Gil R.
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Joined: 4/1/2005
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And here's Hunter. I added some info from Heidler, but it was good to start with.
Maj. Gen. David Hunter (b. 1802, d. 1886). Hunter was born on July 21, 1802 in Washington, D.C. After graduating for West Point in 1822, he became a 2nd lieutenant in the 5th U.S. Infantry Regiment. Hunter was a veteran of the 2nd Seminole War and Mexican-American War. In 1860, he was stationed in Kansas and began correspondence with president-elect Abraham Lincoln concerning his anti-slavery views and fear of Southern uprisings. Lincoln was obviously impressed by Hunter, since he invited him to join the inauguration train to Washington and appointed him to head the volunteer forces guarding the White House. When the Civil War began, Hunter was promoted to brigadier general of volunteers on May 17, 1861. Hunter was wounded in the neck early in the Battle of First Bull Run while leading the 2nd Division. Promoted to major general of volunteers on August 13, Hunter was transferred to the Western Department and given command of a division under Gen. John C. Fremont. After Fremont was relieved, Hunter took command of the Western Department temporarily, but his hopes of promotion were shattered when he was sent to a backwater position in Kansas, where he commanded forces in Kansas, Colorado, Nebraska and South Dakota and his principal adversaries were Indians rather than Confederates. Desperate for a reassignment, Hunter not only wrote to the War Department, but to Lincoln himself, who sharply rebuked him for his lack of professionalism. In March 1862, Hunter was finally transferred and given command of the Department of the South, which included parts of South Carolina, Georgia and Florida that were occupied by the Union. After the successful Battle for Fort Pulaski on April 10-11, Hunter caused controversy by starting to enlist black soldiers, using them for garrison duty as well as forming a regiment from these new recruits, the 1st South Carolina Regiment. Hunter caused an even greater furor by issuing General Order No. 11, by means of which he attempted to emancipate the slaves in the three states under his command. However, Lincoln did not approve of this because he feared reprisals from the Union’s slave-holding border states, and forced Hunter to rescind his order. Pres. Jefferson Davis likewise was outraged by Hunter’s order – albeit for decidedly different reasons – and instructed that Hunter was a “felon to be executed if captured.” After the defeat at Secessionville, South Carolina, Hunter was relieved of command and appointed to serve in the court-martial of Gen. Fitz John Porter and on other commissions. In May 1864, Hunter replaced Gen. Franz Sigel in the Shenandoah Valley Campaign after the latter’s embarrassing defeat at New Market. During this campaign, his men gave him the nickname “Black Dave” because of his substantial destruction of military and civilian property. Hunter is most famous – or infamous, especially in the Shenandoah Valley – for entering the town of Staunton and burning it after his victory in the Battle of Piedmont, and then leading his army to Lexington, where he burned part of the town and the Virginia Military Institute. As part of Gen. Ulysses S. Grant’s strategy of cutting off Richmond, Hunter marched south to take Lynchburg, living off the land as he went. At the Battle of Lynchburg, he was defeated by Gen. Jubal Early, who successfully prevented Hunter from joining up with Gen. Philip Sheridan’s forces. Hunter then retreated into West Virginia, leaving the Valley to Early and enabling him to march on Washington. Hunter was criticized because of his actions and asked to be relieved. After the war, he was president of the military commission that tried the conspirators for Lincoln’s assassination, and in 1873 he wrote a book about his life during the war. Hunter died in Washington on February 2, 1886 and was buried in the Princeton Cemetery in New Jersey. (Bio by Andrew Thayer)
Leadership: 3
Tactics: 4
Initiative: 5
Command: 4
Cavalry:
Teaches: Foragers, Foragers, Independent
Start date: 9
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