Romeyn B. Ayres

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Romeyn B. Ayres
2nd U.S. Artillery
Battles/warsAmerican Civil War

Romeyn Beck Ayres (December 20, 1825 – December 4, 1888) was a Union Army general in the American Civil War.

Early life

Ayres was born at

Puebla and Mexico City
until 1850, seeing no fighting in the war.

Between the wars, Ayres was stationed at various posts on the frontier and served at the

Fort Monroe Artillery School from 1859 to 1861. In 1849 he married Emily Louis Gerry Dearborn in Bangor, Maine. His second wife was Juliet Opie Hopkins Butcher, the daughter of Juliet Opie Hopkins, a woman who later became prominent establishing hospitals for Confederate soldiers in Richmond, Virginia
.

Civil War

After the start of the Civil War, Ayres was promoted to

First Bull Run Campaign, and was heavily involved in the Battle of Blackburn's Ford, immediately before the larger First Battle of Bull Run. At First Bull Run, his battery, attached to the brigade of William Tecumseh Sherman, was held in reserve and he did not see action during the battle proper, but distinguished himself by providing cover for retreating Union Army
troops pursued by Confederate cavalry.

On October 3, 1861, Ayres was appointed chief of artillery for

Peninsula Campaign, the Seven Days Battles, and at the Battle of Antietam. Just before the Battle of Fredericksburg, he was promoted to chief of artillery of the VI Corps as a brigadier general, as of November 29, 1862. At Fredericksburg he commanded the corps artillery stationed across the Rappahannock River
on Falmouth Heights.

While recuperating from an injury caused when his horse fell, Ayres considered his military career and realized that artillery officers had a much slower rate of promotion than their colleagues in the infantry. Thus, he arranged for a transfer and became a brigade commander in the 2nd Division of the V Corps as of April 21, 1863. This division was known as the Regular Division because it consisted almost entirely of regular army (versus state volunteers) soldiers and he led its 1st Brigade in the Battle of Chancellorsville. On the first day of the battle (May 1, 1863) his brigade formed the left flank of Sykes' division when it engaged Maj. Gen. Lafayette McLaws' division on the Orange Turnpike. Sykes' division was forced to retreat after being attacked on the right flank by Maj. Gen. Robert E. Rodes' division.

In the

draft riots
there.

In March 1864, the Army of the Potomac was reorganized, reducing the number of corps commanders, and subordinates down the

Appomattox Campaign
and the Confederate surrender.

By the summer of 1864, the Regular Division no longer existed because it was hardly above brigade strength. Ayres was asked after the war if any of the regular troops he'd commanded were still serving. He replied "I had a division of regulars once. I buried half of them at Gettysburg and the other half in the Wilderness. There's no regulars left."

Postbellum

After the war, Ayres commanded a division in the

Key West, Florida. In 1877 he commanded troops suppressing the railroad strikes in Maryland and Pennsylvania, and in 1879 he was promoted to colonel
of the 2nd U.S. Artillery.

Ayres died on duty on December 4, 1888, in

Arlington, Virginia.[1]

See also

References

  1. ^ "Burial Detail: Ayres, Romeyn Beck (Section 1, Grave 12)". ANC Explorer. Arlington National Cemetery. (Official website).

Sources

External links
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