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William Joseph Hardee (October 12 1815 – November 6 1873) was a career U.S. Army officer who became a Confederate general in the American Civil War.
Early years
Hardee was born to Sarah Ellis and Major John Hardee at the "Rural Felicity" estate in Camden County, Georgia. He graduated from the U.S. Military Academy in 1838 (26th in a class of 45) and was commissioned a second lieutenant in the 2nd U.S. Dragoons. During in the Second Seminole War (1835–42), he was stricken with illness; while hospitalized, he met and married Elizabeth Dummett. After he recovered, the Army sent him to France to study military tactics.
In the Mexican-American War, Hardee served under Zachary Taylor and won two brevet promotions (to brevet major for Medelin and Vera Cruz, lieutenant colonel for St. Augustin), was captured at Carricitos Ranch, Texas, and was wounded at La Rosia, Mexico. After the war he led units of Texas Rangers and soldiers in Texas. After his wife died in 1853, he returned to West Point as a tactics instructor and served as commandant of cadets from 1856 to 1860. He served as the senior major in the 2nd U.S. Cavalry when that regiment was formed in 1855 and then the lieutenant colonel of the 1st U.S. Cavalry just before the war. In 1855, he published Rifle and Light Infantry Tactics for the Exercise and Manoeuvres of Troops When Acting as Light Infantry or Riflemen, popularly known as Hardee's Tactics, which became the best-known drill manual of the Civil War.
Civil War
Hardee resigned his U.S. Army commission on January 31 1861, after his home state of Georgia seceded from the Union. He joined the Confederate States Army as a colonel in March and was given command of Forts Morgan and Gaines in Alabama. He was subsequently promoted to brigadier general (June 17) and major general (October 7). By October 10 1862, he was one of the first Confederate lieutenant generals. His initial assignment as a general was to organize a brigade of Arkansas regiments and he impressed his men and fellow officers by solving difficult supply problems and for the thorough training he gave his brigade. He received his nickname, "Old Reliable", in this command. He operated in Arkansas until he was called to join General Albert Sidney Johnston's Army of Mississippi as a corps commander for the Battle of Shiloh. He was wounded there in the arm on April 6 1862. Johnston was killed at Shiloh and Hardee's corps joined General Braxton Bragg's Army of Tennessee.
At Perryville in September 1862, Hardee commanded the Left Wing of Bragg's army. In his arguably most successful battle, Stones River in December, his Second Corps launched a massive surprise assault that drove Maj. Gen. William S. Rosecrans's army almost to defeat. After the Tullahoma Campaign, Hardee lost patience with the irascible Bragg and briefly commanded the Department of Mississippi and East Louisiana under General Joseph E. Johnston. During this period he met Mary Foreman Lewis, an Alabama plantation owner, and married her in January 1864.
Hardee returned to Bragg's army after the Battle of Chickamauga, taking over the corps of Leonidas Polk at Chattanooga, Tennessee, besieging the Union Army there. At the Battle of Chattanooga in November 1863, Hardee's Corps of the Army of Tennessee was defeated when Union troops under Maj. Gen. George H. Thomas assaulted their seemingly impregnable defensive lines on Missionary Ridge. Hardee renewed his opposition to Braxton Bragg and joined a group of officers who finally convinced Confederate President Jefferson Davis to relieve his old friend. Joseph E. Johnston took over command of the Army for the Atlanta Campaign in 1864. As Johnson fought a war of maneuver and retreat against Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman, the Confederacy eventually lost patience with him and replaced him with the much more aggressive Lt. Gen. John Bell Hood. Hardee could not abide Hood's reckless assaults and heavy casualties. After the Battle of Jonesboro, he requested a transfer and was sent to command the Department of South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida. He opposed Sherman's March to the Sea as best he could with inadequate forces, eventually evacuating Savannah, Georgia. As Sherman turned north in the Carolinas Campaign, Hardee took part in the Battle of Bentonville, North Carolina in March 1865, where his only son was killed in a cavalry charge. He surrendered along with Johnston to Sherman in April.
Later years
After the war, Hardee settled at his wife's Alabama plantation. After returning it to working condition, the family moved to Selma, Alabama, where Hardee worked in the warehousing and insurance businesses. He eventually became president of the Selma and Meridian Railroad. He was the co-author of The Irish in America, published in 1868. He fell ill at his family's summer retreat at White Sulfur Springs, West Virginia, and died in Wytheville, Virginia. He is buried in Live Oak Cemetery, Selma,.
References
- Eicher, John H., & Eicher, David J., Civil War High Commands, Stanford University Press, 2001, ISBN 0-8047-3641-3.
- Warner, Ezra J., Generals in Gray: Lives of the Confederate Commanders, Louisiana State University Press, 1959, ISBN 0-8071-0823-5.
- New Georgia Encyclopedia biography
External links
1815 births | 1873 deaths | Confederate Army generals | People of the Mexican-American War | West Point graduates | People from Georgia (U.S. state)
William Joseph Hardee | William Joseph Hardee | William J. Hardee
"William J. Hardee"