Orignally aired on May 08, 1998 - In part 193 of our Civil War series, Virginia Tech history professor James Robertson profiles the career of the flamboyant and self-confident General Joseph Hooker, who suffered one of the greatest defeats in the entire Civil War.
#193 – General Joseph Hooker
He connived, manipulated, and back-stabbed to get army command. Once it was his he boasted that he would gain victory where others had failed. His 1863 battle plan was excellent. Then something happened. General Joseph Hooker suffered one of the most stunning defeats of the entire Civil War.
Despite popular belief Hooker’s surname has nothing to do with a popular synonym for prostitutes. A relationship did exist there, but we’re getting ahead of the story. Hooker was born in 1814 in Massachusetts. Then came West Point, the Seminole Wars, and three promotions for gallantry in Mexico. From 1853 to the outbreak of Civil War Hooker engaged in civilian activities on the west coast.
In May, 1861, he became a Union brigadier general. Hooker was not in the opening battle of the war at Manassas, but he was an observer. In characteristic fashion he told Abraham Lincoln, “Mr. President I am a damn site better general than you had on that field”.
Promotion to major general came in the autumn on nothing more than Hooker’s bluster. He led a division in the 1862 Peninsula Campaign. There he acquired the nickname “Fighting Joe” which he loathed. At Antietam in September Hooker opened the battle with his troops and his wounded. His conduct at Fredericksburg in December was solid, although he criticized his commander, Ambrose Burnside, before, during and after the battle.
Hooker then openly sought command of the army. He even dropped comments on the advantages of an American military dictatorship. Simply because Lincoln had no one else to appoint, Hooker in January, 1863, became head of the Army of the Potomac. Intrigue and insubordination had been rewarded with Army leadership.
Joe Hooker was disarmingly handsome, fully six feet tall, finely proportioned, with smooth face, blonde hair and large blue eyes. He was bold and courageous. Yet another side existed to the man. As one soldier put it, “his defects like evil angels walked by him always”. Flamboyant and self-confident to the point of being self-righteous Hooker also had an uncontrollable thirst for whiskey and women.
At no time was he a favorite among his generals. U. S. Grant declared that, “Hooker was ambitious to the extent of caring nothing for the rights of others”. New Englander Charles Francis Adams sneered that, “Hooker’s headquarters tent was a place to which no gentleman cared to go and which no lady would go”.
Nevertheless Hooker brought new life to the demoralized Union army. He gave it spirit, better food, newer wagons and corps badges. It became the largest and finest fighting machine the Western Hemisphere had ever seen. Then he mapped out a brilliant strategy for destroying Lee’s Confederate Army in the open country between Fredericksburg and Richmond.
In April, 1863, Hooker drove through the wilderness and seemed only steps away from triumph, when inexplicably, Hooker stopped. He fell back on the defensive and Lee promptly counterattacked at Chancellorsville. When the smoke cleared, Hooker had been soundly whipped.
Transferred to the Western Theatre, he displayed his old-time gallantry as a core commander at Chattanooga and Atlanta. The appointment of a junior officer to higher command led to Hooker’s resignation from the army.
Little of note occupied the remainder of his life which ended in 1879. Joe Hooker flaunted a vanity that had no limits. Although a sterling soldier he could self-destruct easily. After the Civil War a friend asked him just what had happened at Chancellorsville. Hooker answered, “I lost confidence in Hooker and that is all there is to it”. For once, the man was honest.