George Dashiell Bayard was born in Seneca Falls, New York on December 18, 1835, and moved with his family to Iowa at eight years old.  In 1849 the Bayard family returned east to New Jersey, there George attended a military school taught by a Major Dorn and learned fencing from Gabriel De Korponay, an exiled Hungarian who was later Colonel of the 28^th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry. [i]  George was appointed a cadet at West Point by President Fillmore, and graduated 11^th of 49 from the Class of 1856 along with several future Civil War Generals including Federal Brigadier General James W. Forsyth, and Confederate Lieut. General Fitzhugh Lee (Robert E. Lee’s nephew). [ii]  

Upon graduating West Point he was commissioned 2^nd Lieutenant and assigned to frontier duty with the 1st U.S. Cavalry.  He was 2^nd Lieut. of Company G at Fort Riley, Kansas (then part of the Indian Territory) under 1^st Lieut. J.E.B. Stuart and Captain W.S. Walker in 1859.  The 1^st Cavalry at Fort Riley was charged with protecting settlers moving west via the Santa Fe Trail from Indian attacks (tribes in the area included the Kiowa, Comanche, Cheyenne, Arapahoe and Apaches).  During this time Bayard chased down and killed Kiowa Chief Big Pawnee after his warriors had killed and scalped a rancher named Peacock.  This action incited an Indian war, and soon afterwards Lieut. Bayard was wounded by an arrow in the cheekbone below the eye during an encounter with a band of Kiowa at Black Water Creek in the Salt Desert of New Mexico.  During his time in the Indian Territory, Bayard served with many notable Civil War figures including: Union Generals Sedgwick, Emory, Long, Lyons, and Carr; and Confederate Generals Stuart, Lomax, Jackson, Iverson, and Longstreet. [iii]  

Bayard returned east to recover from his arrow wound received in the frontier, and in 1861 he was cavalry instructor at West Point, was promoted 1st lieutenant in the 3rd U.S. Cavalry on March 16, 1861.  On August 20, 1861 he was promoted Captain of the 4th U.S. Cavalry and granted a leave of absence to accept an appointment as Colonel of the 1st Pennsylvania Volunteer Cavalry. [iv] 

On June 20, 1861 Bayard was commissioned Major of the 3^rd New York Volunteer Infantry; however, he did not join the regiment and was not mustered. [v]  On August 27, 1861 he was commissioned Colonel of the 1^st Pennsylvania Volunteer Cavalry (44th Pennsylvania Regiment). The Regiment was organized as the Fifteenth of the Reserve Corps in Tenallytown, and it moved to Camp Pierpont, VA on October 10, 1861.   On November 27, 1861, Colonel Bayard led a detachment of the 1^st Pennsylvania Cavalry beyond Difficult Creek to Dranesville, VA, about 13 miles outside of the Camp.   After arresting several suspicious individuals in Dranesville, the detachment was attacked by Confederate guerrillas concealed in a roadside pine thicket two miles outside town.   Men were immediately dismounted and pushed into the woods killing or capturing the Rebel force, but not before two of the detachment were killed, including Assistant Surgeon Samuel Alexander and Pvt. Joseph Hughling (Co. D), and two severely wounded.   Colonel Bayard was also slightly wounded in the ambush, after having his horse killed under him.[vi]  On April 9, 1862 the 1^st PA Cavalry was posted at Catlett’s Station, and on the 17^th two battalions, supported by the 2^nd New York Cavalry skirmished with the Confederates towards Falmouth, VA.   The Rebels fell back at daylight, and Colonel Bayard occupied Falmouth, from whence he and the 1^st Pennsylvania Cavalry engaged in picket duty and skirmished with the Rebels along the Rappahannock River. [vii]

Bayard was promoted Brigadier General, USV on April 28, 1862 and placed in command of the Cavalry (Bayard’s Brigade) for the Department of the Rappahannock.   He followed McClellan to the Peninsula, and was active in the battles of Cross Keys and Cedar Mountain.   He met his former Academy mate J.E.B. Stuart on the field at Cedar Mountain under a flag of truce and they spoke of their pre-war escapades on the frontier.   Bayard asked Stuart to hold his bridle while he gave a wounded man a drink of water from a nearby stream, to which Major General Stuart later quipped   that it was the first he had “played orderly to a Union General”. [viii]

Brigadier-General Bayard commanded cavalry brigades in the Department of the Rappahannock, Mountain Department, Army of Virginia, and Army of the Potomac. Bayard and his Cavalry Brigade opened the Battle of Fredericksburg on December 13, 1862, holding the Rebels until the Federal infantry could be positioned.   He was struck in the hip by a shell fragment later that afternoon while at Major-General Franklin’s headquarters in a grove of trees near Fredericksburg, and died the following day, within days of his pending marriage. [ix]  General Franklin reported of Bayard “the loss of this gallant young general is a severe blow to his arm of the service, and in him the country has lost one of its most dashing and gallant cavalry officers”. [x]

General Orders No. 83 issued by Secretary of War Stanton on April 1, 1863 named a defensive fort near Washington D.C. in General Bayard’s honor. [xi]  Fort Bayard was a round fort armed with four 20-pound Parrott Rifles and two 12-pound howitzers overlooking Great Falls turnpike, an important route into the Capital from the north.   The fort was connected by rifle-pits to Fort Simmons (named for Colonel Seneca Simmons, killed June 30, 1862 at White Oak Swamp, VA) and Fort Reno (named for Major General Jesse Reno, mortally wounded September 14, 1862 at South Mountain, MD). [xii]

Fort Bayard, NM was also named in his honor when constructed in 1866 by Co. B, 125th U.S. Colored Infantry to protect the gold and silver mining towns of Pinos Altos and Silver City from the Apache war trails located in the Pinos Altos Mountains. [xiii]

Brigadier General George Dashiell Bayard is buried at Princeton Cemetery, Princeton, NJ.