Hazard Stevens

Infobox Military Person
name= Hazard Stevens
born= Birth date|1842|6|9
died= Death date and age|1918|10|11|1842|6|9
placeofbirth= Newport, Rhode Island
placeofdeath=
placeofburial=


caption= Hazard Stevens after the American Civil War
nickname=
allegiance= United States of America Union
branch= United States Army Union Army
serviceyears=
rank= Brigadier General of U.S. Volunteers
commands=
unit=Army of the Potomac
battles= American Civil War
*Battle of Chantilly
*Battle of Fort Huger
awards= Medal of Honor
laterwork= Federal revenue collector, attorney, politician

Hazard Stevens (9 June 1842 – 11 October 1918) was an American military officer, mountaineer, politician and writer. He received the Medal of Honor for his service in the Union army during the American Civil War at the Battle of Fort Huger. Stevens and P. B. Van Trump made the first documented successful climb of Mount Rainier on 17 August 1870.cite book
last= Haines
first= Aubrey L.
title= Mountain fever : historic conquests of Rainier
origyear = 1962
year = 1999
isbn = 0295978473
publisher = Original publisher: Oregon Historical Society; Republished by University of Washington] cite web
url = http://libweb.uoregon.edu/speccoll/photo/fhstevens.html
title = Hazard Stevens photographs, c. 1840s-1918
accessdate = 2007-03-29
month = March | year = 2006
work = University of Oregon Libraries Historic Photograph Collections
publisher = University of Oregon]

Early life and the Civil War

Stevens was born in Newport, Rhode Island on 9 June 1842, the son of Isaac I. Stevens and Margaret Hazard Stevens. In 1854, his father became the first governor of the new Washington Territory and the Stevens family moved to Olympia, Washington. Both father and son volunteered in the Union army during the Civil War and served in the 79th Highlanders of the New York Volunteers. Hazard was wounded and his father, by then a general, was killed in the Battle of Chantilly on 1 September 1862. Hazard recovered and became the youngest brigadier general of volunteers in the Union army in the Third Division of the 9th Corps under Getty. For his contribution to the capture of Fort Huger, Virginia, on 19 April 1863, Stevens received the Medal of Honor.

After the war and the ascent of Mount Rainier

After the war, Stevens returned to Washington to care for his widowed mother, working initially for the Oregon Steam Navigation Company and then as a federal revenue collector in 1868. He then met P. B. Van Trump, who was working as the private secretary to Marshall F. Moore, the seventh governor of the territory. Both men were interested in climbing Mount Rainier and on 17 August 1870 they completed the first documented ascent of the mountain.cite news
title = Stevens and Van Trump
work = Mount Rainier Nature Notes, Vol. VIII, No. 3
publisher = Mount Rainier National Park, National Park Service
date = March, 1930
url = http://www.nps.gov/archive/mora/notes/vol8-3c.htm
accessdate = 2007-03-29] cite web
url = http://mtn.tpl.lib.wa.us/climbs/climbing/chronology/
title = Chronology of Climbs of Mt. Rainier
accessdate = 2007-03-29
year = 2002
publisher = Tacoma Public Library]

The "Stevens Van Trump Historic Monument" along the "Skyline Trail" in Mount Rainier National Park was erected to commemorate the historic first ascent of the mountain. Nearby is the "Stevens Canyon" and "Stevens Ridge", both named after him.

Stevens joined the bar in 1871, representing the Northern Pacific Railroad Company in their prosecution of lumber theft cases. In 1874, Stevens investigated British clams on the San Juan Islands at the request of President Ulysses S. Grant.

Later life in Massachusetts

In 1874, Stevens moved to Dorchester, Massachusetts near Boston. He the entered the Massachusetts state legislature as a reformer in 1885. He successfully lobbied for the preservation of Boston's Old State House. He was unsuccessful in a run for the United States Congress.

Stevens established the Cloverfields Dairy Farm in Olympia in 1916. Now on the National Historic Register, the former farm is the site of the present Olympia High School.

Later in life, Stevens wrote "The Life of Isaac Ingalls Stevens", a noted biography of his father in addition to many papers on the Civil War. He died unmarried in 1918 and is interred at Island Cemetery in Newport County, Rhode Island Plot: Lots 650-653. [findagrave|5925792 Retrieved on 2007-11-08]

Medal of Honor citation

Rank and Organization::Captain and Assistant Adjutant General, U.S. Volunteers. Place and Date: At Fort Huger, Va., 19 April 1863. Entered service at: Olympia, Washington Territory. Born: 9 June 1842, Newport, R.I. Date of issue: 13 June 1894.

Citation:Gallantly led a party that assaulted and captured the fort.cite web
publisher = AmericanCivilWar.com
title = "Civil War Medal of Honor Citations" (S-Z): Stevens, Hazard
date =
url = http://americancivilwar.com/medal_of_honor7.html
accessdate = 2007-11-09] cite web
publisher = army.mil
title = "Medal of Honor website” (M-Z): Stevens, Hazard
date =
url = http://www.army.mil/cmh/html/moh/civwarmz.html
accessdate = 2007-11-09]

ee also

*List of Medal of Honor recipients
*
*History of Olympia

References

External links

* [http://nwda-db.wsulibs.wsu.edu/findaid/ark:/80444/xv40020 Guide to the Hazard Stevens papers at the University of Oregon]

Persondata
NAME= Stevens, Hazard
ALTERNATIVE NAMES=
SHORT DESCRIPTION= United States Army Medal of Honor recipient
DATE OF BIRTH=
PLACE OF BIRTH=
DATE OF DEATH=
PLACE OF DEATH=