A boastful man of questionable morals, and one of the more irascible figures of the Civil War era, Union General Joseph Hooker also gained a reputation as an officer beloved by his men but reviled by almost everyone else.

Born in Massachusetts, Joseph Hooker attended the United States Military Academy, graduating in 1837. Hooker served under both Zachary Taylor and Winfield Scott during the Mexican-American War, gaining several promotions. He also gained a reputation with the local senoritas, who referred to him as “the Handsome Captain.” This predilection for the company of ladies would follow Hooker throughout his life.

Although well-suited to the military life, Hooker resigned his commission in 1853, his reputation in shambles due to the fact that he had testified against General Winfield Scott in a court-martial against Gideon Pillow. Settling in California, Hooker ostensibly began a career as a land developer and farmer; however, his main occupations were drinking and gambling.

When the Civil War began, Hooker attempted to revive his military [ad#adsense]career by requesting a commission, but his first application was not accepted, the long shadow of Winfield Scott looming large over Washington. However, after the Union’s defeat at the first Bull Run, Hooker wrote a letter to President Lincoln which outlined Hooker’s perceived failings of the existing military leadership, again requesting a commission. This time, he was recognized, and was appointed a brigadier general of volunteers.

Hooker led first a brigade, then a division in the Washington area, gaining the favor of his men while also acquiring a reputation for his hard-drinking social life. After seeing action at Williamsburg, Seven Pines, Malvern Hill, the second Bull Run, and Antietam, where he was injured, Hooker had gone up the ranks quickly enough that by the time of Burnside’s defeat at Fredericksburg, Hooker was named as Burnside’s replacement as the Commander of the Army of the Potomac.

Although he’d appointed him as the Commander of the Army of the Potomac, Lincoln had reservations about Hooker, reservations that would soon prove fateful. For one thing, the irascible Hooker was continually criticizing his superior officers, his criticism often stemming from real or imagined slights by the officers in command. For another, there was his reputation as something of a libertine.

Hooker didn’t disappoint Lincoln. As soon as he was appointed, he began telling anyone who would listen that the U.S. needed a dictatorship in order to win the war, something he obviously did not see as within Lincoln’s scope. His headquarters was described by one observer as being a combination of a “bar-room and a brothel.”

Despite Hooker’s transgressions, Lincoln remained confident of the general’s abilities to lead, a confidence that was not initially misplaced. Hooker was an effective administrator who restored the morale of his troops while also addressing problems with the soldiers’ diets, camp sanitation, and the furlough system. He also attacked the increasingly troublesome problem of desertion, for which Lincoln was no doubt grateful. Hooker harbored no false modesty about what he had achieved, saying:

I have the finest army on the planet. I have the finest army the sun ever shone on. … If the enemy does not run, God help them. May God have mercy on General Lee, for I will have none.

However, not only did Lee fail to run, he also managed to defeat Hooker’s men at Chancellorsville, despite being outnumbered two-to-one, taking Hooker down with him.

Perhaps the well-known drinker’s first problem was that he’d sworn off liquor in an attempt to destroy Lee. At any rate, Chancellorsville did not go as planned. Although Hooker pulled off an impressive maneuver around Lee’s men early on, his soon lost his nerve and took his troops back to the Wilderness. Surprised by an attack by Stonewall Jackson’s men, Hooker was dealt a decisive defeat by Lee and Jackson.

It has been said that the crisis at Chancellorsville could have been contributed to the fact that Hooker was addled by a shell that struck a pillar of the porch of his headquarters, leaving Hooker dazed and even unconscious for much of the day. Despite his incapacitation, Hooker refused to cede command to another officer.

Although he remained in the Union Army until the end of the war, Chancellorsville effectively ended Hooker’s ascent in the U.S. Army.

The name “Fighting Joe” became associated with Hooker during the war, due to a newspaper dispatch that failed to remove the dash between “fighting” and “Joe.” Hooker despised the name, saying that “people will think I am a highwayman or a bandit.”Robert E. Lee, knowing how Hooker disliked the name, would sometimes refer to Hooker as “Mr. F.J. Hooker.”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Hooker – ite_note-10

One name that has been erroneously attached to Hooker is the use of the term “hooker” as a synonym for a prostitute. Although Hooker’s camp often included a number of working girls, the word “hooker” had been in usage long before Hooker’s friends began to be known by that moniker.