William J . Hardee William Joseph Hardee ( October 12 , 1815 – November 6 , 1873 ) was a career U . S . Army officer , serving during the Second Seminole War and fighting in the Mexican - American War . He served as a Confederate general in the west during the American Civil War , quarrelling sharply with Braxton Bragg and John Hood . He opposed Sherman in Georgia , escaping into Carolina , before surrendering with Joseph E . Johnston . Hardee ' s writings about military tactics were widely used on both sides in the conflict . Early life and career . Hardee was born to Sarah Ellis and Major John Hardee at the " Rural Felicity " plantation in Camden County , Georgia . He graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1838 ( 26th in a class of 45 ) and was commissioned a second lieutenant in the 2nd U . S . Dragoons . During the Seminole Wars ( 1835 – 42 ) , he was stricken with illness , and while hospitalized he met and married Elizabeth Dummett . After he recovered , the Army sent him to France to study military tactics in 1840 . He was promoted to first lieutenant in 1839 and to captain in 1844 . In the Mexican - American War , Hardee served in the Army of Occupation under Zachary Taylor and won two brevet promotions ( to brevet major for Medelin and Vera Cruz , and to lieutenant colonel for St . Augustin ) . He was captured on April 25 , 1846 at Carricitos Ranch , Texas , and exchanged on May 11 . Now serving under Winfield Scott , Hardee was wounded in a skirmish at La Rosia , Mexico ( about above Matamoras ) in 1847 . 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 ( later renamed the 5th U . S . Cavalry ) when that regiment was formed in 1855 and then the lieutenant colonel of the 1st U . S . Cavalry in 1860 . In 1855 at the behest of Secretary of War Jefferson Davis , Hardee 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 . He is also said to have designed the so - called Hardee hat about this time . 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 on March 7 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 general s . 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 " , while with this command . Hardee 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 the Battle of Perryville in October 1862 , Hardee commanded the Left Wing of Bragg ' s army . In his arguably most successful battle , Stones River that 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 serving under 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 Johnston 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 that August and September , 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 on December 20 . 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 , 16 - year - old Willie , was mortally wounded in a cavalry charge . Johnston ' s plan for Bentonville was for Hardee to engage one of Sherman ' s wings at Averasborough so that Johnston could deal with one wing piecemeal . The plan was unsuccessful . He surrendered along with Johnston to Sherman on April 26 at Durham Station . Postbellum life . 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 . Hardee was the co - author of " The Irish in America " , published in 1868 . He fell ill at his family ' s summer retreat at White Sulphur Springs , West Virginia , and died in Wytheville , Virginia . He is buried in Live Oak Cemetery , Selma .