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Rutherford B. Hayes, the 19th U.S. president, served one term from 1877 to 1881. He was the only American president to be wounded in the Civil War — five times, once seriously.
He also was long considered to have turned his back on freed slaves by pulling back federal troops in the post-Civil War South, allowing white former slave owners to retake power — although historians now say the end of Reconstruction was inevitable.
In a 2005 survey commissioned by The Wall Street Journal, 130 academics ranked Hayes 24th among 40 presidents — at the bottom rung in the “average presidents” category.
