Joseph Hooker, born November 13, 1814 in Hadley, Massachusetts, was from a family with long time Yankee roots and whose grandfather fought as a captain in the American Revolution. Young Joseph was accepted into the class of 1837 at West Point where he was an undistinguished student graduating in the bottom-half of his class. He served in both the Seminole and Mexican American Wars where he proved to have excellent leadership skills. Following these wars, Hooker, bored by what the peacetime army had to offer, resigned his commission in 1853. When the Civil War started eight years later, he rejoined the Union Army as a brigadier general. He proved to be an adept general officer serving at Williamsburg, Antietam, and Fredericksburg.
It was during the Battle of Williamsburg where he was given his nickname. Through a journalist’s clerical error, the intended newspaper headline: “Fighting – Joe Hooker” became: “Fighting Joe Hooker.” The holder of the nickname never contested it. Henceforth, he remained “Fighting Joe Hooker” for the rest of his Army career.
After the Battle of Fredericksburg, there was pressure from the Radical Republicans for Lincoln to sack Ambrose Burnside and name Hooker as the Commander of the Army of the Potomac. Hooker’s hyper-aggressiveness concerned Lincoln, but the General’s self-confidence, wiliness, and boldness were a welcome change from the pliant Burnside. Hooker got the job and Burnside was shipped off to a command of lesser importance.
Hooker soon went to work making organization and command changes within the Army of the Potomac to revitalize the leadership. He also took steps to improve the rations for the troops (fresh vegetables and soft bread available), improved the sanitary condition of the camps, introduced a more liberal furlough system, and forced the Federal paymasters to undertake a more frequent and consistent pay schedule for the troops. Hooker also introduced corps badges for the men. Each corps had a distinctive type of badge (for example, the Fifth Corps had a Maltese Cross as its symbol.) And each division had a color. (The Second Division was white; the Third Division was blue.) The badges quickly became a source of unit pride in the ranks. The improvements in food, camp cleanliness, furlough guidelines, and pay frequency delighted the troops.
Hooker’s next step was to layout a comprehensive and aggressive battleplan for his military and civilian superiors in Washington. He presented two plans. Plan A: bring his cavalry across the Rappahannock upriver from Fredericksburg, using them to swing behind Lee’s army and cut Rebel lines of communication. The infantry would then mount a full-scale attack on the Army of Virginia. But the weather intervened; heavy rains flooded the Rappahannock making a cavalry crossing impossible.
Plan B was a combined thrust of cavalry and infantry crossing at three fords – Kelly’s Ford on the Rappahannock and Ely and Germanna Fords on the Rapidan River. These forces would come in behind Lees left flank at Chancellorsville, Virginia. Another corps would march to U.S. Ford and be in reserve. The First and Sixth Corps would cross the Rappahannock down from Fredericksburg. The Third Corps would stay in the base camp at Falmouth to serve as a decoy while the other corps were on the move.
Confederate artillery officer, Porter Alexander, writing about Hooker’s intricate plan after the war, reported: “His plan was decidedly the best strategy conceived in any of the campaigns ever set foot against us …. Excellently managed, up to the morning of May 1st [1863].”
Hooker felt that he had Robert E. Lee, “Just where I want him … he must fight me on my own ground.” Lee had another perspective. He and General “Stonewall” Jackson decided to pursue a flanking move on Hooker’s right, where Lee and Jackson perceived a serious weakness. Jackson, with 28,000 men, executed this bold plan; they struck the Union Eleventh Corps and quickly, “rolled them up like a wet blanket.” The next day, the Confederates continued their attack on the weakened Union flank. Inexplicably, Hooker ordered his artillery to abandon their high ground. The Confederates quickly filled the vacuum by bringing in their artillery and shelling Union ranks at the Chancellor House and the adjacent area.
One of the Confederate artillery rounds struck a column on the veranda of Chancellor House where General Hooker was observing the action. Hooker was knocked to the ground by the impact of the shell, but was physically uninjured. Although groggy and dizzy, Hooker refused to relinquish command. Some in the Union ranks, seeing Hooker in his disoriented state, reported that he was intoxicated. (Witnesses later refuted that claim.)
By midmorning, the Union Army withdrew from Chancellorsville and began a march back to the Rappahannock. Lincoln was shocked by the Union withdrawal. (“My God! My God! What will the country say?”) Hooker’s reputation suffered from rumors of his heavy drinking, seemingly evidenced by his abandonment of Chancellorsville for no sound reason.
“Then Hooker was taken to fill the bill,
Hurrah! Hurrah!
Then Hooker was taken to fill the bill,
But he got a black eye at Chancellorsville.”
Sung to the tune of “When Johnny Comes
Marching Home,” Hard Tack & Coffee
Hooker, on several occasions following the debacle at Chancellorsville, complained to his superiors in Washington that he needed more troops. On June 27, 1863, less than two months after the battle, patience wore out for Hooker’s troop demands and the way he was leading the Army of the Potomac; General Order 194 was issued relieving Hooker of command. George Meade was immediately named as his replacement
After his removal from the Army of the Potomac command, Hooker was sent to the western front to serve as a corps commander under General George Thomas within Sherman’s Federal Army Group. He helped relieve the besieged Union Army at Chattanooga. Later he abruptly departed the Western Army before the end of the Atlanta Campaign when he was passed over for promotion. Following the Civil War, he served as a leader of army reserve units in the Midwest. He died in October 1879 at age sixty-four.
Photo of Major General Joseph Hooker, courtesy of the Library of Congress.
Source from Your Brother in Arms: A Union Soldier ‘s Odyssey by Robert C. Plumb, University of Missouri Press, 2011.
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