HAYDEN T. FRENCH, LT, USN

Hayden French '63

Date of birth: September 18, 1840

Age: 24

Naval Academy Register

Hayden Tighman French was admitted to the Naval Academy from Indiana on November 29, 1859 at age 17 years 10 months.

Loss

Hayden died on March 1, 1865, in Indianapolis, Indiana, possibly of haemoptysis. He had been on the sick list since at least January 1865.

Other Information

From researcher Kathy Franz:

On April 4, 1857, Hayden wrote President James Buchanan and asked for an appointment to West Point. Failing that he would accept an appointment to the Naval School. Hayden enclosed recommendations from Dr. William M. Daily, President of Indiana University, and Governor Wright. Dr. Daily also wrote Secretary of the Interior Jacob Thompson and Secretary of War J. B. Floyd.
Dr. Daily’s letters, in part, said that Hayden was “a youth of unexceptional character, pure in morals and of studious habits. He has been a student of this University and always maintains a good character. At the time of his leaving the Institution he was eligible to admission to the Freshman class. And is in every way worthy of confidence.” Additionally, he “reads well, spells correctly, writes a fair and legible hand and understands all the rules of Arithmetic, has studied Algebra and some Latin and Greek.”
His father was also a Methodist minister. In 1859 he was a candidate for Secretary of State.
Hayden was an exceptionally good son who wrote to his father almost weekly during his years in the Navy. He would often send his parents $10 interest bearing notes as well as gifts including a watch guard, lace items, and a shawl. On October 18, 1860, he wrote from the Naval Academy: “My studies now are Geometry, French, History (U.S.), Seamanship & Drawing. So far I have not got any demerits, I intend to get as few as possible for conduct counts 15 this year, three times as much than last year. French and Mathematics count 30 each, much more than any other study.” Previous to the Academy, he had been at the Indiana University, Bloomington, and was a member of Beta Theta Pi.
Hayden wanted to do well but was often hampered by a disease that he contracted during the Battle of New Orleans in April 1862. Possibly on the Richmond, he was awake for several days, exposed to the elements, and later began coughing blood. A physician gave the possible diagnosis of a broken blood vessel near the heart exacerbated by overwork.
On January 21, 1863, Hayden was on the steamer Clifton in the Mississippi River. It previously had been a ferryboat, and he felt he was not getting good experience to be promoted. He had provided testimonials from all his previous commanders. By mid-1864 he was on the Wabash, but he became ill and went home to Indianapolis. In October he was better and was traveling by train to New York City to get on the Dictator. Unfortunately, the train car with his baggage burned up, and he had to request a duplicate commission. He wrote his father that the New York newspapers were constantly arguing about the merits of the Dictator; and in November, he wrote about “rebel emissaries” who tried to burn Barnum’s Museum and several hotels there. In December he was ill again with haemoptysis, and on January 16, 1865, he left the Norfolk hospital and went home with his father.
His father had been editor of the Jeffersonville Republican in the 1850s, but he was chronically debilitated by an enlarged prostate and cystitis. Even though he received a salary working light duty as a steward in the Asylum for the Insane, he was heavily in debt. Hayden’s mother applied for a pension in 1879, but it was first denied even though she presented many letters of Hayden sending them money. He had also bought her a house. The pension office concluded these were gifts and not support.
On October 26, 1858, John’s mother Mary married Nathan Barnes, a farmer and stone cutter. John’s back pay was sent to Nathan Barnes on March 9, 1863. Nathan died of an overdose of morphine in February 1887.
John’s brother Thomas was a dentist who was in Company L, 1st Regt Engr corps. He served two terms of enlistment during the war.