most eloquent, patriotic, free from political claptrap, so often dragged into addresses of this kind, orations by Rev. J. S. McMurray that the people of Tyrone have bad the honor of listening to for many a day, if ever. At the close of the ceremonies at the cemetery squads were sent to Charlotteville, Catholic cemetery. Warriorsmark, and the remainder of the post, about forty in number, took passage on mail train at 3 o’clock for Birmingham.

WILLIAMSBURG WAIFS.
General and Personal Notes of an Interesting Nature.

H. R. Hanks, an ex-editor of Williamsport, is the new clerk at Springfield Furnace.

The Williamsburg cornet band will accompany the Good Will fire company of Hollidaysburg in the 4th of July parade at Altoona.

Blackburn, Royer & Co. have sold one thousand bushels of potatoes since the holidays. For enterprise and vim the two Harrys cannot be excelled, as is evidenced by their large daily sales.

Mr. O. J. McAllister is the “boss” farmer at Royer and the grain and hay prospect was never more flattering. Farmers all over the Cove go to “Orve” for advice in regard to farming and always get new ideas of practical benefit.

J. E. Hagey, the popular manager of Wood, Morrell & Co.’s store at the Mines, is off on a two week’s visit to Iowa. Mr. James Isenberg, a young man of good address, and who is fully competent, has charge of the establishment during Mr. Hagey’s absence,

A little daughter of Mr. Jacob Brumbaugh made a narrow escape from death on Wednesday. Cal. Johnson was dropping a car in on the siding back of the furnace and discovered the little girl on the track and by instantly putting on the brake stopped the car within a few inches of her.

Rev. J. M. Rice preached his farewell sermon to his congregation on Sunday last from the text in II Corinthians, xiii, 11. Finally, brethren, farewell. Be perfect, be of good comfort, be of one mind, live in peace and the God of love and peace shall be with you.

The initial picnic of the season took place on Saturday, composed of the following young misses: Mabel Patterson, Sue Dean, Eva Nicodemus, Rose Patterson, Mary Dean, Kate Dean, Daisy Dean, Sadie Ake, Amanda Smith, Emma Campbell, Georgia Van Devander, Mazie Spencer, Carrie Spencer and Angie Patterson. The little girls say they had a lovely time and enjoyed it immensely, and we have no doubt they did.

The liveliest manufactory in Williamsburg is the carpet factory of Mr. H. W. Myers, and like all successful business men Mr. Myers has a few enemies who through maliciousness or envy endeavor to hurt his business. But facts are stubborn things. In eleven days he has made three hundred and fifty yards of carpet, and so many orders are now in that he proposes in a few days starting a branch factory in Altoona.

Since reading the item in Monday’s TRIBUNE in regard to Mr. S. B. Isenberg as a candidate for assembly, we have interviewed a number of leading politicians in regard to it, and they are unanimous in the opinion that no better nomination could be made. Mr. Isenberg’s honesty and integrity is so well established, his adherence to republican principles are of so firm a character that it makes him peculiarly fitted for the position. We do not know that Mr. Isenberg is a candidate but we do know that he should be, and with Burchfield and Isenberg as members of the legislature, Blair county would be doing herself proud.

SINKING VALLEY SIFTINGS.
General and Personal Items Gathered by A New Correspondent.

The heavy rain of Saturday last did considerable damage to cornfields and newly plowed ground.

The masons and carpenters are busy making preparations to replace the barn of James H. Wilson, which was recently destroyed by fire.

Candidates should always visit us in wet weather, for you know that farmers are always in the best of humor at such a time, and will likely tell you they will vote for you.

For some time past hounds have been chasing deer in this section and no doubt have killed some. The owners of hound pups had better look a leedle oud, otherwise their dogs may all come home with some straying away.

For a long time they called him Emory but now it is Pap Fleck, and he is as proud as he can well be, and why shouldn’t he? Uncle Davy Crawford says the little visitor is a fine bouncing big boy.

Albert Templeton, who resided near Scalplevel, died on Thursday last aged about 50 years. He had been a cripple for years with rheumatism and passed away suddenly, being found dead in his bed.

Diehl & Co., have placed a steam saw mill on the land of Charles Hench and intend to cut all the timber they can secure from the farmers in the neighborhood. The sawyer claims that he can saw fifteen thousand feet of oak lumber a day. Pretty fast work in our opinion.

Wet weather is having a bad effect on our citizens. The farmer is mad, his wife is mad, his children are mad and there is a possibility that the dogs will go mad. The farmer is mad because he cannot get his corn and potatoes planted; his wife is mad because she cannot get her garden made; the children are mad because pa has said they should not go to the show. What the end will be we cannot tell.

The mountains which surround our valley, and which but a short time past looked bare and rugged, are now having their old suits patched and are beginning to look neat and well dressed. The leaves which are putting forth vigorously are hiding their nakedness and all nature seems to be astir. Mother Earth, the face of which differs so greatly from the face of other mothers, as her beauty is not purchased in boxes at high prices, but is of the original type, and no application which man can put on will add to her beauty, looks as bright as can be, while beauty put on is but for a time and does an injury which will be visible in after years.”

And: Hays’ obituary off findagrave lists just five children, but his obit lists six, as does his wife’s, Mary Emma Price Hays, which notes she was “taken suddenly ill when about to retire New Year’s night” at https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/70635055/david-sterrett-haysp https://emu.usahec.org/alma/multimedia/184573/20182819MN000011.pdf and still getting his name wrong, dear God. It’s like this guy is hounded even in death: David Serret Hays. Oh, but he’s not done quite yet. That is, Mary, his wife, will continue to suffer from that Wounded From Front Royal night. House Bill 8631, below.

But read Hays’ real, & impressive, obituary here, typewritten & part of the Hays Papers collection stored at the U.S. Heritage and Education Center. Hays was “surgeon in chief of brigade on the staff of General De Tobriand, and also as surgeon in chief of the division, and chief operator at the hospitals of the Third Division, Second corps. He was also assigned to duty as surgeon in charge of the field hospital at Winchester in 1862, and at the battle of Gettysburg to a similar position, in charge of the field hospitals of the Third Division, Second corps. He also had charge at different times of the Army hospitals at Fredericksburg, Luray and other points.” 3 pages long, it tells Hays was one of the youngest surgeons in the entire army, had the rank of Major, was of Scotch-Irish descent, had 6 kids, & died of “paralysis of the brain” & was attended by another doctor as he was “slipping away”: https://emu.usahec.org/alma/multimedia/184571/20182819MN000009.pdf

Hays or whoever was tied to him also saved the 37^th Congress First Session newspaper. Hays will appear before this very Congress, in its 3^rd session.

The newspapers are inundated with ads, such as for Cephalic pills to cure “sick headache, nervous headache, all kinds of headache.” People in the mid-1860s could buy “new soaps, toothache help, homeopathic cures said to bring “Health, Money! Happiness!!” Neuralgia, plates are mentioned. Train schedules are here too.

Hays saved a notice of Boston’s 87^th anniversary of Bunker Hill that says banks & stores would be closed, & a parade will happen. There is, July, 27, 1863, to the Medical Provisions Office Gettysburg, a handwritten paper invoice for medical supplies that Hays saved, listing many items like chloroform, alcohol, blank books, paper, quinine, brandy, whiskey, candles, ale, red flannel & lanterns. Here’s an intensely detailed one typed up that lists many items, dated May 16, 1865: https://emu.usahec.org/alma/multimedia/184611/20182819MN000049.pdf

November 14, 1863, Hays wrote a frustrated letter about the poor conditions the 110^th faced, as well as other regiments in the division. “I have repeatedly directed Dr. Pomeroy asst, surg. of the Regt to establish a Regimental Hospital but without effect. He apparently pays no further attention to the sick of the Regt”. Pomeroy wouldn’t give the sick medicine & instead made comrades take care of them. CORRESPONDENCE FROM DAVID S. HAYS TO DR. J.N. LYMAN REGARDING WEEKLY INSPECTION WITH ATTACHMENT: https://emu.usahec.org/alma/multimedia/184579/20182819MN000017.pdf

Also in the Hays’ papers is a handwritten copy of the Gettysburg Address, “Authentic Replica of the Copy in the Library of Congress: Includes Lincoln’s Signature”: https://emu.usahec.org/alma/multimedia/184603/20182819MN000041.pdf

Note: https://emu.usahec.org/alma/multimedia/184585/20182819MN000023.pdfHays’ wife Mary was denied her husband’s pension due to that June night, the D.C. train incident. She prevailed only after she forced an Act of the 57^th Congress (4/14/02) that her husband’s pension was approved.

Below is the “Speech Regarding House Bill Number 8631” to the Chairman of Invalid Pension Subcommittee stating Hays’ service to the country, including words from the supposed abandoned on the D.C. train soldiers, “he did not leave us on the night we arrived in Washington until he had made every arrangement for our comfort.’”

Yes, cut & paste of original. I don’t need to keep repeating this but I get hives at anyone thinking I typed this:

“To the Hon. Samuel W. Smith Chairman of Invalid Pension Sub-Committee, Number Two: — Mary E. S. Hays, of Hollidaysburg, Blair County, Pennsylvania, widow of David S. Hays, Surgeon of the 110th Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, has applied for a pension as such widow, as per House Bill No. 8631. David S. Hays was on the 30′ day of October, 1861, commissioned by Governor Curtin, of Pennsylvania, Surgeon, with the rank of Major, and was as signed to duty with the 110th. Regiment and mustered into the United States service in that capacity on December 4″ , 1861 to serve three years. Mr. Hays continued to perform and discharge the duties pertaining to his appointment satisfactorily until June 16, 1862, when he was summarily dismissed on the charge of neglect of duty; he was never accorded a hearing before the Committee on the Conduct of the Viar, or before any other Committee or Tribunal established or organized for that purpose. It does appear, however, that William D. Lewis, Jr., Colonel of the 110th. Regiment, did on July 6, 1862, write a letter to Senator Wade, Chairman of the Committee on the Conduct of the War, in which he speaks in high praise of the services rendered by Dr. Hays and requested an opportunity to submit his information and testimony in relation to the charges alleged against Dr. Hays. From this it would seem as if a hearing was contemplated in the case, if it was not had. The records in the office of the War Department do not show that any such proceedings had been had or instituted, and, such being the case, it is evident that no such hearing was had. It may be that the subsequent action of Governor Curtin and President Lincoln was regarded and considered a complete refutation of the charges alleged against Dr. Hays, and a full and complete answer thereto. A number of the per sons under the charge of Dr. Hays at the time of the alleged misconduct or neglect of duty, signed a paper in which it is stated, among other things, that Dr. Hays ”on the night of the 14′ inst. (June) 1862, do hereby certify that said Hays bestowed every possible care and attention upon us and always treated us with the tenderest care and was unremitting in kindness and attention. He did everything in his power to make us comfortable; he did not leave us on the night we arrived in Washington until he had made every arrangement for our comfort.” On the 16’day of August, 1862, Governor Curtin wrote a letter to. President Lincoln in which he earnestly urged the restoration of Dr. Hays as Surgeon in the 110th. Regiment, and appealed for such restoration in behalf of the state of Pennsylvania. President Lincoln, on August 18, 1862, endorsed on this letter the following order: ”Under all the circumstances of this case, if the Governor of Pennsylvania shall think fit to appoint Dr. Hays a Surgeon of a Pennsylvania Regiment, he must be mustered into the United States service.” “August 18, 1862. (Signed) “A. Lincoln” The action of Governor Curtin and President Lincoln in restoring Dr. Hays as Surgeon in the United States service , as stated above, may have been considered so complete an answer to the allegation of neglect of duty as to render a hearing unnecessary, in other words, that the summary restoration in a measure destroyed or obliterated the record of the order of summary dismissal. Dr. Hays continued as Surgeon of the 110th. Regiment from the date of restoration until June 3, 1865, at which time he was honorably discharged and mustered out of the service. Dr. Hays died on the 10″ day of July, 1898, leaving to survive him a widow, Mary E. S. Hays and six children, two of whom were under sixteen years of age at that time. In his life time he made application for and obtained a pension, it is evidenced by Pension Certificate No. 2733067, dated June 30′ , 1884. After his death his widow made application for a pension under the Act of June 27, 1890, and the same was rejected January 20, 1899, on the ground that she was not entitled to a pension under that Act because her husband, Dr. Hays, had been dismissed from the service but had not obtained and received an honorable discharge therefrom. In the letter which Mrs. Hays received from Hon. H. Clay Evans, Commissioner of Pensions, dated January 30, 1900, in which he explained to her the reason why the application was rejected, he stated that if competent evidence could be furnished, showing that the Doctor died from the result of malarial poisoning, for which he had been pensioned, ”she could file another application, under the general law; and that the dismissal from the first service would in no way effect her right to widow’s pension if it could be shown by proper evidence that the disabilities were incurred and the diseases contracted while in the service and in the line of duty.” She made application under the general law but failed to furnish the requisite or necessary proof and the claim was disallowed and rejected. The letter to the Commissioner in which he informs her of the insufficiency of the proof and consequent rejection of the claim is dated August 8,1900. Mrs. Hays being unable to furnish the proof required under the general law to establish her claim to the pension, and being debarred, because of the record of dismissal, from claiming under Act of 1890, now seeks to secure by special bill that pension which she feels she is justly entitled to receive. The difficulty in the case arises from the summary dismissal of the Doctor from the service, without according him an opportunity to vindicate himself of disprove the charges which were alleged against him. The paper signed by certain of the wounded and sick in his charge, coupled with the fact that he was shortly after re-instated by order of the President, as Surgeon of the

110th. Regiment, is sufficient evidence to justify the conclusion that the charges of misconduct and neglect of duty could not have been sustained. It is a case which appeals to our sense of right and judgment. Dr. Hays entered service October 30, 1861, as Surgeon of the 110th. Regiment, and continued to serve in that capacity, with entire satisfaction, unti he was honorably discharged on June 3, 1865, excepting only the brief space of time between his dismissal and restoration. The right of Mrs. Hays to Widow’s pension can be reached only by this bill; the application under the general law is debarred because the applicant is unable to furnish the proof required and is barred under the Act of 1890 because of the record of dismissal. Mrs. Hays is in need of assistance; two of her children at the time of her husband’s death were under the age of sixteen years and still require a mother’s care and attention. The condition and situation of Mrs Hays at this time is setforth in a letter received from Mr. Edwin R. Baldrige, in which he says: “Mrs. Mary E. Hays, widow of Dr. David S. Hays, is in straightened financial circumstances, has no income whatever, in fact I know that only by the assistance rendered her and her children by the neighbors have – 6 – they we been kept from want. Her’s is certainly a distressing case. The oldest daughter is an invalid and instead of being able to assist her mother, is a charge. The two younger girls, aged twelve and sixteen, go to school and are not able to earn anything. I know it to be a fact that they have been hard pressed for clothing, as well as eatables, for Mrs. Baldrige was one of the women who made a donation for these girls. Mrs. Hays is not physically strong herself and I feel certain that if the gentlemen composing the Invalid Pension Committee knew the circumstances of this family as they are known to this writer, they would not hestitate to report favorably on this bill for the relief of Mrs. Hays and children. Letters to the sam.e purpose have been written by other residents of the Borough of Hollidaysburg who are acquainted with the condition of Mrs. Hays and her children, and they are substantially the same in the statements made; therein as the letter of Mr. Baldrige, quoted above in full. The above and foregoing is a brief statement of the facts and circumstances which surround this claim and upon which the same is based and founded. It is one of those cases which cannot be reached under the present pension legislation, and, such being the case, resort it had to a special bill to meet the situation and to deal justly with the widow of Dr. David S. Hays and brighten her life by recognizing the services which the deceased rendered his country for almost four years of the best period of his life. The statement of the case is respectfully submitted for the consideration of your Committee.”

Note: “he was never accorded a hearing before the Committee on the Conduct of the Viar, or before any other Committee or Tribunal established or organized for that purpose”—I must be missing something? Hays’ hearing before the Joint Committee went on for 56 pages, with the inquiry starting June 16 going until July 5, 1862? Lincoln restored Hays August 16-18? If there were no hearing, & no finding of guilt, Hays wouldn’t have been kicked out nor restored by Lincoln. In the Viar.

Note: Should you be interested in the 110^th Quartermaster’s field desk, Samuel D. Hays (not Dr. Hays, but a different Hays, as in Dr. Hays’ brother whom he made Quartermaster of the 110^th in 1864), do snatch it up here:

https://www.ironhorsemilitaryantiques.com/sold-items/110th-pennsylvania-field-desk

Or Hays’ letter home Christmas Eve, 1862 ($350): https://www.ironhorsemilitaryantiques.com/letters/samuel-hays-letter-110th-pennsylvania

This seller thoughtfully gave us Hays’ brother’s words: “treason & traitor, conquer or die, done with earth, all hail McClellan, send me a large letter.”

“Camp near Falmouth Va
Dec 24th 1862

My Dear Mother
It is now about 9 o’clock at night and as I was sitting in my tent and all quiet I was thinking over the past year and of where I was this time last year. I was then at home with no idea of being where I am now. What great changes will take place in a country and its people in the short span of twelve months. How many this time last year were buoyant with life and high expectation and now done with earth and all its troubles. What desolation and ruin has this unholy and unnatural war brought upon our once happy and prosperous land in that time. Thousands of precious lives sacrificed, fair cities that were teeming with life and prosperity ruined and forsaken, and notwithstanding all this the day is still dark and lowering with the prospect of a speedy settlement far in the future. Although we have large and well appointed army in the field, we have met with reverses, yet we are not discouraged, for with all the boasted success of the enemy they have never fought one battle on free soil. We have kept them at bay and defeated them on many a field. And I have not the least doubt of the final triumph of the North. We are just beginning to know our strength and the mighty resources of which we are possessed, and when these are brought properly to bear, treason and traitors must assuredly succumb. Our men do not appear to be the least discouraged by the late reverse at Fredericksburg Va, but their faith in Genl Burnside is gone. Little Mac is the only man in whom they have implicit confidence and with him for a leader they would conquer or die. I mentioned in my letter to Mary which was written after we returned to this camp that we lost a great many men, but forgot to state the fact that there was not one of our Battalion killed or wounded, although they were close to the enemy’s Batteries. Well enough of this sad business. I will come to something more pleasant. Tomorrow Dear Mother is Merry Christmas and a pleasant and happy day I hope you will have and what nice cakes and other good things you and Mary will provide. I well remember the excellent dinners you always got up. How I wish I was there to rejoice with you and what if Dear Lizzie is with you how glad you will be. This was about the time she was to be at home. This day the soldiers are all talking of the good dinners they would have were they at home and of how they will spend it, but you must not conclude from the spirit of this that I am tired of the service, for with all we have went through I would not be willing to accept my discharge if it was offered now. I have not been able to visit David since the Battle, but will try and do so soon. I have not received the package that Mary stated Father had sent me by Capt. McFarlane. Perhaps it was mislayed. I must bring my letter to a close for this time. I am expecting a letter from you and a large one too. Do you ever hear from Uncle James? This will not reach in you time for Christmas. I should have written some but was expecting a letter from home. Well I must bid you farewell for this time.
Your affectionate son S. D. Hays”

Note: The Hays Papers are stored in 3 boxes at the U.S. Army Heritage and Education Center in Carlisle, PA. & can be accessed online at: https://arena.usahec.org/results?p_p_id=crDetailWicket_WAR_arenaportlet&p_r_p_arena_urn%3Aarena_search_item_id=128968

There are a variety of documents are here, & see April 28 for a couple more, & this is but a partial list: A child’s drawing & practicing of letters, a tax collector’s notice, several Hays’ family trees, correspondences, newspaper articles, a Pledge to Abstain From Alcohol which I believe Hays had his wife’s entire Price/Prise family sign, or at least 6 members. There is, filed in “Correspondence From Undetermined to Undetermined Regarding Daily Life” an intriguing story of a dead child with two mothers, but I can’t make out the words. A handwritten letter to Hays in Hollidaysburg in ’64 from an Al A. Reeder, “President of Sp. Comm” on behalf of the Secretary of War, who “desires some information from you and will be pleased to see you… if you will be kind enough to call.”

A file https://emu.usahec.org/alma/multimedia/184603/20182819MN000041.pdf titled “List of Names with Personal Possessions” has a haunting The Things They Carried…. Then Left Behind vibe. The names were men who died; then, post-death, names of who ended up with their possessions at the hospital. A sampling: Henry W. Bechel, private, co. # 110^th P.V. Henry had a “pocket book, $22.12, 1 knife Received From the Steward of Hospital, 1^st Division, 3^rd Corps, near Gettysburg, PA. The above articles to be handed to his family.”

There was a Smith of the 15^th Alabama, “(Confederate) Pocket Book, $24.00, Confederate notes.”

There was a George Lawrence of the 5^th Michigan, who left behind a “Pocket Book, $85.00, 1 silver watch, 1 miniature. $5.00 in Michigan notes.”

There was a John C. Jewell, Private in the 68^th PA., who had “cash, 50¢, ¢4 postage stamps delivered to his mother July 31, 1863.”

Note: Also in the Hays Papers stored at the U.S. Heritage and Education Center:

https://emu.usahec.org/alma/multimedia/184574/20182819MN000012.pdf is a link to a newspaper (unknown which) article “Lincoln Note is Treasured” featuring Hays as the “first army doctor to operate under fire at the front.” It states that Dr. Hays was “for a time acting as Surgeon in Chief” for the Army of the Potomac, filling a vacancy incurring by reason of the illness of Chief Surgeon Hammond….” That’s an interesting twist, considering Hammond had it out for Hays…. Hays was also apparently the youngest ever Surgeon in Chief. Hays wrote Lincoln, who he had corresponded with before, & asked if operations at the front lines, under fire, could take place, rather than at the rear, as it was an arduous journey transporting wounded men back there. Lincoln wrote back a prompt yes. One of Hays’ descendants kept Lincoln’s letter instead of selling it! In another link of another Hays’ Paper (https://emu.usahec.org/alma/multimedia/184589/20182819MN000027.pdf) it’s written that Lincoln’s note to Hays went missing down the years. Apparently someone stole it. “Sadly, the letter from Lincoln was stolen.” Where’d it end up?

Note: Regarding GAR Posts: A 47 page pdf list of PA. GAR posts is at https://www.suvcw.org/garrecords/garposts/pa.htm

Many posts have a namesake, like #79, after George Smith, of the 95^th PA., out of Conshohocken, wounded & taken prisoner at Gaines Mill June 27, 1862, “Never afterward heard from.”

Post #80, after Robert Bryan, Philadelphia, “Noted in 1877 as a slave of that name who became a valuable guide to the Union armies. He also reportedly fired the first shot in Burnside’s Expedition to Roanoke Island.” #94, after Anna M. Ross, Philadelphia, “Lady Principal of the Cooper Shop Hospital. Traveled and raised funds in an effort to establish a Soldiers Home. She died in Philadelphia on 22 Dec. 1863, reportedly from overwork.” Many a post namesake was KIA, body never recovered. Other posts were named after people such as Sumner, Ellsworth, John Brown, or Lincoln himself, “16^th President of the United States.”

Post #144 out of Port Carbon was named for the Allison brothers, all 4 killed. Post #453 is called, simply, “Four Brothers,” out of Montrose, all killed in battle. Numerous other brothers’ entries; imagine being their mother…. father…. And the April 14, 1865 death of a man especially hurts, or the 1^st, 2^nd, 6^th, 7^th, 10^th, 12^th, 13^th, 14^th, as it went.

Fates of course varied: “Malaria, diarrhea, typhoid fever, drowned, killed by locomotive explosion, died from wounds received arresting deserters in Columbia County, PA., died while sighting a gun, accidentally drowned at Rappahannock Station while attempting to ford the river on horseback, effects of old war wounds, an accidental fall off a church roof, lost at sea, nurse died of disease in her tent at City Point, killed by a mortar shell, died in unsuccessful raid on Richmond, disappeared into a POW camp, killed in a railroad accident, from exposure, on a gunboat, while escorting his mother back home from VA., his remains found their last resting place in an unmarked grave on the banks of the Rappahannock, died of starvation at Andersonville, crippled for life.”

“Local hero” is the description for near-countless men here, as well as the first man noted as such from each county who died in action or vanished. Many were wounded in multiple battles, finally hit one too many times. General Grant became a lifetime member of Post #1, named after General Meade, out of Philadelphia. #129, was named after a Henry Wilson, Milton: “At the fall of Fort Freeland, Henry Wilson was captured and scalped by Indians.”

Ephraim’s Post was likely Post #39, named after Col. William Gray Murray of the 84^th, because #39 was Dr. Hays’ Post, as it says in Hays’ obituary (see Col. Murray in Ecelbarger, P. 191, & as quoted in this manuscript). However, Ephraim’s Post also could also have been #172, named after Col. D.M. Jones, out of Tyrone: “LTC David Mattern Jones (1838-1877), 110^th PA. Inf., died at Denver, Co. where he had hope to regain his health. He had lost his left leg at the Battle of Gettysburg. Buried in Grandview Cem., Tyrone, in Blair County, local hero.” His post met at “Harris Hall; Study Building; Municipal Building. Org. summer 1868; Must’d 9 Nov. 1868; Reorg. 8 May 1880. Died 15 Oct. 1869; Sur. 1930. Last surviving member was John W. Bookhammer, who died 8 Feb. 1936.”

I have to add to the list the abolitionist Ohio soldier who made Brigadier-General by 1865; captured 10 Rebel flags along the way, & defied orders at Franklin which led to battle victory. Cleaning his gun in 1884, Emerson Opdycke shot himself in the abdomen, dying 3 days later, just 54. https://bit.ly/3mOekxN

Back to the Possible Ephraim Burket/David Hays GAR Post: https://emu.usahec.org/alma/multimedia/184588/20182819MN000026.pdf At this link you can read typewritten reunion notes from (I believe; it’s undated) the 1914 Post #39 “Annual Reunion and Campfire” of the “grizzled veterans of the famous fighting One Hundred and Tenth regiment” in Tyrone, Pa., that took place at the Grand Army Hall on Herald Street. 32 were present. A man read a list of 110^th veterans who died since their last annual meeting on 10/16/13. Notes about who sang what “jolly songs,” which officers were elected for the coming year, and the note concludes with the story of a Comrade Buck, who was able to view “had the pleasure of gazing upon the bullet in his body, through the medium of an X-Ray photograph.” And present today was a chaplain by the name of John Shelow (mentioned in this manuscript in Hays’ obituary day) who, on June 18, 1864, “had both his eyes shot out in front of Petersburg, and has been totally blind ever since. Comrade Shelow is one of the highest, if not the highest, paid pensioner on the government rolls.” But the names Burket, Huyett, are missing.

Outlining the GAR’s good deeds, by Glenn B. Knight, regarding Post #405 out of Lancaster, PA.:

https://suvcw.org/lanc_gar.htm

“One of the post’s past commanders’ A. C. Leonard, in 1904, wrote and published an account of his wartime service in Company F, 54th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry under the title The Boys in Blue of 1861—1865, sub-titled, “A Condensed History Worth Preserving”. At the end of this book he writes:
“. . .through the instrumentality of the Grand Army of the Republic, just pension and other important legislation, in the interest of former comrades and their widows and orphans, has been enacted. State and national homes for the aged and needy were established, to the end that no man who wore the Union blue need spend his days in an almshouse. Schools for the mental, moral and physical education of the veterans’ children are provided, and measures have been adopted whereby every honorably discharged soldier and sailor is assured a respectable Christian burial, his grave being properly marked and forever kept green.
In addition to all this the hundreds of thousands of dollars dispensed in charity by the Grand Army of the Republic is something the world knows nothing about, and the good work of this brotherhood will go on until the last comrade has been mustered into the Grand Army above. In this organization there is perfect equality, no distinction being made on account of nationality, creed, color or politics, nor is there preference by reason of former rank in the service or present station in life, all that is asked of an applicant for membership is “Did he respond to his country’s call in the days of its life and death struggle, and faithfully fulfill his obligation to the Government.” If the answer be “yes,” the right hand of fellowship is extended.’”

At this site, you can find completed GAR membership forms: https://carnegiecarnegie.org/civil-war-room/manuscript-collection/completed-membership-forms/

Here’s a Reese Evan, from the 110^th: https://carnegiecarnegie.org/wpcontent/uploads/2012/12/evansr.pdf

Last, I’ll say at some point years ago I ran across, bookmarked, then lost, something about Dr. Hays in Carl Sandburg. I just got the book again but can’t find Hays in there if it’s the same Hays. If anyone runs into it, let me know? It’s also entirely possible I was in a state of research psychosis, similar to ICU psychosis— whereupon, laying in bed month after month looking at the same walls, same sights, a person goes haywire, sees things that aren’t there— only with paper.

Were I to guess Ephraim’s opinion, I think he’d say Hays should have stayed with the train. Even if he slept off somewhere only one assistant knew of. But with the men. On the train. Somewhere.

The land has been worked out by neglect and for the want of energy ambition but they have found the raising of Negroes more profitable and selling them to the more extreme Southern States and leaving their tilling of the land to Overseers and Negroes for the Productions….

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