This biography states that Hawes participated in a charge at Charleston , West Virginia. I'm unable to discover in any bio or profile where Hawes ever commanded in the Eastern Theater.
3/2/62 Gen Johnston announced that still another reorganization of the forces had been determined upon, & that it would be known as the "Army of the Miss." A Div was organized & placed under command of Gen Breckinridge. This was named as the Reserve Corps, & consisted of the Ky Bgde, Statham's Bgde, Bowen's Bgde, Forrest's Regt of Cav, Morgan's squadron, a Co of Cav under Capt Phil B. Thompson, which had reported to Gen Breckinridge as a body guard or Hqs scouts, & the light Arty pertaining to each organization.
Orphan Bgde by E P Thompson
After Shiloh
1st- Hawes
4 Ky
9 Ky
31/ [49] Ala
4 Ala Bn
31 Ms
Post Shiloh Reorganization-In a short time the work of reorganizing the army throughout was begun, & the remainder of the month of April was spent in getting it in proper shape to render it available for attack or defense
Cols Preston & Helm received notification of promotion to the rank of Gen, & were ordered to report to Gen Breckinridge for duty. The Ky troops were now separated & made part of two commands. One Bgde was assigned to Gen J. M. Hawes, who had been promoted in the summer or autumn of 1861, & consisted of the 4th & 9th Ky Regts, Hale's Ala Regt, Clifton's Ala Bn, & Byrne s Btry.
Owing to resignation of the officers of Byrne's Btry, & the consequent breaking up of the Co, a change was made in the Arty of this Bgde; on 5/2, Hudson's Btry being substituted for Byrne's. Gen Hawes soon relinquished his command for service in the Dept. of the Trans-Ms, & Gen Ben Hardin Helm was placed in charge of his Bgde, which was so modified as to consist of the following:
4th & 9th Ky Regts, 31st Ala Regt, 4th Ala Bn, 31st Ms Regt, & the Hudson Btry.
One Bgde was assigned to Gen Wm Preston, & consisted of the 3rd, 6th, &7th Ky Regts, 35th Ala Regt, & Cobb's Btry.
The 7th Ky fought at Shiloh, in another command, & did not report to Gen Breckinridge until after the arrival at Corinth. Its 1st Col (Wickliffe) had been killed there, & it was now commanded by Col Ed Crossland.
These two Bgdes & two under Bowen & Statham respectively, with two Cav Co's, now constituted Breckinridge s Div It will be noted that this was an organization composed of men of Ky, Ala, Mo, Ms; & this ill-advised arrangement prevailed till the following Sept, when the 2nd Ky returned from prison, & preparations were being made to join the army under Bragg, when the Ky Regts were all thrown together, & the title became once more appropriate in every sense. The 3rd & 7th were detached, with a view of moving them into Ky, by way of Jackson, Tenn & were not again connected with the main body, but there were four Regts still together, under the title of 1st Ky Bgde, until the autumn of 1861, when the 5th Ky Infy was added, or rather substituted for the 41st Ala, & no further change took place in the organization.
The Co's which had been reduced below the minimum were ordered to be consolidated in such manner as to give the organizations that were retained their full quota of men, in pursuance of which the
new Regts were made to consist of but eight instead of ten Co's each. The 9th chose a Lt-Col & a Maj, none having been previously appointed, & its organization was thus perfected after it had passed through the ordeal of battle.
Orphan Bgde by E P Thompson
4/22/62 Hqs 2
nd Corps, Bragg orders-
X. Gen Hawes' Bgde, except Looney's Regt, as soon as relieved from outpost duty, will proceed to the vicinity of Rienzi, on the Mobile & Ohio RR, & take such position there as may be designated by
Gen Little, cdg. An officer of the QM's Dept will precede the command & select & lay out the camp. Such portion of your command, including the sick & convalescent will be immediately put in motion for their new position.
XI. The 2nd Bgde, Withers' Div, will proceed, with seven days' rations, at 4 a.m. tomorrow morning, to Monterey, & relieve Gen Hawes' command. Upon being relieved Gen Hawes will proceed to comply with S O #42/X of this series.
4/26/62 S. O. Army of the Miss-The following rearrangement & transfers of Gen officers & Regts will take place immediately
3rd. Gen Hawes & Helm will report for duty to Gen Breckinridge.
5th. Robertson's Regt Ala Vols, instead of being consolidated with the 16th Regt Ala Vols, is transferred to Gen Breckinridge's command, with its present organization.
6th. The 7th Ky & 6th Ms Vols are transferred to the reserve
4/28/62 Hqs Reserve Corps-G O # 10
The RC will be composed of 4 Bgdes to be designated respectively the 1
st, 2
nd, 3
rd & 4
th Bgdes Reserve Corps, Army of the Miss.
1st Bgde will consist of:
Preston Hawes
4th Ky
5th Ky
Hale's Ala
Bn Regt
Clifton's Ala Bn
Byrne's Btry
7/1/62 Breckinridge rejoins the command from his leave
The Div went into camp in a low, narrow valley just opposite & below the "four-mile bridge," on the right, & Gen Breckinridge was soon in command again. Gen Van Dorn, charged with the defense of the city against the combined fleets of Admirals Farragut & Porter had, besides the Div of Gen Breckinridge, from one to two thousand Infy & a small Arty force in charge of Hvy ordnance & some field guns in Btry the whole force not exceeding 10,000 men of all arms. He assigned Gen Smith to the immediate command of the city & its defensive works, & Gen Breckinridge to that of the entire reserve force
After the departure of Gen Hawes, Col Hunt was in command of his Bgde, & when Gen Breckinridge returned, Preston resumed command of his own.........
7/8/62 Helm returned to duty & was assigned by Breckinridge to replace Hawes in charge of the Bgde containing the 4th & 5th Ky.
8/9/62 Hqs Dept # 2, Chattanooga -Bragg to Sec of War: Your letter of 7/22 has just been received, having been to Tupelo & returned. My reply to a telegram from the President must have removed an erroneous impression in regard to the proportion between troops & Gen'ls in this command. In your letter you entirely ignore one-half of Van Dorn's, the whole of Forney's, & a large portion of Price's commands, not organized into Bgdes or Div's for want of commanders. I enclose a tabular statement* of the whole command, showing what its organization should be & the number of Gen officers we have & the number required.
The fact that some of the Gen'ls are absent from sickness & other causes does not remove the difficulty, for a greater proportion of the troops are also absent from similar causes. The presence of both would compel a large increase in the number of Bgdes & Div's.
In reference to the want of qualifications in some Gen officers I alluded particularly to Maj-Gen'ls Crittenden, McCown, & Cheatham, & Carroll, Trapier, & Hawes, as, in my judgment, unsuited for their responsible positions, &, as far as I can learn, not recommended from here.
The practice of giving command of Div's & Bgdes to senior Col's does not work well, & at times is fraught with great danger.
The recent exchange of prisoners will restore some of our Gen'ls & remove to that extent my embarrassments.
8/27/62 Aberdeen, Ms-Gen Hawes asks if his resignation has not been accepted & to be ordered to Tex
9/8 Provisional Ky Gov R Hawes asks that Gen Hawes' resignation not be accepted & ordered to duty
9/8/62 Columbus, MS-J M Hawes to Gen Cooper-has my resignation been accepted?
10/5 Jackson, Gen Hawes asking Dawson be attached to his Bgde as commissary
10/26/62 Holmes to Hindman-1st Army Corps, Trans-Miss Army: ... Fagan has been made a Brig & must be put in command of an Ark Bgde, as I am ordered to Bgde the troops by States. I will order him to report to you. Steele & Hawes & Scurry have also been appointed. I shall want one of them to command in front of Helena. You can have the other two if you want them. They are all
Cav officers, & have not yet arrived…
2/16/64 Taylor to Boggs-…I have just made a minute inspection of Hawes' & Randall's Bgdes of Walker's Div & I have never seen any troops in finer condition. No troops have ever shown greater improvement in all the qualities of soldiers & their condition reflects great credit on the Div & Bgde cdrs. I ask that S O #34 be revoked. Gen Hawes' Bgde is in splendid order & a change would be very unfortunate.
The order was not rescinded; however, & Hawes was placed in command of the fortifications & garrison of Galveston Island. Gen Waul replaced Hawes as cdr of the 1st Bgde