Gen. Joseph Hooker (1814-1879)

He was born in Hadley, Massachusetts, and graduated from West Point Military Academy in 1837. He served with distinction in the Mexican-American War (1846-48), earning three brevets for gallantry. He resigned from the army in 1853 and tried his hand farming at Sonoma in California. When the Civil War erupted in 1861, he rejoined the Union Army and quickly rose through the ranks. He earned the nickname "Fighting Joe" from a newspaper misprint but proving himself to be an aggressive and capable commander, the name stuck. He fought in major battles including Williamsburg, Antietam, and Fredericksburg, where he commanded a grand division.

In January 1863, President Lincoln appointed him Commander of the Army of the Potomac, replacing Ambrose Burnside. Hooker restored the demoralized army's morale and reorganized its structure. However, his greatest test came at Chancellorsville in May 1863, where Robert E. Lee's smaller Confederate force delivered him a decisive defeat, despite his initial advantages. His loss of nerve during the battle damaged his reputation permanently. Following disagreements with his superiors, only days before the Battle of Gettysburg, he was replaced by Gen. George Meade. He subsequently given a command in the Western Theater, fighting at Chattanooga and during Sherman's Atlanta Campaign.

Hooker resigned in 1864 after being passed over for army command. He had a reputation as a hard-drinking womanizer who was full of bluff and bluster, careless of his debts, and always ready to speak ill of a superior officer. After the war, he held various departmental commands until suffering a paralytic stroke in 1868, prompting his retirement. Just two weeks before his stroke, he married Olivia, daughter of John H. Groesbeck, President of the Franklin Bank in Cincinnati. He died in Garden City, New York., without children.