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H.T. Hays
(1820 - 1876)
Home State: Louisiana
Education: St. Mary's College (Baltimore, MD)
Command Billet: Commanding Brigade
Branch of Service: Infantry
Unit: Hays' Brigade
see his Battle Report
Before Sharpsburg
Bornn in Tennessee, he was raised by an uncle in Mississippi. He saw Army service in the Mexican War and later was an attorney who studied law in Baltimore and had a prosperous practice in New Orleans by 1860. In 1861 he was appointed Colonel of the 7th Louisiana Infantry Regiment and he fought with them at First Manassas, in the Shenandoah Valley Campaign, and at Port Republic, where he was wounded. In July 1862 he was appointed Brigadier General.
On the Campaign
He commanded his brigade of Ewell's Division in Jackson's Command, and lost about half his men as casualties at Sharpsburg in combat near the Dunker Church on 17 September 1862.
The rest of the War
He continued in command of his brigade, then part of Early's Division, at Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, the Wilderness, and Spotsylvania, where he was again wounded. He afterward fought in the Trans- Mississippi campaigns.
After the War
He was appointed Sheriff for New Orleans Parish in 1866, but was removed by General Sheridan. He then practiced law there until his death of Bright's Disease 10 years later.
References & notes
His service basics from Warner.1 Personal details from family genealogists and the US Census of 1860. His gravesite is on Findagrave. His picture here from a photograph in the Lincoln Financial Foundation Collection.
He married Elizabeth Cage (1836-1904) in July 1854 in Mississippi and they had 9 children.
Birth
04/14/1820; Wilson County, TN
Death
08/21/1876; New Orleans, LA; burial in Washington Avenue Cemetery, New Orleans, LA
1 Warner, Ezra J., Generals in Gray, Lives of the Confederate Commanders, Baton Rouge, LA: Louisiana State University Press, 1959, p. 130 [AotW citation 31585]