St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1879-11-07
Death of Gen. Joe Hooker.

Fighting Joe Hooker, one of the
most striking and individual figures
and most effective actors in the great
civil war, is no more. He died on Fri
day at the hotel in Garden City, Long
Island, where he has lived quietly for a
year or two past, at the age of GA E; the
immediate cause being an apOplectic
stroke, though he has been in broken
health for many years. His service to
his country, his long duty in life had
been well accomplished in the war, and
since he has been prominent only in
army reunions where he was ever first
among hOnOred guests, and in every op-
pOrtunity that offered to advance the
cause of the restored Union by words
that rebuked partisanship and exalted
patriotism. In this he has been of no
BILE and unfailing benefit, Outweighing
scores of politicians North and South.
Joseph Hooker was of old New Eng
land ancestry and Massachusetts birth,
being far the most distinguished son of
Massachusetts in the field dnring the
war; he was a lineal descendant of that
sturdy Puritan, Thomas Hooker, who
was leader of the company of settlers
from the Bay who founded Hartford
and the colony of Connecticut, and was
born at old Hadley in Hampshire coun-
ty in 1915. 1t was intended to make a
minister of him, but he entered West
Point instead when he was Is, gradu-
ating in the class of 1887, with Gems.
Benham and Sedgwick, Jubal Early and
BraXton Bragg, and began his military
service in the Florida war. He made a
good soldierly reputation in the Mexi-
can war, distinguishing himself at Mont
Grey and Chapultepec, and coming out
of the campaign of 1847 brevet lieu
tenant colonel; a year after he was
promoted to a full captaincy in his
regiment. In 1853 chatting at the idle
ness of post service he resigned his
commission and engaged in farming in
California. He failed in that, but en-
gagged in the construction of military
roads in Oregon under Col. Bache, and
had finished that short time before
the first guns of the war of secession
were fired.
To him, as to so many others, that
was call to duty, and he was prompl
I in offering his services to President
Lincoln. 1t was said that Gen. SCOTS
jealous resentment to Capt. HoOker's
free criticism of his geneIalship in Mex
leo retarded his advancement at this
time, but he was appointed in May,
1861, brigadier-general of volunteers,
employed in completing the defenses OF
Washington, and afterward until March
1862, in guarding the lower Potomac.
We need not follow in detail his shin
ing career in arms. In command of a
division of the third army corps, under
Mcclellan, on the Peninsular, he won
his distinctive renOwn as fighter, and
the sObriquet by which he will always
be best known, although he himself
never liked it, thinking that it implied
foOlhardiness. 1t was honestly won,
however, in the battles of Williams
burg and Malvern hill. In the former
his division bore the burden of the
conflict, opposing unaided the whole
force OF Lees army. With that I'M
sparlng plain speech which always
marked his utterances, he wrote in his
report of this day "History will not
be believed when it is told that the no.
BILE officers and men of my division were
permitted TO carry on this unequal
struggle from morning until night, I'M
aided, 10 the presence of more than
3O,OOO OF their comrades with arms in
their hands. Nevertheless it Is true
Ii we failed to capture the rebel army
on the plains of Williamsburg, it surely
VIII not be ascribed to the want of con-
duct and courage in my command