CULTURE CLASH

Although they were fighting to restore sectional harmony and preserve national unity, Union armies were hardly models of harmony and unity themselves. Personal, sectional, and institutional rivalries and conflicts often played a big role in the conduct of operations and the selection of generals for command. This was evident when, in the aftermath of the Union defeat at Chickamauga, Ga., in September 1863, the Lincoln administration transferred the Army of the Potomac’s 11th and 12th Corps from Virginia to Tennessee to assist the Army of the Cumberland, besieged in Chattanooga.

Few organizations in American military history have been as defined by the conflicts within its general officer corps as the Army of the Potomac. That the man assigned overall command of those two corps was Maj. Gen. Joseph Hooker could hardly have been cause for optimism for most who hoped cooperation would characterize the troops’ Western Theater adventure. President Abraham Lincoln, however, was immensely gratified that Hooker accepted the assignment after he had relieved the general of command three months earlier. “Whenever trouble arises,” Lincoln told his secretary, John Hay, “I can always rely upon Hooker’s magnanimity.”

Many of Hooker’s fellow officers would have found that a peculiar remark, for few men contributed more to the command tensions that wracked the North’s most prominent army than “Fighting Joe.” Indeed, Hooker’s ability to command this force sent west was due in part to the fact that during his tenure atop the Army of the Potomac he had antagonized most of his corps commanders with his penchant for self-aggrandizement and willingness to intrigue against others in the high command. In fact, few enjoyed worse relations with Hooker than the generals who happened to lead the 11th and 12th Corps in September 1863: Maj. Gen. Oliver Otis Howard and Maj. Gen. Henry Slocum, respectively.

Howard was an 1854 U.S. Military Academy graduate who had returned to