"Fighting Joe" Hooker

Abstract

Fighting Joe Hooker is a name that brings to mind vague recollections of some United States military hero. To the Grand Army of the Republic and its contemporaries, it was the designation of a popular commander of the great Army of the Potomac. The sobriquet, Fighting Joe, was origi nated by a newspaper correspondent and was despised by Hooker himself because it sounded too much like fool, which he swore he was not. Its inspiration was the courage, determination, and fighting spirit that Brig adier General Hooker displayed at Williamsburg near Richmond on May 5, 1862, when his corps bore the brunt of the battle, and during which he con tinued to direct his artillery after he was thrown in the mud by his dying horse during a torrent of rain and bullets. Who ish dat general mit a white horse and a red face? exclaimed a German-American officer, cares nottin' for bullets.1 Joseph Hooker, of Sonoma, California, came to be a great division com mander and one of the outstanding personalities of the War Between the States. He was born in Hadley, Massachusetts, on November 13, 1814. His grand father was Captain Joseph Hooker, who served in the Revolutionary War. He went to Hopkins Academy in Hadley and then to West Point Military Academy, from which he was graduated with William T. Sherman in 1837. Hooker ranked number 29 in his class, Sherman number 9, and Halleck, number 3. After service in the Seminole War in Florida, and along the Canadian border, he was returned to West Point as Adjutant of the Acad emy. In the Mexican War, he showed his talents under Generals Winfield S. Scott, Zachary Taylor and Persifor F. Smith. After the Battle of Monterey, he was breveted a captain; after that of National Bridge, a major; and after Chapultepec, a lieutenant colonel. He also soldiered with devastating effect among the senoritas of Mexico City, by whom he was known as El Capitan Hermoso.2 In fact he was considered the best looking officer in the United States Army?tall, well-physiqued, and handsome of face, with wavy dark bronze hair, pink cheeks, compelling blue eyes, a frank, affable demeanor, and a vigorous, vivid manner of speech?a magnificent young Mars, ready to drink, love, or fight. At the conclusion of the Mexican War, Hooker remained with General Smith as his adjutant and, with Major E. R. S. Canby and Captain H. R. W. Heath, accompanied him across the Isthmus to ship at Panama City for California. With a swarm of excited 49'ers they boarded the new S. S. Cali 304