Joseph Hooker: Difference between revisions

Hooker became known as "Fighting Joe" following a journalist's clerical error, and the nickname stuck. His personal reputation was as a hard-drinking ladies' man, and his headquarters werewas known for parties and gambling.

Hooker was born in [[Hadley, Massachusetts]], the grandson of a [[Captain (Continental Army)|captain]] in the [[American Revolutionary War]]. He was of entirely [[English people|English]] ancestry, all of whom had been in [[New England]] since the early 1600s.<ref>''Homes of the Massachusetts ancestors of Major General Joseph Hooker'', By Isaac Paul Gragg{{ISBN?}} {{page?|date=September 2022}}</ref> His initial schooling was at the local [[Hopkins Academy]]. He graduated from the [[United States Military Academy]] in 1837, ranked 29th out of a class of 50, and was [[Commission (document)|commissioned]] a [[Second Lieutenant#United States|second lieutenant]] in the 1st U.S. Artillery.<ref>Eicher, p. 303.</ref> His initial assignment was in Florida fighting in the second of the [[Seminole Wars]]. He served in the [[Mexican–American War]] in staff positions in the campaigns of both [[Zachary Taylor]] and [[Winfield Scott]]. He received [[Brevet (military)|brevet]] promotions for his staff leadership and gallantry in three battles: [[Battle of Monterrey|Monterrey]] (to [[Captain (U.S. Army)|captain]]), [[Puente Nacional, Veracruz|National Bridge]] ([[Major (United States)|major]]), and [[Battle of Chapultepec|Chapultepec]] ([[Lieutenant colonel (United States)|lieutenant colonel]]). His future Army reputation as a ladies' man began in Mexico, where local women referred to him as the "Handsome Captain".<ref name=Smith>Smith, np.</ref>

After the Mexican–American War (which ended in 1848), he served as an assistant [[adjutant general]] of the Pacific Division, but resigned his commission in 1853; his military reputation had been damaged when he testified against his former commander, General Scott, in the [[court-martial]] for insubordination of [[Gideon Johnson Pillow]]. {{cn|date=March 2018}} HookerThe Handsome Captain struggled with the tedium of peacetime life and reportedly passed the time with liquor, ladies, and gambling.<ref>{{Cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=M-l6buinWv8C&q=229 | title=Generals South, Generals North: The Commanders of the Civil War Reconsidered| isbn=978-0762774883| last1=Axelrod| first1=Alan| date=2011| publisher=Rowman & Littlefield}}</ref> He settled in [[Sonoma County, California]], as a farmer and land developer, and ran unsuccessfully for election to represent the region in the California legislature.<ref>[http://sonomaleague.org/home/sonomaleague/HOOKERTIMELINE.pdf Timeline of Hooker's life, Sonoma League]</ref> He was obviously unhappy and unsuccessful in his civilian pursuits because, in 1858, he wrote to [[United States Secretary of War|Secretary of War]] [[John B. Floyd]] to request that his name "be presented to the president [[James Buchanan|Buchanan]] as a candidate for a lieutenant colonelcy", but nothing came of his request. From 1859 to 1861, he held a commission as a colonel in the California [[militia]].<ref name=Eicher304>Eicher, p. 304.</ref>

The December 1862 [[Battle of Fredericksburg]] was another Union debacle. Upon recovering from his foot wound, Hooker was briefly made commander of [[V Corps (Union Army)|V Corps]] but was then promoted to "Grand Division" command, with a command that consisted of both III and V Corps. Hooker derided Burnside's plan to assault the fortified heights behind the city, deeming them "preposterous". His Grand Division (particularly V Corps) suffered serious losses in fourteen futile assaults ordered by Burnside over Hooker's protests. Burnside followed up this battle with the humiliating [[Mud March (American Civil War)|Mud March]] in January and Hooker's criticism of his commander bordered on formal insubordination. He described Burnside as a "wretch ... of blundering sacrifice." Burnside planned a wholesale purge of his subordinates, including Hooker, and drafted an order for the president's approval. He stated that Hooker was "unfit to hold an important commission during a crisis like the present." But Lincoln's patience had again run out and he removed Burnside instead.

During the spring of 1863, Hooker established a reputation as an outstanding administrator and restored the morale of his soldiers, which had plummeted to a new low under Burnside. Among his changes were fixes to the daily diet of the troops, camp sanitary changes, improvements and accountability of the quartermaster system, addition of and monitoring of company cooks, several hospital reforms, and an improved furlough system (one man per company by turn, 10 days each).<ref>Catton, pp. 141–147.</ref> He created the [[Bureau of Military Information]], which was the first all-source intelligence organization employed by the U.S. military.<ref>Tsouras, pp. 1–2.</ref> He also implemented corps badges as a means of identifying units during battle or when marching and to instill unit pride in the men. Other orders addressed the need to stem rising desertion (one from Lincoln combined with incoming mail review, the ability to shoot deserters, and better camp picket lines), more and better drills, stronger officer training, and for the first time, combining the federal cavalry into a single corps.<ref>Catton, pp. 141–147.</ref> The corps badge idea was suggested by Hooker's chief of staff, [[Daniel Butterfield]]. <ref>(Sears, ''Chancellorsville'', p. 72).</ref> Hooker said of his revived army:

Robert E. Lee once again began an invasion of the North, in June 1863, and Lincoln urged Hooker to pursue and defeat him. Hooker's initial plan was to seize Richmond instead, but Lincoln immediately vetoed that idea, so the Army of the Potomac began to march north, attempting to locate Lee's Army of Northern Virginia as it slipped down the [[Shenandoah Valley]] into [[Pennsylvania]]. Hooker's mission was first to protect Washington, D.C., and [[Baltimore, Maryland|Baltimore]] and second to intercept and defeat Lee. Unfortunately, Lincoln was losing any remaining confidence he had in Hooker. Hooker's senior officers expressed to Lincoln their lack of confidence in Hooker, as did [[Henry W. Halleck]], Lincoln's General-in-chief.<ref>Sears, Stephen W.,'' Gettysburg'', Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company, Boston & New York, 2003, p. 19 {{ISBN?}}</ref> When Hooker got into a dispute with Army headquarters over the status of defensive forces in [[Harpers Ferry, West Virginia|Harpers Ferry]], he impulsively offered his resignation in protest, which was quickly accepted by Lincoln and General-in-chief [[Henry Wager Halleck|Henry W. Halleck]].<ref name=" Hooker resignation" >{{cite web |url=https://www.encyclopediavirginia.org/Hooker_Joseph_1814-1879#start_entry |author= Patrick A. Schroeder |website=Encyclopedia Virginia |publisher=Virginia Foundation for the Humanities |date=January 26, 2009 |title=Joseph Hooker (1814–1879) }}</ref> On June 28, 1863, three days before the climactic [[Battle of Gettysburg]], Hooker was replaced by Maj. Gen. [[George Meade]]. Hooker received the [[Thanks of Congress]] for his role at the start of the [[Gettysburg Campaign]],<ref>Eicher, p. 304; Thanks of Congress partial text: "''...to Maj. Gen. Joseph Hooker... for the skill, energy, and endurance which first covered Washington and Baltimore from the meditated blow of the advancing and powerful army of rebels led by General Robert E. Lee....''"</ref> but the glory would go to Meade. Hooker's tenure as head of the Army of the Potomac had lasted 5 months.

Hooker's military career was not ended by his poor performance in the summer of 1863. He went on to regain a reputation as a solid corps commander when he was transferred with the [[XI Corps (Union Army)|XI]] and [[XXII Corps (Union Army)|XII Corps]] of the Army of the Potomac westward to reinforce the [[Army of the Cumberland]] around [[Chattanooga, Tennessee]]. Hooker was in command at the [[Battle of Lookout Mountain]], playing an important role in [[Lieutenant general (United States)|Lt. Gen.]] [[Ulysses S. Grant]]'s decisive victory at the [[Battle of Chattanooga III|Battle of Chattanooga]]. He was brevetted to major general in the [[Regular Army (United States)|regular army]] for his success at Chattanooga, but he was disappointed to find that Grant's official report of the battle credited his friend [[William Tecumseh Sherman]]'s contribution over Hooker's.

There is a popular legend that "hooker" as a slang term for a prostitute is derived from his last name<ref>Hebert, p. vii.</ref> because of parties and a lack of military discipline at his headquarters near the [[Murder Bay]] district of Washington, DC. Some versions of the legend claim that the band of prostitutes that followed his division was derisively referred to as "General Hooker's Army" or "Hooker's Brigade.".<ref>See, for example, [http://www.loudounhistory.org/history/loudoun-cw-chronology.htm Loudoun County, Virginia, history website].</ref> However, the term "hooker" was used in print as early as 1845, years before Hooker was a public figure,<ref>[http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-hoo4.htm World Wide Words website]</ref> and is likely derived from the concentration of prostitutes around the shipyards and ferry terminal of the [[Lower East Side#Corlear's Hook|Corlear's Hook]] area of [[Manhattan]] in the early to middle 19th century, who came to be referred to as "hookers".<ref>[[Edwin G. Burrows|Burrows, Edwin G.]] & [[Mike Wallace (historian)|Mike Wallace]]. ''[[Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898]]''. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999. p. 484</ref> The prevalence of the Hooker legend may have been at least partly responsible for the popularity of the term.<ref>[http://www.word-detective.com/052003.html The Word Detective website, May 20, 2003, issue] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080508140613/http://www.word-detective.com/052003.html |date=May 8, 2008 }}.</ref> There is some evidence that an area in Washington, DC, known for prostitution during the Civil War, was referred to as "Hooker's Division". The name was shortened to "The Division" when he spent time there after First Bull Run guarding D.C. against incursion.<ref>[http://ghostsofdc.org/2012/03/29/washingtons-rough-and-tumble-lost-neighborhood-of-murder-bay/ ''Ghosts of D.C.'' website], accessed September 10, 2013.</ref>