Rutherford B. Hayes (1822 – 1893) was the 19th President of the United States. He served as an officer in the Union Army during the Civil War, and was wounded five times. In 1876, he was elected president in one of the most contentious and confused elections in national history. He lost the popular vote but won an intensely disputed electoral college vote. The result was the Compromise of 1877, which ended all federal army intervention in Southern politics, led to disenfranchisement of African Americans, and was basically the end of "Reconstruction." During the Great Railroad Strike of 1877, he sent in the military, marking the first use of federal troops to break a strike against a private company. Conflicts with Indian tribes continued, mostly involving tribes being forced to leave their ancestral lands for reservations, like The Nez Perce, led by Chief Joseph, who resisted and were pursued for 1700 miles before being defeated and forced onto a reservation.
