Joseph R. Hawley

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For other people with the same name, see Joseph Hawley.

Joseph R. Hawley
William A. Buckingham
Succeeded byJames E. English
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives
from Connecticut's 1st district
In office
December 2, 1872 – March 3, 1875
Preceded byJulius L. Strong
Succeeded byGeorge M. Landers
In office
March 4, 1879 – March 3, 1881
Preceded byGeorge M. Landers
Succeeded byJohn R. Buck
Personal details
BornOctober 31, 1826
Brigadier general
Brevet major general
Battles/wars
See list

Joseph Roswell Hawley (October 31, 1826 – March 18, 1905) was the

U.S. Senator
.

Early life and career

Hawley, a direct descendant of

Hamilton College in New York in 1847. He was admitted to the bar in 1850 and practiced law in Hartford, Connecticut
for six years.

An ardent opponent of

John Parker Hale
for the presidency in 1852, and subsequently served as chairman of the party's State Committee and editor of the party's newspaper, the Charter Oak. In 1856, he took a leading part in organizing the Republican Party in Connecticut, and in 1857 became editor of the Hartford Evening Press, a newly established Republican newspaper.

Civil War

Hawley served in the Federal army with distinction throughout the Civil War, rising from the rank of captain to that of brevet major general of volunteers. In April 1861, Hawley helped recruit and organize an infantry company. He was mustered into the three-month 1st Connecticut Infantry with the rank of captain of Company A on April 22. He first saw combat at the First Battle of Bull Run in July, receiving praise from his brigade commander, General Erasmus D. Keyes.

After mustering out, he then assisted

Fort Pulaski in April 1862. Again, he commanded the garrison force. With Colonel Terry's promotion to brigade command, Hawley succeeded him as commander of the 7th Connecticut, leading the regiment in the battles of James Island
and Pocotaligo.

He was in Brannan's expedition to

siege of Charleston, and was involved in the attacks on Fort Wagner
in September. During the autumn, he procured enough Spencer breech-loading rifles to outfit his regiment with the rapid-fire weapon.

The following year, Hawley commanded a brigade under General

X Corps, Army of the James. He was in the battles of Drewry's Bluff, Deep Run, Derbytown Road, and other actions near Bermuda Hundred and Deep Bottom. With openings created by battlefield losses and reassignments, Hawley commanded a division during the Siege of Petersburg and was promoted in September 1864 to brigadier general of volunteers. Concerned over keeping the peace during the November elections, Hawley commanded a hand-picked brigade shipped to New York City
to safeguard the election process.

In January 1865, Hawley succeeded his mentor Alfred Terry as divisional commander when Terry was sent to command troops in the attacks on

Wilmington, North Carolina
, Hawley took over command of the forces in southeastern North Carolina. In June, following the surrender of the Confederate armies, Hawley rejoined Terry and served as Chief of Staff for the Department of Virginia, serving until October when he returned home to Connecticut. He was breveted as a major general in September 1865, and mustered out of the army on January 15, 1866.

Postbellum

Hawley in 1880 art

After the war, Hawley served as governor of Connecticut from April 1866 to April 1867, but was defeated in the 1867 election. A few months after stepping down from that office, he bought the Hartford Courant newspaper, which he combined with the Press. Under his editorship, this became the most influential newspaper in Connecticut and one of the leading Republican papers in the country.

Hawley was the permanent chairman of the

Yale
in 1888).

Hawley's gravestone in Cedar Hill Cemetery

Hawley was a United States Senator from 1881 to 1905, being one of the key Republican leaders both in the House and the Senate.[4] He was chairman of the committee on civil service, and vigorously promoted civil service reform legislation. He also chaired a special committee called to investigate the production of military ordnance and warships. In this capacity, he wrote a detailed report on the heavy steel industry and gun making in the United States and England.

He died in

bas relief representation of Hawley was commissioned from Herbert Adams, which was installed in the north portico of the Connecticut Capitol building and dedicated 18 October 1912.[1]: 4  He was buried in Cedar Hill Cemetery, Connecticut.[5]

Hawley has a battery named in his honor at Fort Baldwin, in Phippsburg, Maine.

Personal life

Hawley and his wife Harriet Foote Hawley adopted one of her nieces after the girl's parents died; as Margaret Foote Hawley she would go on to achieve some note as a painter of portrait miniatures.[6][7] Harriet's sister Kate Foote Coe lived with the Hawleys while she was working as a newspaper correspondent in Washington.[8]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Joint report of the commissions on memorials to Senators Orville Hitchcock Platt and Joseph Roswell Hawley to the General assembly of the state of Connecticut, 1915 (Report). Hartford, Connecticut: The Case, Lockwood & Brainard Co. 1915 – via Internet Archive.
  2. ^ Topkins, Robert; Little-Stokes, Ruth (June 1975). "Stewart-Hawley-Malloy House" (PDF). National Register of Historic Places - Nomination and Inventory. North Carolina State Historic Preservation Office. Retrieved February 1, 2015.
  3. ^ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. July 9, 2010.
  4. ^ "S. Doc. 58-1 - Fifty-eighth Congress. (Extraordinary session -- beginning November 9, 1903.) Official Congressional Directory for the use of the United States Congress. Compiled under the direction of the Joint Committee on Printing by A.J. Halford. Special edition. Corrections made to November 5, 1903". GovInfo.gov. U.S. Government Printing Office. November 9, 1903. p. 11. Retrieved July 2, 2023.
  5. ISBN 9780806348230
    .
  6. ISBN 978-0-940979-01-7
    .
  7. ^ "Harriet Foote Hawley". May 19, 2014. Retrieved January 8, 2017.
  8. ^ Maggie MacLean, "Harriet Foote Hawley: Civil War Nurse and Occasional Journalist" Civil War Women (May 19, 2014).

References

External links

Party political offices
Preceded by
William Alfred Buckingham
Governor of Connecticut
1866, 1867
 Succeeded by
U.S. House of Representatives
Preceded by Member of the U.S. House of Representatives
from Connecticut's 1st congressional district
December 2, 1872 – March 3, 1875 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Member of the U.S. House of Representatives
from Connecticut's 1st congressional district
March 4, 1879 – March 3, 1881 		Succeeded by
Political offices
Preceded by
Governor of Connecticut

1866–1867 		Succeeded by
U.S. Senate
Preceded by U.S. senator (Class 1) from Connecticut
1881–1905
Served alongside: Orville H. Platt 		Succeeded by
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