Rutherford B. Hayes
19th President of the United States
1822 CE to 1893 CE
Rutherford Birchard Hayes (October 4, 1822 – January 17, 1893) is the 19th President of the United States (1877–1881).
As president, he oversees the end of Reconstruction and the United States' entry into the Second Industrial Revolution.
Hayes is a reformer who begins the efforts that lead to civil service reform and attempts, unsuccessfully, to reconcile the divisions that had led to the American Civil War fifteen years earlier.
Born in Delaware, Ohio, Hayes practices law in Lower Sandusky (now Fremont) and is city solicitor of Cincinnati from 1858 to 1861.
When the Civil War begins, Hayes leaves a successful political career to join the Union Army.
Wounded five times, most seriously at the Battle of South Mountain, he earns a reputation for bravery in combat and is promoted to the rank of major general.
After the war, he serves in the U.S. Congress from 1865 to 1867 as a Republican.
Hayes leaves Congress to run for Governor of Ohio and is elected to two consecutive terms, serving from 1868 to 1872.
After his second term ends, he resumes the practice of law for a time, but returns to politics in 1876 to serve a third term as governor.
In 1876, Hayes is elected president in one of the most contentious and hotly disputed elections in American history.
Although he loses the popular vote to Democrat Samuel J. Tilden, Hayes wins the presidency by the narrowest of margins after a Congressional commission awards him twenty disputed electoral votes.
The result is the Compromise of 1877, in which the Democrats acquiesce to Hayes's election and Hayes accepts the end of military occupation of the South.
Hayes believes in meritocratic government, equal treatment without regard to race, and improvement through education.
He orders federal troops to quell the Great Railroad Strike of 1877 and orders them out of Southern capitals as Reconstruction ends.
He implements modest civil service reforms that lay the groundwork for further reform in the 1880s and 1890s.
Hayes keeps his pledge not to run for reelection.
He retires to his home in Ohio and becomes an advocate of social and educational reform.
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Some of these ardent democrats flee to the United States.
Among them is Carl Schurz, who will later fight at the Battle of Gettysburg as a Union officer, serve one term as a United States senator from Missouri, and be appointed secretary of the interior by United States president Rutherford B. Hayes.
Early marches his army north against Crook on the morning of July 24.
Confederate cavalry encounters its Union counterpart south of Kernstown in the morning and heavy skirmishing broke out.
Couriers alert Crook to the attack.
Crook still believes Early's infantry had left the Valley and sent only two of his division with cavalry support to meet the attack.
In the early afternoon, the infantry of both armies had arrived on the field.
The Confederate position extends well to each side of the Valley pike south of Kernstown, anchored on each flank on high ground and screened by cavalry.
Major General John B. Gordon's division forms the Confederate center along the Valley Turnpike.
Ramseur's division forms on his left with its flank resting on Sandy Ridge to the west of Kernstown, screened by Col. William "Mudwall" Jackson's cavalry.
Brigadier General Gabriel C. Wharton's division, led by Major General John C. Breckinridge, forms the Confederate right, with its flank screened by Brigadier General John C. Vaughn's cavalry.
Early initially conceals his infantry in a woods, sending out his cavalry and skirmish line of sharpshooters to draw the Federals into battle, thus playing into Crook's misconception that the Confederate infantry has left the Valley.
The Union infantry position remains clustered around the Valley Pike in Kernstown anchored by Colonel James A. Mulligan's division on Pritchard's Hill, one of the keys to the Union success at the First Battle of Kernstown in 1862.
To his right, Colonel Joseph Thoburn's division forms on Sandy Ridge.
To his left, future president Rutherford B. Hayes's brigade forms east of the Valley turnpike.
Crook dispatches cavalry under Averell to ride around the Confederate right flank and get in its rear.
As the two armies skirmishers encounter one another the battle gets under way.
It soon becomes apparent to the Federal divisional commanders that they are facing a superior Confederate force which they are hesitant to attack and relay the information to Crook.
Crook quickly becomes impatient by the lack of his divisional commanders to attack the Confederate position, and distrusts their report of the Confederate strength.
He orders Mulligan to attack the Confederates with Hayes's division in support.
At 1 p.m., the Union infantry reluctantly moves out, abandoning Pritchard's Hill.
Mulligan's division bitterly holds its ground at Opequon Church where its advance is halted by Gordon's men.
As Hayes's brigade advances in support, Breckinridge marches Wharton's division to the northeast into a deep ravine that runs perpendicular to the Valley Turnpike.
He turns the division into the ravine, which screens his movement from the Federals on the turnpike.
As Hayes comes up the road past the ravine, Breckinridge orders a charge and the Confederates assault Hayes's exposed flank and send his division reeling in retreat, taking many casualties.
Thoburn is supposed to support Mulligan's right flank in the attack, but because of the topography of the battlefield, he becomes separated from Mulligan and sees little action during the battle.
Gordon's Confederates exploit the gap in the Union line to get on Mulligan's right and when Hayes's division breaks, Mulligan finds himself caught between two Confederate divisions.
Mulligan immediately orders a withdrawal, and is mortally wounded as he tries to rally his troops and prevent a full rout during the retreat.
The Confederate infantry presses the fleeing Federals all the way back through Winchester and the cavalry keep at their heels well into West Virginia.
Averell's cavalry had attempted to flank the Confederates as ordered but had runs headlong into Vaughn's cavalry on the Front Royal Pike.
The shock of the unexpected Confederate cavalry attack sends the Federal cavalry racing towards Martinsburg.
When the fleeing cavalry encounter the retreating wagon and artillery trains north of Winchester, it incites a panic among the Federal teamsters, causing many to abandoned their charges as they get caught up in retreat.
Many of the wagons have to be burned to prevent them from falling into Confederate hands.
As night falls, the Confederate cavalry sweeps the countryside looking for Federals who had become lost from their units in retreat.
Most of the Federals spend the night out in the rain, scattered across countryside, trying to evade capture.
The victory marks the high-water point for the Confederacy in the Valley in 1864.
Crook's broken army retreats to the Potomac River and crosses near Williamsport, Maryland, on July 26.
With the Shenandoah Valley clear of Union forces, Early launches a raid into northern territory, the last made by a substantial Confederate force during the war, burning Chambersburg, Pennsylvania as retribution for David Hunter's burning of civilian houses and farms earlier in the campaign. (Hunter had also burned the Virginia Military Institute in Lexington, but Early's orders to his cavalry under John McCausland did not mention this as a justification.)
They also attack Union garrisons protecting the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad near Cumberland, Maryland.
As a result of this defeat and McCausland's burning of Chambersburg on July 30, Grant returns the VI and XIX Corps to the Valley and appoints Major General Philip Sheridan as commander of Union forces here, turning the tide once and for all against the Confederates in the Valley.
Greeley dies on November 29, 1872, before the presidential electors meet on December 4 to cast the electoral votes.
The Greeley electors are not able to coordinate their votes before meeting, but their action makes no difference in the face of Grant's electoral college landslide.
Although the Liberal Republican Party does not survive Greeley's death, several of its reforms will materialize in the following decade.
Reform Republicans will accomplish the nomination and then election of Rutherford B. Hayes in 1876, who will bring Reconstruction to an end and remove some of the more offensive of Grant's appointments.
The Liberal Republican call for civil service reform will be passed during the administration of President Chester Arthur.
Northeastern North America
(1876 to 1887 CE): Indigenous Relocation, Industrial Consolidation, Infrastructure Standardization, and Political Evolution
Between 1876 and 1887, Northeastern North America underwent significant transitions in indigenous relations, infrastructure development, industrial growth, and political changes. This era saw the continued reshaping of regional economies, further integration through technological advancements, and notable shifts in governance.
Indigenous Affairs and Relocations
In 1876, Fort Belknap was discontinued, prompting the Gros Ventre and Assiniboine peoples receiving annuities there to relocate to Fort Peck and Wolf Point agencies. While the Assiniboine relocated without objection, the Gros Ventre refused due to tensions with the Sioux, forfeiting their annuities rather than move. The Fort Belknap Agency was reinstated in 1878, allowing the Gros Ventre and remaining Assiniboine to resume receiving supplies at the site.
Industrial Growth and Standardization
Bluestone Industry and Infrastructure
Bluestone continued as a critical construction material, shaping urban architecture and infrastructure. An eighteen-mile road built from bluestone "tracks" supported heavy wagon transport from quarries in villages later submerged by the Ashokan Reservoir, passing through Kingston down to Wilbur on Rondout Creek. Shipments from these areas, notably by entrepreneur Thomas Cornell's barges and tugboats, supplied urban areas like New York City extensively.
Kingston’s sidewalks and curbstones remained almost entirely bluestone, and notable buildings included Kingston's Old Dutch Church, designed by Minard Lefever, constructed from native bluestone blocks. Bluestone was also prominently used in residential architecture, exemplified by Henry Samson's Italian villa on West Chestnut Street.
Continental Time Zones
In this era, U.S. and Canadian railroads introduced five standard continental time zones, resolving confusion from thousands of local timekeeping systems and significantly aiding in transportation coordination and commerce.
Corporate Expansion
Industrial consolidation accelerated notably, with corporations such as Standard Oil becoming the world’s largest company. Trusts emerged to dominate commodities including oil, whiskey, sugar, and lead, signaling a growing concentration of economic power.
Political Evolution
Political transitions marked this period, beginning with Rutherford B. Hayes assuming the presidency in 1877following a contentious election against Democrat Samuel J. Tilden. Subsequent leaders, including short-tenured President James A. Garfield, assassinated in 1881, and his successor Chester A. Arthur, continued to steer national policy amidst rapid societal and economic changes. The facial hair of these presidents, evolving in style and prominence, reflected broader cultural trends of the period.
Legacy of the Era (1876–1887 CE)
The developments between 1876 and 1887 highlighted continuing indigenous struggles, significant technological advancements, economic centralization, and ongoing political shifts, all of which further defined Northeastern North America’s evolving character and historical trajectory.
President-elect Rutherford B. Hayes, whose beard is substantially longer than that of his predecessor, succeeds Ulysses S. Grant in 1877. (Hayes's Democrat opponent in the disputed election, New York governor Samuel J. Tilden, sports little, if any, facial hair.
The beard of Republican James A. Garfield (whose tenure—March 4 to September 19, 1881—is the second shortest in presidential history), is as full as, if shorter than, that of Hayes.
The murdered Garfield's vice president and successor, Chester A. Arthur, is the first beardless U.S. president since James Buchanan, although his mustache and side-whiskers are impressively full.
Grover Cleveland, who succeeds Arthur in 1885, wears only a mustache, no sideburns.
Paraguay's internal political vacuum had at first been dominated by survivors of the Paraguayan Legion.
This group of exiles, based in Buenos Aires, had regarded Solano Lopéz as a mad tyrant and had fought for the allies during the war.
The group had set up a provisional government in 1869 mainly under Brazilian auspices and had signed the 1870 peace accords, which guaranteed Paraguay's independence and free river navigation.
A constitution was also promulgated in the same year, but it proved ineffective because of the foreign origin of its liberal, democratic tenets.
After the last foreign troops have gone in 1876 and an arbitral award to Paraguay of the area between the Rio Verde and Rio Pilcomayo by an international commission headed by Rutherford B. Hayes, United States president, the era of party politics in Paraguay is free to begin in earnest.
Nonetheless, the evacuation of foreign forces does not mean the end of foreign influence.
Both Brazil and Argentina remain deeply involved in Paraguay because of their connections with Paraguay's rival political forces.
These forces eventually come to be known as the Colorados and the Liberals.
Most Republicans recognize by 1876 that it is time to change both the candidate and his Reconstruction program despite the hope of President Ulysses S. Grant for a third term in office: the nomination of Rutherford B. Hayes of Ohio, a moderate Republican of high principles and of deep sympathy for the South, marks the end of the Radical domination of the Republican Party.
Hayes, third-time Governor of Ohio, former congressman and brevet major general under General Philip Sheridan in the Civil War, wins a seventh-ballot victory over James G. Blaine at the Republican National Convention in 1876.