A Narrative of Military Service

Book excerpt: When the Civil War began in 1861, 30-year-old William Babcock Hazen was a first lieutenant and assistant instructor of infantry tactics at the U.S. Military Academy. At the war's conclusion in 1865, he commanded an army corps with the rank of major general. Two decades later, Hazen wrote A Narrative of Military Service in the midst of controversy which marked the last 25 years of his life, and the book was aimed in large part to silence vituperative criticism of his wartime record. This record included command of the 41st Ohio Volunteer Infantry Regiment, a brigade in the Army of the Ohio and the Army of the Cumberland, and a division in the Army of the Tennessee. A strict disciplinarian who demanded the best from his men, he gained the lasting respect of General William T. Sherman and enjoyed lifetime friendship with fellow Ohio General James A. Garfield, who became the nation's 20th president. Hazen's colorful, controversy-filled career during and after the Civil War is generally not well known today. To his military contemporaries, however, he was either a thorny anethema or a hero, and by merit or design his name continually was thrust into the public arena. Steadfast in his convictions, he came to be recognized throughout his long service as an able officer and a dangerous enemy. In war as in peace, those who dared cross him did so at their own peril. This reprint edition of Hazen's original 1885 work features the addition of 71 photographs and a new introduction by Richard A. Baumgartner. -- jacket flap of 1993 edition.