Joseph Hooker

This article deals with the American General Joseph Hooker; for the British biologist, see Joseph Dalton Hooker .

"Fighting Joe" Hooker

Joseph Hooker ( nickname Fighting Joe ; born November 13, 1814 in Hadley , Massachusetts , † October 31, 1879 in Garden City , New York ) was a major general of the Union Army in the American Civil War .

Youth and military service

Hooker first attended school in his hometown and was admitted to the US Military Academy at West Point in 1834 , which he left after four years with a moderate exam. He was assigned as a lieutenant in the artillery and took part first in the Second Seminole War and later in the Mexican-American War , in which he was a member of the staffs of Generals Zachary Taylor and Winfield Scott . For his services in this war, Hooker was promoted to captain ( Hauptmann ) and received the brevet rank of Lieutenant Colonel ( lieutenant colonel ). However, he made himself unpopular with his Commander-in-Chief Scott by testifying on behalf of an officer against whom Scott had brought a court martial , and also earned a dubious reputation as a die-hard drinker and philanderer. In 1853 he submitted his departure and settled in Sonoma , California - officially as a farmer, but actually more as a bon vivant .

Civil war

After the start of the Civil War, Hooker asked the Union government for a new officer license, but was initially not considered. At his own expense, he traveled from California to Washington, DC , where he offered his services to Abraham Lincoln after the defeat of the Northern States in the First Battle of the Bull Run . Indeed, in August 1861, with effect from May 17, he was appointed Brigadier General of Volunteers . He first commanded a brigade and later a division in the III. Corps of Potomac Army .

During the peninsula campaign initiated by General McClellan against the Confederate capital Richmond , Hooker distinguished himself in the Battle of Williamsburg in 1862 , where he earned the nickname Fighting Joe , and took part in the Seven Day Battle a month later . At the end of July he was promoted to major general with effect from May 5th . In the Battle of Antietam on September 17, 1862, Hooker was wounded in the foot as commanding general of the 1st Corps and commander of the right wing . He publicly criticized McClellan's hesitation and after his replacement by Ambrose E. Burnside received supreme command of one of the newly created Grand Divisions (in fact a small army of two corps). In addition, nine years after his departure as a captain with the rank of brigadier general, he was reassigned to the Regular Army as a special honor . In the Battle of Fredericksburg on December 13, 1862, his troops had to carry out 14 suicidal and unsuccessful attacks on an almost impregnable enemy position, whereupon Hooker now also sharply criticized Burnside. When Lincoln then decided in January 1863 to replace Burnside, he made Hooker his successor.

As Commander-in-Chief of the Potomac Army, Hooker first ordered some urgently needed reforms, remedied the previous shortages of supplies, combined the cavalry into one powerful weapon and strengthened the soldiers' morale. However, he also appointed officers loyal to him with dubious abilities to high positions and turned his headquarters into a "mixture of bar and brothel" (according to an eyewitness hostile to him). In April Hooker crossed the Rappahannock with his army and launched a new campaign against Robert E. Lee's vastly outnumbered Army of Northern Virginia . In the middle of the Battle of Chancellorsville , however, Hooker lost his nerve, let himself be put on the defensive by Lee's unexpected aggressiveness and a brilliant flank attack “Stonewall” Jackson and finally ordered a hasty retreat. When Lee responded by pushing north across the Potomac and even threatening Washington, Lincoln Hooker withdrew from command and replaced him on June 28 with George Gordon Meade .

After the defeat of the Northern States in the Battle of Chickamauga in September 1863, Hooker was given command of two corps of the Potomac Army and was sent to Tennessee with them. During the fighting for the besieged Chattanooga on November 24, 1863, in the so-called "Battle above the Clouds" he succeeded in storming Lookout Mountain , a widely known and strategically important lookout point. The troops under Hooker's command were sent to XX. Corps summarized, at the head of which he participated in Sherman's Atlanta campaign . However, when Sherman named Hooker, not Hooker, but the younger Oliver Otis Howard as his successor as Commander in Chief of the Tennessee Army after the death of General James B. McPherson , Hooker asked for his replacement at the end of July. From October 1, 1864 until the end of the war, he commanded the Northern Department with its headquarters in Cincinnati, consisting of several states in the eastern Midwest .

post war period

After the war, Hooker took first command of the the New England states and New York State Comprehensive Department of the East . However, his excessive lifestyle had adversely affected his health, and by the end of 1865 he suffered a stroke. Due to his poor health, he finally took early retirement in 1868. Joseph Hooker died on October 31, 1879 in Garden City, Long Island . He is buried in Spring Grove Cemetery in Cincinnati , Ohio .

Others

• An equestrian statue of General Hooker in front of the Massachusetts State House in Boston commemorates him.
• Hooker County in Nebraska is named after him.
• The term Hooker, which is used in the USA as a synonym for “ whore ”, is sometimes wrongly traced back to the name of General Joseph Hooker, as he is said to have often housed prostitutes at his headquarters during the Civil War . In fact, the term was used in the press as early as 1845, when Hooker was still completely unknown. However, it is conceivable that by Hooker later notoriety and his lifestyle just this legend has contributed to the spread of the designation.

literature

• Walter H. Hebert: Fighting Joe Hooker . University Press, Lincoln, Neb 1999, ISBN 0-8032-7323-1 (reprinted from Indianapolis edition, IN 1944)

Web links

Commons : Joseph Hooker  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

Individual evidence

1. ^ Joseph Hooker's tomb in the Find a Grave database .
2. ^ The Word Detective website, May 20, 2003