University of Vermont - Ariel Yearbook (Burlington, VT)

Page 18 text:

16 THE ARIuEL,,1907- position among the breakers. The captain and engineer of the tugboat Fanny, refusing to undertake their rescue, were yet persuaded by a loaded navy revolver in the colonel's hand, to obey orders, and save the imperilled soldiers from certain death. In February, 1862, the gunboat Delaware leading an expedition up the Chowan River to Winton, Col. Hawkins took his position on the cross-trees of the foremast, and so was able to save the boat and its living freight of two companies from an ambush of rebel infantry and artillery. His escape at this time from instant death was little less than miraculous. The Delaware was struck more than ISO times, and the ratlines were cut out of his hands as he was descending to the deck. The Union forces withdrew down the river, but the next morning cap- tured and burned a part of the town. Colonel Hawkins organized the first body of loyal North Carolinian troops, the nucleus around which was formed the First Regiment of N. C. Volunteers. Thirty-two of these volunteers were hung by the rebel general Picket for constructive desertionf' an dffence unknown to military law. General Picket's crime is discussed in one of General Hawkins's publications. Colonel Hawkins's brigade was in the disastrous fight at Fredericks- burg, December 13, 1862. It was his protest against the proposed second attack the next morning, made first at General Wilcox's headquarters, and later in the presence of four other generals, and finally, by suggestion of General Sumner, to General Burnside in person, which induced General Burnside to relinquish his purpose, and probably saved the Union forces from a repetition of their cruel defeat. l Colonel Hawkins was among the first to discern the incompetence of Gen. George B. McClellan, and one of the most active in the effort to secure his removal from the head of the army. Such independent action was of course well-nigh fatal to all hopes of promotion. Though mus- tered out with his regiment, he yet gave his whole time till the close of the rebellion to the promotion of the Union cause. During his service in the field he was called to command his brigade, and later a division. In 1866 he was promoted to the rank of brevet

Page 17 text:

- ,THE ARIEL,,,19,07 15 the state Constitution was adopted-is the first in a long series of election sermons, and one of the few literary monuments of Early Vermont. Rush Hawkins left Vermont before he was fifteen, and in the fall of 1847 enlisted in the U. S. second dragoons, seeing service along the Rio Grande and in Mexico. Late in the autumn of 1848, for disability contracted in the field, he was discharged from the army at New Orleans. Here he remained until 1851, when he removed to New York. The next ten years were occupied with important business interests intrusted to his oversight, which required extended tours in the VV'est, but left intervals during which he pursued the study of the law. In 1856 he was admitted to the bar in New York City. When the Rebellion broke out,' Mr. Hawkins. was at the head of an independent company' of Zouaves, organized for the purpose of attain- ing the highest possible proficiency in military drill. Cn the evening of the day on which the first call for troops appeared, this company resolved to tender its services to the Government, and by half-past seven they next morning its captain was in the executive chamber of the Governor of New York, the first citizen of the State to tender his com- pany's services for the suppression of the rebellion. In the course of the eight days which followed the 17th of April, 1861, he raised, and had mustered into the service of the State of New York, the 9th Regi- ment of N. Y. Volunteer Infantry, generally known as the Hawkins Zouaves. This regiment shared in the movement against Big Bethel, the cap- ture of Hatteras Inlet, the affair of Chicomocomico, the taking of Roanoke Island, the attack on Winton, N. C., the battles of South Mills fwhere Colonel Hawkins was woundedj, South Mountain and Antietam Qwhere the regiment lost more than 63 per cent of all who were in the fightj, Fredericksburg, and the siege of Suffolk, and was mustered out in June, 1863. - - Colonel Hawkins had charge of the perilous business of landing the Union troops through the surf at Hatteras Inlet in August, 1861. A portion of his own regiment had been anchored in a most dangerous

Page 19 text:

THE ARIEL, 1907 17 brigadier general, U. S. Volunteers, and received a like commission in the National Guard of New York. And fifty of his fellow citizens expressed their estimate of the value of his services by presenting him with a sword of honor. Since the close of the Civil War, General Hawkins has been actively engaged in political reform, local, state and national. In May, 1864, he called the attention of the Union League Club to the necessity for a system of civil service, and was appointed on a committee with Dr. Francis Lieber and General Hayes, to attempt to arouse a general interest in the subject. This was the beginning of the salutary movement so familiar now Linder the name of Civil Service Reform. In 1872 he was a member of the Reform Legislature N of New York, but tiring of the jobbery and venality of the majority of his fellow members, he resigned his seat a week before adjournment, and issued to his constituents a frank Statement of his reasons for resigning. The most complete account of the Tweed Ring Fraud ever written may be found in his Report to the Union League Club, printed in 1876. In 1889 General Hawkins was appointed United States Commis- sioner in special charge of the Department of Fine Arts at the Inter- national Exposition at Paris. Through his efforts American Art, and especially American Wood Engraving, gained the recognition they de- served. I-Iis report, with illustrations, may be seen in volume II of the Government Report of the Exposition. Since 1866 General Hawkins has spent more than half his time in Europe, studying the principal art collections and visiting the libraries, public and private, of all parts of Europe, Spain and Russia alone excepted. His extensive knowledge of art, bibliography, and wood engraving has given him wide recognition as an authority on 'these subjects. We add a partial list of the General's writings, omitting those already alluded to: The United States in Account with the Rebellion, 1876? A Few Facts in Later American History, 188o.