HON. DANIFL HALL. 227
Hall was transferred to the staff of Gen. A. W. Whipple, then in command at Arlington Heights of the troops and works in front of Washington, on the south side of the Potomac. In September, 1862, a few days after the battle of Antietam, Gen. Whipple joined the Army of the Potomac, and eventually marched with it to the front of Fredericksburg. On the 13th of December, 1862, he was in the battle of Fredericksburg, crossing the river with the third corps, and taking part in the sanguinary assault upon the works which covered Marye's Heights.
At the battle of Chancellorsville he was in the column sent out to strike Jackson's flank or rear as he moved in front of the army, and in the gallant action of the third division of the third corps, under Gen. Whipple, and was with that lamented officer when he fell mortally wounded. Capt. Hall was then assigned to the staff of Gen. Oliver O. Howard, commander of the eleventh corps, and with him participated in the campaign and battle of Gettysburg. His relations to that action were important, and have been the subject of some controversy. When Gen. Reynolds, commanding the first corps, had advanced through the town and encountered the enemy, Gen. Howard, then moving up and about five miles to the rear, hearing the heavy firing, ordered Capt. Hall to ride forward as rapidly as possible, find Gen. Reynolds, ascertain the condition of affairs, and obtain his orders. A rapid ride soon carried him to the front, and he found Gen. Reynolds himself in an advanced and exposed position from the enemy's fire. He did his errand; Gen. Reynolds said he had met the enemy in force, and sent the order for Gen. Howard to bring up his corps with all possible dispatch. Scarcely had Capt. Hall got back through the town, when he was overtaken by the intelligence that Gen. Reynolds was mortally wounded, and near the cemetery he met Gen. Ploward impatiently coming up in advance of his corps. Passing Cemetery Ridge, Gen. Howard said, "That is the place to fight this battle," and directed Capt. Hall to take a battery from the leading division, and place it in position on the crest of the hill, with the division in its support. This was done, and that battery (Wiedrich's Battery, of Steinwehr's division of the eleventh corps), the first planted on Cemetery Hill, remained on that spot through the three days of the conflict. When Gen. Howard took his own place there, Capt. Hall was of course with him, and on the second day of the engagement was slightly wounded by a shell. The credit of choosing the position of Cemetery Hill having been assumed by numerous military writers since the war for Gen. Reynolds, and by some for Gen. Hancock, these details are given, simply to place on record, in this permanent form, his testimony to the justice of the claim made by the friends of Gen. Howard, that he was fully entitled to the thanks voted him by congress for selecting Cemetery Hill and holding it as the battle-ground of the great and glorious battle of Gettysburg.
In the latter part of 1863 his health gave way, and he was forced to leave the service in December, 1863. But in June 1864 he was appointed provost-marshal of the first New Hampshire district, being stationed at Portsmouth, and here he remained until the close of the war. The affairs of the office were in some confusion, but his methodical habits soon reduced it to order. During his term of service he enlisted or drafted and forwarded over four thousand men to the army. This service, which ceased in October, 1865, was marked by signal ability, integrity, and usefulness to the government. "He was one of the men," said a substitute broker to the writer of this sketch, "that no man dared approach with a crooked proposition, no matter how much was in it."
Mr. Hall resumed the practice of law in Dover, but in 1866 was appoint- ed clerk of the supreme court for Strafford county, and in 1868, judge of the police court of the city of
