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Book Reviews These are some reviews from a recent issue of
The Civil War News:
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Alexander “Fighting Elleck” Hays: The Life of a Civil War General, From West Point to the Wilderness
Wayne Mahood
Illustrated, index; appendix, notes, 222 pp., 2005. McFarland & Co. Inc., Publishers, Box 611, Jefferson, NC, 28640, $39.95 plus shipping
Alexander Hays was a fighter and I believe that his death at The Wilderness spurned posterity remembering him as anything else. Driven by a lust for action and a chivalric sense of honor, “Fighting Elleck” Hays was the type of man President Lincoln needed in an army desperate for victory. Wayne Mahood has chronicled the life of Hays in his book, Alexander “Fighting Elleck” Hays: The Life of a Civil War General, From West Point to the Wilderness. Mahood’s work is largely a tribute to this fallen warrior. He details the life of Alex Hays from his boyhood in the western Pennsylvania town of Franklin to his heroic death on May 5, 1864. While maintaining Hays’ bravery and respectability throughout the book, Mahood also lets us in on the man who was Alex Hays, imperfect as he was. Hays was, despite today’s political correctness, a man’s man. His frame was large and his build powerful. Never afraid of confrontation, he fought. He fought as a youth in Franklin, as a cadet at West Point, and ultimately on the battlefields of Mexico and the Civil War. He commanded respect from subordinates and superiors alike and was quick if not to a fault in defending his honor and what he thought was right. Promotions came slowly for Hays, most likely a result of his resignation from the army after the Mexican War. He felt slighted because he did not obtain what he thought were deserved ranks and commands throughout much of the war. However he was not one to be quietly snubbed. He protested and had letters written by Pennsylvania dignitaries and his overbearing father, asking for appropriate promotions only to have most of them fall upon deaf ears. Hays was eventually promoted to brigadier general and then to division command at the battle of Gettysburg. After Gettysburg he was demoted to brigade command again but actually commanded more men than he had in his division. His frustrations with the uncertainty of his command position must have gnawed at Hays constantly, but he weathered that bureaucratic maelstrom gracefully and continued to fight. If Hays could have participated in every fracas of the war he would have. As it turns out, Second Manassas, Gettysburg, Morton’s Ford and The Wilderness are where he staked his claim to glory. He suffered a leg wound at Second Manassas, cleared the Bliss Barn of Confederate sharpshooters and was instrumental in the defense of the stonewall (near the angle) during Pickett’s Charge at Gettysburg, exposed himself to open enemy fire in a moment of sheer bravado or stupefied drunkenness at Morton’s Ford in the wake of the failed Mine Run Campaign, and was at the head of his brigade at the battle of The Wilderness when a bullet struck him in the temple, mortally wounding him. In 1868, presidential candidate U.S. Grant was campaigning in Pittsburgh, Pa. He asked where Alexander Hays was buried and then visited the spot where Hays was laid to rest. He sat on a cannon and wept for one of the slain heroes of the war; a man with the heart of a lion — Alexander Hays. Mahood includes interesting photographs, maps, and anecdotes that add to this well-written study of Alexander “Fighting Elleck” Hays
Chuck Romig
Chuck Romig graduated from Penn State University with a B.S. in secondary education and teaches history at Penns Valley High School in Spring Mills, Pa. He continues to read and research Civil War history.
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