Rutherford B. Hayes

Born October 4, 1822, Hayes worked as Cincinnati's city solicitor and defended refugee slaves in court before the Civil War pulled him from politics into uniform. He was wounded five times in battle, rose to brevet major general, then returned to serve in Congress and three terms as Ohio's governor. The 1876 election against Samuel Tilden produced no clear winner until a Commission handed Hayes the White House - allegedly in exchange for withdrawing federal troops from the South. His presidency turned on the Great Railroad Strike of 1877, which he broke by sending in the Army in what became the deadliest clash between labor and strikebreakers in American history. He pushed modest civil service reforms, had his veto of a silver-coinage bill overridden, and appointed John Marshall Harlan to the Supreme Court before keeping his promise not to seek reelection. He died January 17, 1893, ranked by most historians as middling or worse.