428 



HITCHCOCK, EDWAHD. 



with the army, and became engaged as an iron 

 manufacturer in Venango County, Pa., from 

 which occupation he was called by the outbreak 

 of this war. Entering the volunteer service as 

 colonel of the 63d Pennsylvania volunteers, he 

 was appointed captain in the 16th regiment of 

 infantry, to date from May 14, 1861. During 

 the Peninsular campaign he was attached with 

 his 'regiment to the First brigade, Third division 

 (Gen. Kearny's), Third army corps, under 

 Gen. Heintzelman, He participated with gal- 

 lantry in the battles of Seven Pines and Fair 

 Oaks. He was nominated for a brevet of major 

 of the U. 8. A., to date from May 31st, 1862. 

 He also distinguished himself during the seven 

 days' contests, and was nominated for a brevet of 

 lieutenant-colonel, from June 30th, 1862, for the 

 battles of Glendale and Malvern Hill. He took 

 part in the Maryland campaign, was appointed 

 a brigadier-general of volunteers on September 

 29th, 1862, participated in the Fredericksburg 

 battle, and was wounded during the battle of 

 Chancellorsville, while in command of the Sec- 

 ond brigade of the Third division, Second army 

 corps. At the battle of Gettysburg he was in 

 command of the Third division of his corps, 

 and after the wounding of Gen. Hancock was 

 temporarily in command of the corps. When 

 Gen. Warren was appointed corps commander, 

 Gen. Hays returned to the Third division, and 

 led it through the battles of Auburn, October 

 13th, Bristoe Station, October 14th, and the af- 

 fair at Mine Run, November, 1863. When the 

 Army of the Potomac was reorganized for the 

 present campaign, Gen. Hays was placed in 

 command of the Second brigade, Birney's Third 

 division, Second corps, under Gen. Hancock. 



Aside from his qualifications as a brave and 

 gallant officer, Gen. Hays was a man of decided 

 scientific culture and a refined and accomplished 

 gentleman. 



HITCHCOCK, EDWARD, D.D., LL.D.,an Ame- 

 rican clergyman, author, geologist, and pro- 

 fessor, for ten years President of Amherst Col- 

 lege, born in Deerfield, Massachusetts, May 

 24th, 1793, died at Amherst, Mass., Feb. 2 7th, 

 1864. His parents though poor were highly 

 intelligent, and of great mental activity, and his 

 mother was a woman of acute nervous sensi- 

 bility, and constitutionally subject to mental 

 depression. These traits he inherited to some 

 extent. His opportunities for early education 

 were limited, but he was an indefatigable stu- 

 dent and a keen observer of nature and natural 

 phenomena. He undertook with all his dis- 

 advantages to prepare for an advanced standing 

 in Harvard University, but a fit of sickness so 

 weakened his eyes, already injured by night 

 study, and the contemplation of the stars, that 

 he was compelled to relinquish his intention. 

 From 1815 to 1818 he was principal of the 

 Deerfield Academy, and while thus engaged he 

 published a poem of five hundred lines entitled 

 "The Downfall of Bonaparte." It was while 

 at the head of this academy that the American 

 publisher of the English Nautical Almanac 



offered ten dollars to ar.y man who should dis- 

 cover an error in the work. Mr. Hitchcock 

 sent him a list of forty-seven errors, and on 

 receiving only evasive answers published the 

 list. This drew forth a contemptuous reply, in 

 which the critic was spoken of as " one Edward 

 Hitchcock," but the calculations for the next 

 year were revised with great care. To the sur- 

 prise of the publisher, no sooner had the Alma- 

 nac appeared than that same Edward Hitch- 

 cock, sent out after it a list of errors more 

 numerous than that of the previous year. The 

 controversy went on for several years, the 

 editor after a little changing his tone," till " one 

 Edward Hitchcock " became " Mr. Edward 

 Hitchcock," and finally, "Edward Hitchcock, 

 Esq., to whom much credit is due for the in- 

 dustry and talent bestowed upon the work." 

 While teaching at Deerfield he had imbibed 

 Unitarian sentiments, then prevalent in that 

 region, but the death of a young friend was 

 the means of bringing him back to orthodoxy, 

 and in 1818 he commenced a course of study 

 for the ministry, prosecuting his studies in part 

 at New Haven. He was ordained pastor of the 

 Congregational Church in Conway, Mass., June 

 2 1 st, 1821. After a pastorate of four years, dur 

 ing which he had made a scientific survey of 

 the Western Counties of Massachusetts, he was 

 dismissed to enter upon the professorship ol 

 Chemistry and Natural History in Amherst Col- 

 lege. He spent some time in the laboratory of 

 Professor SUliman, at New Haven, before com- 

 mencing his labors as instructor. The college 

 was then in its infancy, and the new professor 

 was obliged to give instruction in all the depart- 

 ments of Natural History, and this with ex- 

 ceedingly inadequate and imperfect means of 

 illustration, either in the way of laboratory, cabi- 

 net, or museum, but under his energetic efforts 

 there was soon a material improvement in these 

 particulars, and before his death the depart- 

 ments in which he had given instruction were 

 divided among four professors, the chemical 

 laboratory and apparatus among the finest in 

 United States, and the cabinet and geological 

 museum unique in their character and extent, 

 in this country or Europe. In 1830 he was ap- 

 pointed State Geologist of Massachusetts, and in 

 1836 Geologist of the First District of New 

 York. In 1840 Harvard University bestowed 

 upon him the degree of LL.D. He came very 

 early into the temperance movement, and ex- 

 erted a powerful influence both by pen and 

 voice in its promotion. In 1844 he was chosen 

 President of Amherst College, and Professor of 

 Natural Theology and Geology, and with great 

 reluctance and hesitation accepted the position. 

 The college was then passing through the dark- 

 est period of its history. Inadequately endow- 

 ed, and depending mainly at that time upon the 

 receipts from tuition for the payment of salaries 

 and current expenses, it was running in debt 

 two or three thousand dollars a year, and the 

 income from tuition was diminishing with the 

 diminution in the munber of students. Dr. 





