Background

William Babcock Hazen was born on September 27, 1830, in West Hartford, Vermont, United States, a descendant of Edward Hazen who emigrated to the Massachusetts Bay Colony in the seventeenth century and settled at Rowley. He spent his boyhood in Hiram, Ohio, whither his parents Stillman and Sophrona (Fenno) Hazen took him.

Education

William graduated from the United States Military Academy in 1855.

Career

Four years at West Point were followed by tours of duty in the Far West, where William Hazen served creditably in Oregon and Texas. A lucky wound received while on the latter station sent him home on sick leave and thereby enabled him to avoid capture by Confederate forces in the Civil War. He was a captain of infantry in 1861, but before the year was out he, like Garfield, had received his regiment. After the grand review, May 24, 1865, in which he marched at the head of the XV Corps in the Army of the Tennessee, he saw long years of service on the border with the 38th and then with the 6th Infantry. He reverted to the rank of colonel in the regular army, faced Custer, and restrained him from destroying the friendly Kiowa camp near Fort Cobb in 1868, visited Europe as military observer with the German armies in the war of 1870, commanded at Fort Buford, Dakota Territory, in the years thereafter, and wrote pointedly and truthfully of the railroad promoters who were exaggerating the rainfall and fertility of the western plains.

Hazen also revealed to Garfield and others, including a committee of the House of Representatives, a belief that the administration of the post-trader system in the War Department was extravagant and corrupted. The publication of Hazen’s comments on War Department corruption had no immediate results, allthough the Tribune declared that an army officer had seen the John S. Evans-Caleb P. Marsh contract respecting the Fort Sill post. But four years later, when a Democratic majority in the House of Representatives was worrying the members of the Grant administration, the story came again to life. Marsh testified before the House committee on expenditures in the War Department with the result that on March 2, 1876, the impeachment of the secretary of war, William W. Belknap, was demanded by that committee. Grant accepted Belknap’s resignation the same day. The impeachment was fatally embarrassed; but Hazen was called upon to testify before the trial was over.

In December 1880 President Hayes appointed Hazen to the post of chief signal officer in the War Department, with the rank of brigadier general. Here were two inconsistent duties. The business of military signaling had no real connection with that of managing the Weather Bureau, but the two had become attached because of the necessary reliance of the Weather Bureau upon the military telegraphs for data from the Far West.

Out of the Weather Bureau came a great controversy and a humiliation. One of the earliest duties of the Signal Corps under Hazen’s command was the organization of the scientific expedition under Lieutenant A. W. Greely which was sent to Lady Franklin Bay in 1881.

Hazen had much upon his conscience the relief expeditions that were to follow it. The first relief by the Neptune failed in 1882. The second, by the Proteus, in 1883, was broken up by ice; and when in September 1883 the party came back to St. John’s, Newfoundland, their outfitting place, the Secretary of War decided that it was too late in the year to attempt another relief, and Greely was left with his party for a third winter in the Arctic. When relief under Commander W. S. Schley at last reached Greely, June 22, 1884, only seven of the twenty-five members of his party were alive.

Hazen never forgave Secretary Lincoln for inaction in 1883. In his annual report for 1884 Lincoln censured Hazen for his criticism. Hazen replied in a letter to the Secretary which was returned to him "utli the warning to keep it private. Instead Hazen published a statement that he had written such a letter in the Washington Evening Star, March 2, 1885. He was ordered before a general court-martial which convened March 11, 1886 under the presidency of Major-General W. S. Hancock, and by sentence of this court he was feprimanded by the President for “unwarranted and captious criticism” of his superior. Despite the findings of the court-martial, however, the feeling was general among experts, including Greely, that Hazen was clearly in the right. His service in the signal office was only temporarily interrupted by the controversy. He died in 1887.

Achievements

• William Hazen participated in the Indian Wars and as a Union general in the American Civil War. His most famous service was defending "Hell's Half Acre" at the Battle of Stones River in 1862. Hazen also wrote rather freely on controversial matters and published The School and the Army in Germany and France, with a Diary of Siege Life at Versailles (1872); Our Barren Lands: The Interior of the United States West of the 100th Meridian and East of the Sierra Nevadas; and A Narrative of Military Service (1885).

Works

More photos

• book

  • Our barren lands. The interior of the United States west of the 100th meridian and east of the Sierra Nevadas

    (This book was originally published prior to 1923, and rep...)

  • History Of The Signal Service, With Catalogue Of Publications, Instruments And Stations

    (Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating bac...)

  • A Narrative of Military Service

    (This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. T...)

  • The School and the Army in Germany and France: With a Diary of Siege Life at Versailles 1872

    (Originally published in 1872. This volume from the Cornel...)

Personality

Hezen was a conscientious professional officer, strongly opposed to rum in the army, and was convinced that “the iron hand which is just but always firm can alone make soldiers that can be relied upon. ”

Connections

Hazen married Mildred McLean, daughter of Washington McLean, the owner of The Washington Post.

Father:

Stillman Hazen

Mother:

Sophrona (Fenno) Hazen

Spouse:

Mildred (McLean) Hazen

Daughter:

May Hazen

Son:

John McLean Hazen