Background
Hazlett was born in Zanesville, Ohio to Robert Hazlett and Lucy Welles Reed.
Hazlett was born in Zanesville, Ohio to Robert Hazlett and Lucy Welles Reed.
During his first year at the academy, he was court-martialed and suspended for several months, but later graduated on May 6, 1861, fifteenth in his class.
He was killed on Little Round Top during the second day of the Battle of After briefly attending Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio, he was accepted to the United States Military Academy at West Point, New New York Initially assigned to the 2nd United States. Cavalry as a 2nd Lieutenant, Hazlett was almost immediately promoted to 1st lieutenant and transferred to Battery Doctorate, 5th United States. Artillery. He was part of the battery during its near annihilation at the First Battle of Bulletin Run, fought through the battles of the Peninsula Campaign and was in command of the battery by the Second Battle of Bulletin Run.
Under his command, the unit also participated in the battles of Antietam, Fredericksburg, and Chancellorsville.
On the second day of the Battle of, Hazlett"s Battery (3rd Division, V Corps), consisting of six three inch, 10 pounder Parrott rifles, was rushed to the top of Little Round Top by Brigade General Gouverneur K. Warren.
The artillerymen were exposed to constant Confederate sniper fire and could not work the guns effectively. While standing near the battery during the intense fighting, Brigade
General Stephen H. Weed was mortally wounded and asked to see Hazlett.
Reportedly, Hazlett came to his aid and was shot in the head by a sharpshooter hiding in Devil"s Den as he knelt down to hear what Weed was saying. Command of the battery passed to 2nd Lieutenant Benjamin F. Rittenhouse. Hazlett"s body was originally buried at the Jacob Weikert house near Little Round Top.
Later, his bodied was reinterred at Woodlawn Cemetery in Zanesville, Ohio.
Four months after Hazlett"s death, the United States. War Department named a redoubt near Portsmouth, Virginia in his honor. A 19th century rock carving on Little Round Top supposedly designates the spot where Hazlett was killed.
A stone marker sitting atop the rock memorializes both he and Brigade General Stephen Weed. After the, veterans formed a local chapter of the Grand Army of the Republic in Hazlett"s hometown.
In 2011, local enthusiasts replaced the Hazlett brothers" broken tombstones at Woodlawn Cemetery in Zanesville, Ohio The city designated May 14, 2011 "Hazlett Day" in honor of the event.
Hazlett is mentioned in Michael Shaara"s 1975 Pulitzer Prize winning book, The Killer Angels. He is also mentioned, but not portrayed, in the book"s 1993 film adaptation.
More significantly, they could not depress the cannons" barrels sufficiently enough to defend against incoming infantry attacks.