Hardee, William Joseph

Hardee, William Joseph,

1815–73, American army officer, Confederate general, b. Camden co., Ga. A graduate of West Point, he served with distinction in the Mexican War and compiled Rifle and Light Infantry Tactics, a standard army textbook of the time (1853–55). In 1856, he was appointed commandant of cadets at West Point. After Georgia seceded, he became a Confederate brigadier general. Hardee joined A. S. Johnston's army and fought at Shiloh (Apr., 1862). He was promoted to lieutenant general in October and was an able corps commander in the Army of Tennessee, fighting at Perryville, Murfreesboro, and Missionary Ridge and in the Atlanta campaignAtlanta campaign,
May–Sept., 1864, of the U.S. Civil War. In the spring of 1864, Gen. W. T. Sherman concentrated the Union armies of G. H. Thomas, J. B. McPherson, and J. M. Schofield around Chattanooga.
..... Click the link for more information. . He commanded against General ShermanSherman, William Tecumseh,
1820–91, Union general in the American Civil War, b. Lancaster, Ohio. Sherman is said by many to be the greatest of the Civil War generals.
..... Click the link for more information.  in Georgia and South Carolina (1864–65), abandoning Savannah and Charleston to union troops and surrendering to Sherman in North Carolina in Apr., 1865.

Bibliography

See study by N. C. Hughes (1965).

Hardee, William Joseph

(1815–73) soldier; born in Savannah, Ga. An 1838 West Point graduate, he served on the frontier and in the Mexican War and then was commandant of cadets at West Point (1856–61). He also wrote the standard pre-war manual of infantry tactics. Having joined the Confederate army when his native state seceded, he commanded a corps at Perryville, Ky. (1862), Stone's River, Tenn. (1862), and Chattanooga (1863). He ordered the evacuations of Savannah and Charleston, S.C., as Sherman approached, and surrendered to Sherman in April 1865.