Brigadier General John H. Hobart Ward (USA)

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Aug 27, 2016
Location
Hangzhou, China (Wisconsin, USA)
Brigadier General John Henry Hobart Ward (USA)

John Henry Hobart Ward was born in New York City on 17 June 1823. His grandfather John Ward fought in the American Revolutionary War, and his father James Ward fought in the War of 1812. Ward graduated from Trinity College and enlisted at the age of 18 in the 7th U.S. Infantry. He was promoted several times over the next four years, reaching the rank of sergeant major.

Ward saw considerable combat action during the Mexican-American War, fighting in the siege of Fort Brown and being wounded at the Battle of Monterrey. He recovered in time to participate in the capture of Veracruz.

He returned to New York and served as assistant commissary general from 1851 until 1855, when he became the state’s commissary general, a post he held until 1859.

Responding to President Abraham Lincoln’s call to arms at the outbreak of the Civil War, Ward recruited the 38th New York Infantry and was appointed its colonel. He led his regiment at the First Battle of Bull Run, taking command of Orlando B. Willcox’s brigade when Willcox fell wounded. He saw action in the 1862 Peninsula Campaign in Brig. Gen. David B. Birney’s brigade of III Corps. Ward continued to perform well during the Northern Virginia Campaign, seeing action at Second Bull Run and Chantilly. For his efforts, he was promoted to brigadier general on 4 October 1862 and assigned command of Birney’s brigade. Birney was promoted to command Maj. Gen. Philip Kearny’s division after Kearny was killed at Chantilly. Ward commanded the brigade at Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville.

During the Gettysburg Campaign, Ward’s brigade was assigned on 2 July 1863 by Maj. Gen. Daniel Sickles to hold a large area from the Wheatfield Road to Devil’s Den. Stretched thin with little reserves, Ward’s brigade held their ground stubbornly but was finally driven back by determined Confederate attacks. Ward became temporary commander of the division when Birney assumed command of III Corps following Sickles wounding. Colonel Hiram Berdan took command of Ward’s brigade. Ward was also wounded that day but did not relinquish command.

Ward was again wounded in fights at Kelly’s Ford and Wapping Heights. During the Overland Campaign in 1864, he was assigned a brigade of Birney’s 3rd Division, II Corps. He was wounded at the Battle of Spotsylvania Court House. Maj. Gen. Winfield S. Hancock removed Ward from command on 12 May 1864 for “misbehavior and intoxication in the presence of the enemy during the battle of the Wilderness.” Despite these charges, he was honorably muster out on 18 July 1864.

After the war, he was a civil employee of New York City, serving as a clerk in the Superior Court from 1871 to 1896. Ward was stuck by an Erie Railroad train in Monroe, New York and died on 24 July 1903.

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BG John H. H. Ward was reading a letter when he approached the railroad crossing and by the time he realized he was in danger, he could not get out of the way fast enough. He was struck by a "glancing blow" from a cylinder on the locomotive on Thursday, 23 July 1903 and passed at 1 a.m. Friday, 24 July 1903.

The old Erie railroad right of way is now a trail for walkers and cyclists. What was the scene of the accident in 1903 is visible from my street corner.

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