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B. N. Hyde
(1831 - 1918)
Home State: Vermont
Command Billet: Commanding Regiment
Branch of Service: Infantry
Unit: 3rd Vermont Infantry
Before Antietam
He was trained at West Point (1854) but did not graduate. He left business as a merchant in June 1861 to accept a commission as Lieutenant Colonel in the 3rd Vermont Infantry. On the promotion of Colonel Smith to Brigadier General in August 1861, Hyde became Colonel of the Regiment. He led them through the Peninsula Campaign of 1862, seeing action at Williamsburg and the Seven Days.1
On the Campaign
He was in command at Crampton's Gap on September 14 and Antietam on the 17th.
The rest of the War
"On the 15th of January [1863], Colonel Hyde resigned the colonelcy, under circumstances not altogether creditable. He had been ordered before a court martial, on a charge of cowardice at Fredericksburg, December 13, 1862. He alleged in his defence 'physical weakness from temporary illness', but the circumstances altogether were such, and the unfavorable result of the court martial so probable, that he was advised to resign, and did so, and his resignation was accepted. Truth compels the historian to say that he had not been a popular or successful commander; and the regiment welcomed the change which gave Lieut. Colonel Seaver the colonelcy and command".2
After the War
After the War he moved to Pottsville, Pennsylvania, and was a mining engineer.1
References & notes
Photograph from Hunt.3
Birth
05/14/1831; Hyde Park, VT
Death
10/05/1918; Pottsville, PA; burial in Charles Baber Cemetery, Pottsville, PA
1 Dodge, Russ, and Jim Tipton (founder), A.J. Marik, et al., FInd A Grave, Published 1995, first accessed 01 January 2000, <http://www.findagrave.com/>, Source page: /cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=7825882&pt=Breed%20Hyde [AotW citation 326]
2 Benedict, George G., Vermont in the Civil War. A History of the part taken by the Vermont Soldiers and Sailors in the War For The Union, 1861-5, Burlington (VT): Free Press Association, 1886-1888, pp. 141-142 [AotW citation 327]
3 Hunt, Roger D., Colonels in Blue: Union Army Colonels of the Civil War - New England States, Atglen (PA): Schiffer Publishing Ltd., 2001 [AotW citation 328]