George Dashiell Bayard

George Dashiell Bayard (December 18, 1835 – December 14, 1862) was a career soldier in the United States Army and a American Civil War Union Army General.

Bayard was born in Seneca Falls, New York. His family moved as homesteaders to the Iowa Territory. He attended the United States Military Academy at West Point and graduated in 1856. He was then made a second lieutenant in the U.S. cavalry. Bayard fought in the Indian Wars in Kansas and Colorado from 1856 to 1861.

At the start of the Civil War in 1861, Bayard was promoted to colonel in the 1st Pennsylvania Cavalry, and was assigned to the defenses of Washington, D.C.. During a reconnaissance of Confederate-held bridges outside Falmouth, Virginia, he came under attack, and rifle fire hit his horse three times. He survived the engagement unharmed, and was commissioned Chief of Cavalry of the III Corps and brigadier general of volunteers on April 28, 1862.

He then led 1,000 cavalrymen in advance of Maj. Gen. Irvin McDowell's troops. Bayard also fought under Maj. Gen. John C. Frémont at the Battle of Port Republic. In August 1862, at the Battle of Cedar Mountain, Bayard led a Union Army advance. When the Army of the Potomac was restructured that fall, Bayard was promoted to cavalry commander for the Left Grand Division.

Bayard was mortally wounded by a Confederate artillery round in the Battle of Fredericksburg. He died on December 14, 1862, the day after he was wounded, and his body was brought to Princeton Cemetery in Princeton, New Jersey, for burial.

Fort Bayard in Washington, D.C. was named in his honor. Fort Bayard Park, which replaced the fort, is also named in his memory, as was Fort Bayard, New Mexico.

References

* Warner, Ezra J., "Generals in Blue: Lives of the Union Commanders", Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1964, ISBN 0-8071-0822-7.