The American Civil War - This Mighty Scourge of War

The fighting 71

Although unhappy with several of Burnside's
critics in the army, Lincoln decided a change
was needed. On 26 January, Burnside
relinquished command of the Army of the
Potomac to Joseph Hooker, who became the
army's third helmsman in just five months.
Another West Pointer with extensive
experience during the war with Mexico,
Hooker had left the army in the 1850s to live
on the Pacific coast. He reentered the army
shortly after the firing on Fort Sumter and
proved to be a hard fighter. A press report
from the Peninsula headed 'Fighting -Joe
Hooker' had mistakenly appeared in print as
'Fighting Joe Hooker', thus bestowing a
nickname that the General loathed. Hooker
harbored enormous ambition and had
lobbied behind the scenes to replace
Burnside. A handsome 48-year-old bachelor
when he took command of the army, he set
up a convivial headquarters that offended
many observers. Charles Francis Adams, Jr,
the grandson of one president and great-
grandson of another, scathingly described
Hooker as a 'noisy, low-toned intriguer under
whose influence army headquarters became a

place to which no self-respecting man liked

to go and no decent woman could go. It was

a combination barroom and brothel.' Lincoln

knew about Hooker's machinations against

Burnside as well as his intemperate comment

that the nation might need a dictator to win

the war. In a remarkable letter dated

26 January 1863, Lincoln listed Hooker's

strengths and weaknesses as a man and

officer. 'Only those generals who gain

successes, can set up dictators,' stated Lincoln

pointedly. 'What I now ask of you is military

success, and I will risk the dictatorship.'

Hooker rapidly restored morale in the

army. The quality of food and sanitation

improved, desertions fell off, and Hooker

instituted a system of corps badges that soon

became prized symbols engendering pride in

The Irish Brigade's performance at Fredericksburg figured

prominently in post-war writings. Irish veterans used the

valor displayed on 13 December to offset charges that

overwhelmingly Democratic Irish Americans had not

supported the Union. In this painting, soldiers in the

28th Massachusetts, one of five regiments in the brigade,

advance up the slope towards Marye's Heights.

(Osprey Publishing)