114 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS upon the battery and took it after a hand-to-hand fight with the gunners, the enemy having deemed the battery so secure that no infantry supports had been placed near it. At Fisher s Hill, in pursuing Gen. Early, on September 22, 1864, Col. Hayes, then in command of a division, executed a brilliant flank movement over mountains and through woods difficult of access, took many pieces of artillery, and routed the enemy s forces in his front. At the battle of Cedar Creek, October 19, 1864, the conduct of Col. Hayes attracted so much atten tion that his commander, Gen. Crook, on the battle field took him by the hand, saying: "Colonel, from this day you will be a brigadier-general." The commission arrived a few days afterward, and on March 13, 1865, he received the rank of brevet major-general "for gallant and distinguished services during the campaign of 1864 in West Vir ginia, and particularly at the battles of Fisher s Hill and Cedar Creek, Va." Of his military services Gen. Grant, in the second volume of his memoirs, says: "On more than one occasion in these engagements Gen. R. B. Hayes, who succeeded me as president of the United States, bore a very honorable part. His conduct on the field was marked by conspicuous gallantry, as well as the display of qualities of a higher order than mere personal daring. Having entered the army as a major of volunteers at the beginning of the war
