Page:Lives of the presidents in words of one syllable (1903).djvu/126

 next year he led a charge at South Mount-ain and got a bad wound in his left arm. Then he went up once more in rank. He did good work when he kept back the raid of Mor-gan's men and made them give up.

In the first fight at Win-ches-ter, Vir-gin-ia, Ju-ly 24, 1864, Col. Hayes did brave deeds which gave great help to the cause of the North. The rank of Ma-jor Gen-er-al came to him for his war work in the Shen-an-do-ah Val-ley. Grant speaks of Hayes in the book he wrote of his own life, and gives him high praise. While still in the field, O-hi-o chose Hayes to send to Con-gress, where he staid from 1865 to 1867. For three terms he held the chief post at the head of his own state.

In 1877 Ruth-er-ford Bir-chard Hayes was made Pres-i-dent of the U-ni-ted States. It was thought, by some, that there was a fraud in the count of votes at this time, and that Sam-u-el J. Til-den, who had held the chief seat at the head of New York State, and would have made a good Pres-i-dent, had won, but at last Hayes was put in.

Hayes held the chair from 1877 to 1881. It was a time more calm and still than had been known in the land since 1860. The war was at an end and the hate and ill will which it made grew less each day.

In 1877 the Nez Perce In-di-ans were told to go to a place which they did not like. War broke out. Pres-i-dent Hayes sent Gen. How-ard out to the far West to stop it. How-ard was brave and firm and, at last, put the red men to rout.

That same year, in 1877, there were rail-road strikes in the warm months. Men would not work for the low sums which those at the head would like to give them. Trains