Brigadier-General Rutherford B. Hayes to Sardis Birchard, April 21, 1865

NEW CREEK, WEST VIRGINIA, April 21, 1865.

DEAR UNCLE:—I am amused by your anxiety about General Hayes being relieved. “Tardiness” in the presence of the enemy was quite the opposite of my difficulties. Sheridan in one of his dispatches, spoke of Crook "with his usual impetuosity.” As my command led in the affair, it meant me. There are five General Hayes(es) in our service and two in the Rebel that I know of. Alexander, a gallant officer killed under Grant, William, who has charge of the draft in New York City, Ed of Ohio, and Joseph who had charge of exchange of prisoners. He is the tardy one who is reported relieved.

My command is [the] Second Brigade, First Division, Army of West Virginia — a large brigade of calvary [sic], artillery, and infantry. We are now busy paroling guerrillas and the like. All, from Mosby down, seem disposed to quit and surrender. If the feeling continues, we shall soon have peace throughout Virginia, at least.

Sincerely,

R. B. HAYES.

S. BIRCHARD.

SOURCE: Charles Richard Williams, editor, Diary and Letters of Rutherford Birchard Hayes, Volume 2, p. 579-80

Lieutenant-Colonel Theodore Lyman to Elizabeth Russell Lyman, July 7, 1864

July 7, 1864

I paid a visit to Brigadier-General Barlow, who, as the day was hot, was lying in his tent, neatly attired in his shirt and drawers, and listening to his band, that was playing without. With a quaint hospitality he besought me to “take off my trousers and make myself at home”; which I did avail of no further than to sit down. He said his men were rested and he was ready for another assault! — which, if of real importance, he meant to lead himself; as he “wanted no more trifling.” His ideas of “trifling,” one may say, are peculiar. It would be ludicrous to hear a man talk so, who, as De Chanal says, “a la figure d’un gamin de Paris,” did I not know that he is one of the most daring men in the army. It would be hard to find a general officer to equal him and Joe Hayes — both my classmates and both Massachusetts men. Hayes now commands the Regulars. He could not have a higher compliment.

SOURCE: George R. Agassiz, Editor, Meade’s Headquarters, 1863-1865: Letters of Colonel Theodore Lyman from the Wilderness to Appomattox, p. 186