Rutherford chose service over politics

Rutherford B. Hayes succeeded President Ulysses S. Grant as president of the United States.

Prior to the Civil War, he hadn't had any military experience, so when Lincoln sent out his call for volunteers, it wasn't a natural choice for Hayes to join up. But he thought it over and decided that he could not stay out of the fight.

He told a friend, "I would prefer to go into it if I knew I was going to die, rather than to live through it without taking part in it."

As it turned out, he almost didn't survive. He was appointed a lieutenant colonel. In the battle of South Mountain in Maryland, Sept. 14, 1862, he was hit by a stunning blow. He had been hit by a musket ball. Lying on the ground, feeling abandoned, he yelled out, "Hallo, men of the 23rd, are you going to leave your colonel here for the enemy?" His men rescued him and behold his brother-in-law was an Army surgeon and treated his injuries.'

During the war, he was urged to run for Congress, but he said "an officer fit for duty who at this crisis of the war, who would abandoned his troops to electioneer for a political post, ought to be scalped."

He was elected anyway, but remained in the Army. Sort of contrary to today, when most politicians, don't serve at all, in fact they avoid military service.

Roger Gregory is a Vietnam veteran and business owner in Priest River.