Some other presidents, who never served in the Guard, who President Bush calls fellow National <$NoAd$>Guardsmen …
Rutherford B. Hayes, 19th president …
Ohio governor William Dennison appointed him as a major in the Twenty-Third Ohio Volunteer Infantry Regiment. Hayes eventually rose to the rank of major general during the war and was wounded several times. Because of his military service, Ohio Republicans decided that he was the perfect candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives in 1864. Hayes resisted the nomination, purportedly stating, “an officer fit for duty who at this crisis would abandon his post to electioneer … ought to be scalped.” In spite of his opposition, Hayes still won the election. He resigned his military commission on June 9, 1865, to assume his position in Congress.
James A. Garfield, 20th president …
He took command of the 42nd Ohio Volunteer Infantry. Gen. Don Carlos Buell assigned Garfield the task of driving the Confederate forces out of Eastern Kentucky in November, 1861. He was given the 18th Brigade for the campaign. In December, he departed Catlettsburg, Kentucky with the 40th and 42nd Ohio Infantries, the 14th and 22nd Kentucky Infantries, along with the 2nd (West) Virginia Cavalry and McLoughlin’s Squadron of Cavalry. The march was uneventful until reaching Paintsville, Kentucky, where his cavalry engaged the Confederate cavalry at Jenny’s Creek on Jan. 6th, 1862. The Confederate withdrew to the forks of Middle Creek, two miles from Prestonsburg, Kentucky on the road to Virginia. Garfield attacked on Jan. 9th. At the end of the day’s fighting, the Confederates withdrew from the field. Garfield did not pursue them. He ordered a withdraw to Prestonsburg so he could resupply his men. His victory brought early recognition to him.
He was transferred in April to the west in time to participate in the Battle of Shiloh. He also fought at Chickamuaga, eventually reaching the rank of major general.
Benjamin Harrison, 23rd president …
Harrison sat out the first part of the Civil War, but then was commissioned colonel and commanded the 70th Indiana Volunteer Infantry, which he created in 1862 at the request of Governor Oliver P. Morton. In Kentucky Harrison’s raw recruits helped fight an invasion by Confederate General Braxton Bragg. Harrison’s unit was later transferred to the army of General William Tecumseh Sherman, and in 1864, Harrison and his men fought in the bloody Atlanta campaign. At the Peach Tree Creek engagement he won praise for gallant conduct.
Harrison went home on furlough in 1864 to campaign against pro-Southern Democrats in Indiana. He was reelected supreme court reporter, and later rejoined his regiment in the Carolinas. He left the army with the rank of brigadier general.
If Kerry had said something similar, would we be hearing about it?
