- Peter Conover Hains
.
Early life and career
Hains was born in
Philadelphia ,Pennsylvania . He was appointed to theUnited States Military Academy fromNew Jersey , and graduated from West Point ranking 19th in the Class of June 1861. Among his June classmates wereMedal of Honor recipientFirst Lieutenant Alonzo Cushing , andMajor General sGeorge Custer , USA, andPierce Manning Butler Young , CSA.Civil War
Commissioned and promoted second and
first lieutenant in the2nd US Artillery onJune 24 ,1861 , Hains briefly commandedBattery M, 2nd U.S. Artilery , in theU.S. Horse Artillery Brigade , until transferring to theTopographical Engineers onJuly 24 ,1862 . He won a brevet promotion to captain onMay 22 , 1862, for actions at Hanover Court House. Less than a year later, onMarch 3 ,1863 , Hains transferred again—this time into theCorps of Engineers .During the
Siege of Vicksburg , Hains was cited for meritorious conduct (serving as the acting/interim chief engineer of the XIII Corps), and was awarded a brevet promotion to major upon the capture of the city,July 4 ,1863 . Promoted to captain in the Engineers on the 18th of that month, he served out the remainder of the war, and received a brevet promotion tolieutenant colonel for his service during the war.Postbellum career
Hains remained with the
Regular Army following the war, and was promoted to major in September 1870. Much of his notable post-war service was with the U.S. Lighthouse Bureau. Among other accomplishments, Hains designed theMorris Island and St. Augustine lighthouses. He became a lieutenant colonel in 1886,and was promoted to colonel on August 1895. He designed the tidal basin in Washington, D.C., thus solving the drainage problems and foul smell of most of the Washington area marshlands.Still in the Army during the
Spanish-American War , Hains served as a brigadier general of volunteers from August to November 1898. He was promoted to brigadier general in the Regular Army onApril 21 ,1903 . He successfully lobbied for the construction of thePanama Canal site over one proposed inNicaragua .Hains retired from active service in 1904.
On
August 15 ,1908 , two of his three sons, Peter C. Hains II andThornton Jenkins Hains , a well-known author of sea stories, were involved in the murder of William E. Annis at the Bayside Yacht Club, Long Island. The crime, and the subsequent separate trials for the brothers, became one of the notorious cases of its day, front-page news across the country. Thornton was acquitted in January 1909; Peter was convicted of manslaughter in May 1909 and sent to Sing Sing, but, on General Hains' appeal, was pardoned by the Governor of New York in 1911. The General spent much of his savings financing the defense of his sons.General Hains was recalled and promoted to major general during the
First World War , in 1916. He died atWalter Reed Hospital onNovember 7 ,1921 Honors
Hains Point in Washington is named in memory of General Hains.Military family
His sons, John Power Hains and
Peter Hains Jr., were both army officers. His grandson and namesake,Peter C. Hains, III , was also a major general in the U.S. Army. All are buried atArlington National Cemetery .References
* [http://www.arlingtoncemetery.net/pchains.htm Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington, Virginia]
* Heitman, Francis B. "Historical Register and Dictionary of the United States Army, From its Organization, September 29, 1789 to March 2, 1903". Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1903.
* "Register of Graduates and Former Cadets of the United States Military Academy". West Point, NY: West Point Alumni Foundation, Inc., 1970.
* U.S. War Department. "The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies". Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1894.
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