caption serviceyears branch commands death_place death_date birth_place allegiance battles birth_date placeofburial nickname rank image article_title name
portrait by mathew brady or levin c. handy 1837 ; 1868 -lrb- u.s. -rrb- 1859 & ndash ; 1861 & -lrb- california -rrb- ndash ; 1853 , 1861 & ndash united states army 1stbearflag . svg 23px california militia i of the east corps army of the potomac xx corps department garden city , new york , u.s. 31 october 1879 hadley , massachusetts , u.s. united states united states of america 1837 23px union seminole wars mexican-american war american civil war 13 november 1814 spring grove cemetery cincinnati , ohio , u.s. `` fighting joe '' 35px california -rrb- major general -lrb- usa -rrb- 35px colonel -lrb- joseph hooker - brady-handy -- restored.jpg border joseph hooker
 joseph hooker
joseph hooker

joseph hooker -lrb- november 13 , 1814 -- october 31 , 1879 -rrb- was a career united states army officer , achieving the rank of major general in the union army during the american civil war .
although he served throughout the war , usually with distinction , hooker is best remembered for his stunning defeat by confederate general robert e. lee at the battle of chancellorsville in 1863 .
after graduating from the united states military academy in 1837 , hooker served in the seminole wars and the mexican-american war , receiving three brevet promotions .
resigning from the army in 1853 , he pursued farming , land development , and -lrb- unsuccessfully -rrb- politics in california .
after the start of the civil war he returned to the army as a brigadier general .
he distinguished himself as an aggressive combat commander leading a division in the battle of williamsburg , may 5 , 1862 , resulting in his promotion to major general .
as a corps commander , he led the initial union attacks at the battle of antietam , in which he was wounded .
at the battle of fredericksburg , he commanded a `` grand division '' of two corps , and was ordered to conduct numerous futile frontal assaults that caused his men to suffer serious losses .
throughout this period , he conspired against and openly criticized his army commanders .
following the defeat at fredericksburg , he was given command of the army of the potomac .
hooker planned an audacious campaign against robert e. lee , but he was defeated by the confederate army at the battle of chancellorsville .
hooker suddenly lacked the nerve to marshal the strength of his larger army against lee , who boldly divided his army and routed a union corps with a flank attack by stonewall jackson .
hooker began to pursue lee at the start of the gettysburg campaign , but his poor performance at chancellorsville prompted abraham lincoln to relieve him from command just prior to the battle of gettysburg .
he returned to combat in november , leading two corps from the army of the potomac to help relieve the besieged union army at chattanooga , tennessee , and achieving an important victory at the battle of lookout mountain during the chattanooga campaign .
he continued in the western theater under maj. gen. william t. sherman , but left before the end of the atlanta campaign when he was bypassed for a promotion to command the army of the tennessee .
hooker became known as `` fighting joe '' following a journalist 's clerical error reporting from the battle of williamsburg ; however , the nickname stuck .
his personal reputation was as a hard-drinking ladies ' man , and his headquarters was known for parties and gambling , although the historical evidence discounts any heavy drinking by the general himself .
his name is often associated with the slang term for prostitute , although the word `` hooker '' has been documented as appearing with that meaning in print well before he became a public figure .
