Frederick Hazelhurst was born around 1842 in New York to James and Eunice Hazelhurst. His father was a farmer who owned $200 of personal property by 1860. He grew up and attended school in New Hartford, New York, and the family moved to St. Charles, Illinois, in the 1850s. By the early 1860s, Hazelhurst was living in Wayne, Illinois.

 

He enlisted in the Union army on August 12, 1861, and he mustered in as a private in Company K of the 36^th Illinois Infantry alongside his brother Charles on September 23. According to his service record, he was 5 feet, 8 inches tall, with black hair and black eyes. The regiment took part in the Battle of Pea Ridge, the Battle of Perryville, the Battle of Stones River, the Battle of Chickamauga, the Battle of Missionary Ridge, and the Atlanta campaign. He was eventually promoted to corporal, and he mustered out on September 8, 1864.

 

He returned to the Union army several months later, receiving a commission as a 1^st lieutenant in Company H of the 125^th USCT Infantry on February 1, 1865. The company was stationed in Louisville, Kentucky, until November 1865, then performed garrison duty at Camp Chase, Ohio, until January 1866. The men were stationed in Cairo, Illinois, until April 1866, when the army transferred them to Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. According to his service record, he was “on duty with Co[mpany] across the plains” for the next few months, and he arrived in Fort Selden in the New Mexico Territory around August 1866.

 

Lieutenant John Warner, another officer in the regiment, suspected that Hazelhurst was having an affair with his wife. Warner confronted him shortly after midnight on October 23, 1866, shooting him in the stomach. Hazelhurst reportedly “ran into the quarters of the commanding officer, but was followed by Warner, with pistol cocked, and bent upon fully accomplishing his bloody designs. Seeing there was no chance of escape, Hazelhurst turned at bay, closed with Warner, and wrenching the pistol from him, shot him dead on the spot.” Hazelhurst died of his wounds later that morning.

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