My Genealogy Hound

GEN. ALEXANDER HAYS (deceased) was born in Franklin, Pa., July 8, 1819. He entered Allegheny College, Meadville, and later was appointed a cadet at West Point Military Academy. He was the fellow-student of Grant and Hancock, and graduated in 1844. As a brevet second lieutenant he was assigned to the 4th infantry. This regiment was among the first to enter Mexican territory, and Lieut. Hays, in conjunction with Lieut. Woods, captured the first gun at the battles of Palo Alto and Resaca de la Palma. In this engagement he received a wound in the leg, and for gallant services was promoted to first lieutenant in being transferred to the 8th infantry. While recovering from his injury, he recruited a band of five hundred men from Western Pennsylvania, and rejoined the army at Vera Cruz. He was in twenty battles, ending at Zacualtipan. He resigned when peace was restored, and engaged in civil engineering.

When Fort Sumter was attacked, he dropped his bridgework on the Allegheny Valley railroad, and joined a Pittsburgh militia company called the City Guard, being chosen its captain. When this company joined a three-months regiment he was commissioned major. At the close of this service, having declined a captaincy in the 16th U. S. infantry, he set about recruiting a regiment for the war. His companions of the City Guard, whom he had made real soldiers, joined him, and the regiment, of which he was made colonel, was designated the 63d Pennsylvania. The history of this regiment is a bloody one. At the second battle of Bull Run Col. Hays had a limb shattered while leading his regiment up a steep embankment. Before he had recovered from this injury he was assigned to the command of the 3d brigade of Casey’s division, having been appointed and confirmed brigadier-general of volunteers and lieutenant-colonel in the regular army. For some time he had charge of the defenses about Washington. On the third day of the battle at Gettysburg Gen. Hays was opposed to his West Point classmates Hill and Pickett, whose charges he repelled and saved the day. Two horses were killed under him, and his brigade captured twenty banners and battle-flags, suffering fearful loss. In the subsequent engagements of the Army of the Potomac, Gen. Hays acted a no less brilliant part until the fatal 5th of May, 1864, the third day’s fight in the Wilderness, when he was struck down by a bullet while leading his men in a desperate charge.

At the time of his death he was commissioned brevet major-general. The following is a list of his battles in the great rebellion: Yorktown, Williamsburg, Fair Oaks, The Orchard, Glendale, Malvern, Bristoe (August, 1862), Bull run, Groveton, Gettysburg, Auburn, Bristoe (October, 1863), Locust Grove, Mine run, Morton’s Ford, Wilderness.

Gen. Hays’ father, Samuel Hays, came from the north of Ireland to America in 1795, being then a boy, and became a general, commanding Pennsylvania troops in the war of 1812. He married Agnes Broadfoot. Their son, Gen. Alexander Hays, married Annie A., daughter of John B. McFadden, in 1846. Mrs. Hays’ ancestry is traced in a direct line from John and Priscilla Alden, of the Plymouth colony. She still survives her husband, as do their seven children: Agnes (wife of George A. Gormly), Alden F., Rachel (Mrs. J. S. Sullivan), Gilbert A., Martha (Mrs. R. B. Black), Alfred Pearson and James McFadden.