William Babcock Hazen (September 27, 1830 – January 16, 1887) was a career United States Army officer who served in the Indian Wars, as a Union general in the American Civil War, and as Chief Signal Officer of the U.S. Army. His most famous service was defending "Hell's Half Acre" at the Battle of Stones River in 1862, and seizing Fort McAllister, Georgia, in December 1864, which allowed William Sherman to capture Savannah at the end of his March to the Sea. Early life and military career Hazen was born in West Hartford, Vermont, but moved to Ohio at the age of three. He spent his boyhood in the town of Hiram and formed a close personal friendship with future President James A. Garfield. He graduated from the United States Military Academy, in 1855, and was commissioned a second lieutenant in the 4th U.S. Infantry. Before the Civil War, he served primarily in the Pacific Northwest and Texas, where he was wounded severely on November 3, 1859, during a fight with the Comanches along the Llano River. He was absent on sick leave until 1861. Civil War Soon after the fall of Fort Sumter, he was promoted to captain of the 8th U.S. Infantry, and by October 29, 1861, he was Colonel of the 41st Ohio Infantry. Starting in January 1862, he commanded a brigade in the Army of the Ohio, under Maj. Gen. Don Carlos Buell. His first major battle was Shiloh, where Buell's army arrived on the second day (April 7, 1862), in time to counterattack the Confederate army for a Union victory. In the fall of 1862, Hazen fought under Buell at Perryville. His brigade was reorganized into the XIV Corps (later to be known as the Army of the Cumberland) under Maj. Gen. William S. Rosecrans, and, in this organization, Hazen served in his most famous engagement, the Battle of Stones River, at Murfreesboro, Tennessee. On December 31, 1862, the Confederate forces under Gen. Braxton Bragg delivered a devastating assault that caught Rosecrans by surprise and drove his forces back three miles (5 km), leaving their backs to the Stones River. Hazen's brigade defended a small cedar forest known by the locals as "Round Forest". Hazen and Brig. Gen. Charles Cruft were at a salient in the Union line, whose loss would have given the Confederate a complete victory. Maj. Gens. George H. Thomas and Lovell