4.) Joseph Hooker– Joseph Hooker is an example of a problem that Civil War commanders on both sides had. The American Civil War would see armies fielded that were larger than any other armies fielded in American History, spanning thousands of men. The generals who were responsible to command such large blocks had, in the most part, never done so before. Larger armies also meant that there would be more officers to control them. The pool of eligible, qualified generals was not large either. Some commanders excelled at smaller unit combat, but had a harder time handling larger armies. I’d say that Hooker qualified as one.
“Fighting Joe” Hooker was a Massachusetts native and a West Point graduate of the class of 1837, graduating 29th out of 50. He was assigned to the artillery, and saw action during the Mexican-American War of 1846-1848. He fought on the staff of General Zachary Taylor (the future 12th President of the United States). Hooker was at battles like Monterrey, National Bridge, and Chapultepec, and received brevet promotions after each battle. After the war, he would ruin his military reputation by testifying against one of the heroes of that war, General Winfield Scott, and would summarily resign his commission and move to California. In California, he was a land developer, but proved to be more efficient with drinking and gambling, a reputation that would follow him. He was seen by many to be a handsome general and from the sounds of some historians and authors, he thought highly of himself as well. Like McClellan, he was an ambitious man.
Unlike McClellan, Hooker was not a darling. He was not given a commission until after the Battle of First Bull Run, and was given the rank of Brigadier General. Under McClellan, Hooker fought with distinction during the Peninsula Campaign of 1862. However, he made his disdain for McClellan known. Hooker felt that McClellan was too cautious. He built his own network supporting generals who were opposed to McClellan and “McClellan’s Men”, but he did not go out of his way to sabotage anything. His men grew fond of him, and even more so, his reputation as a hard drinker and gambler seemed to bring him closer to his men.
Hooker made a name for himself as a commander of smaller units (division command, then corps command). He was a reliable lieutenant, when he was not wounded. I’d say his brightest moment as a general was at the Battle of Antietam. His corps was on the north end of the field, responsible for securing the Cornfield, the West Woods, and the Dunker Church. His assault proved promising: it was quick, it was violent, it hit the Confederates hard. In fact, he could have bested Stonewall Jackson and may have even changed the outcome of the battle had it not been for the wound he suffered earlier in the attack, a bullet wound to his foot. The wound bled to the point where he lost consciousness. The only other commander on the field who knew what his overall plan was and what was needed to continue putting pressure on the Confederates was wounded as well, leaving overall command to a commander who was not privy to that information. Years after the war Hooker asserted that he could have won the battle if he had remained on the field.
Hooker was very vocal about the incompetence of McClellan. When McClellan was removed from command in November 1862, command of the Army of the Potomac fell to General Ambrose Burnside. Burnside led the army to its most disastrous defeat ever, at the Battle of Fredericksburg. Hooker told Burnside that to attack the Confederate fortifications was a folly. Burnside, a political enemy of Hooker’s, didn’t listen to Hooker because of that reason. Hooker had at Fredericksburg command of two corps: the III and the V. Both charged up Marye’s Heights, a total of fourteen charges, with nothing to show for it but heavy casualties. Hooker, during the entire battle, argued with Burnside against launching every attack. But Burnside didn’t listen.
A frustrated Lincoln would remove Burnside following the equally disastrous retreat from Fredericksburg, known as the “Mud March”, and Hooker was given his chance to command the army on January 23, 1863. Hooker was chosen because he was aggressive: his nickname was, of course, “Fighting Joe” Hooker. Hooker would prove to be a brilliant administrative general, similar to McClellan. Also similar to McClellan, Hooker would greatly improve the morale of the army and reorganize it. During the winter and spring of 1863, the Army of the Potomac was again reunited with its purpose to knock the Confederacy out of the war. In late April, Hooker began his march into Virginia. His plan was bold: send the cavalry deep into Virginia on a raiding mission. While that was done, he would engage Lee at Fredericksburg again, only this time move the bulk of his army around Lee’s flank and crush the Army of Northern Virginia. With that done, he could march onto Richmond as the victor.
Plans never survive first contact with the enemy. Hooker ran into problems with his grandiose plan, which found him on May 2nd, 1863, camped at Chancellorsville. Today the Chancellorsville Battlefield is the same battlefield as Fredericksburg. Lee boldly split his smaller army in half in front of Hooker, sending Jackson around to Hooker’s Right flank. Hooker’s men did not dig in, and were not prepared for an assault. The result was the route of the Union XI Corps. It was disastrous. The Union XI Corps would suffer until the Battle of Gettysburg with the moniker “The Flying Dutchmen”, because of the fact that they ran at the Battle of Chancellorsville as well as the fact that the majority of the corps, commanded by Maj. Gen. Oliver O. Howard, were German immigrants. Where Hooker really messed up, however, was during the course of the battle he was wounded. He had been incapacitated by a cannonball striking his headquarters, but refused to temporarily relinquish command of the army. As a result, Hooker made poor command decisions.
What saved Hooker from total disaster at Chancellorsville was the fatal wounding of Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson by his own men that night. However, for the rest of the battle Hooker was not his normal self. By poor command decisions, I mean that he was not himself. Later it would be argued that he had suffered a concussion (he had been knocked unconscious by the artillery shell hitting the house), and as a result he fought the rest of the battle timid and seemed to “lack nerve”. On the night of May 5th, Hooker began to withdraw the Army of the Potomac from Chancellorsville and across the Rappahannock. For the entire campaign, the Union Forces suffered 17, 287 casualties. It was an embarrassing defeat and the battle is still discussed today at military academies such as West Point.
Hooker’s command of the Army of the Potomac came on June 28th, 1863, after an ill-timed ultimatum. Lincoln readily accepted his resignation, and replaced him with Major General George Gordon Meade. Only three days later, on July 1st, 1863, the Battle of Gettysburg would begin.
Unlike McClellan, Hooker’s military career didn’t end with his removal from command. He was instead reassigned to the Western Theater, taking command of the XI and XII Corps from the Army of the Potomac to reinforce the Army of the Cumberland in the fall of 1863. Hooker would go on to prove why he was not a horrible commander, and why he is only Number 4 on the list; he fought superbly as a Corps Commander. He distinguished himself at the Battle of Lookout Mountain on November 24th, 1863, during the Chattanooga Campaign. He would continue to prove himself to be a competent corps commander, and fought during the Atlanta Campaign under Maj. Gen. William Sherman.
Following the Atlanta Campaign, Hooker’s temper got the better of him again. Following the Atlanta Campaign, the Union needed to replace the commander of the Army of the Tennessee. The former commander, the competent Maj. Gen. James B. McPherson, had been killed in action during the Battle for Atlanta. What got Hooker though was not just that he had been jumped over for the promotion, but that the promotion had been given to Maj. Gen. Oliver O. Howard. If you remember, it was Howard’s XI Corps at Chancellorsville running away that had begun the downward spiral of the battle for Hooker. Hooker still blamed Howard for the defeat, and when Howard was promoted, Hooker resigned from command of his XX Corps (the XI and XII Corps had been combined to form the XX Corps). Hooker’s wish was granted, and on October 1st, 1864, he was placed in command of the Northern Department. His area of operation would be the states of Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois. Hooker would never again command a force in the field during the war.
Following the war, Hooker remained in the army. He would retire from military life in 1868, and would struggle with health issues until his death on October 31st, 1879. Hooker makes the list at Number 4 because of Chancellorsville. Hooker was a superb Corps commander; he showed the ability and ferocity needed. If this was a list of strictly the 5 worst Corps Commanders, Hooker would be nowhere near here, and would actually make the cut for the 5 best Corps Commanders. However, when tasked with commanding something as large as an entire army, Hooker proved to be very much like the predecessor he butted heads with (McClellan): he was an administrator, won over the admiration of his men, but had difficulty using his entire army to its full potential. What also adds to his Number 4 ranking in my opinion is his talking game. He talked a very heavy game, since from the start of the war; however, when push came to shove at Chancellorsville, he was unable to live up to his hype.
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