Known as “Old Reliable,” William Joseph Hardee was the first Confederate general sent at the outbreak of the Civil War to Arkansas, where he organized a number of regiments.
Hardee was already a well-known figure to officers in both armies because his manual on infantry tactics became required reading for a generation of officers during the Civil War. To quote Hardee’s biographer, Nathaniel Cheairs Hughes, Jr., “It might be said that every officer of the war went into battle with a sword in one hand and a copy of Hardee’s manual in the other.”
William Hardee was born on Oct. 12, 1815, in Camden County, Ga. His father was a prominent citizen of Camden County, a state senator and slaveholder with a 1,300-acre plantation. Hardee was accepted to the U.S. Military Academy in 1834. He graduated in 1838, ranking 26th out of a graduating class of 45. After graduation, Hardee served in the Second Seminole War (1836–1843).
Prior to the Mexican War, Hardee, as part of Zachary Taylor’s “Army of Occupation,” was captured in a skirmish at the Carricitos ranch on April 25, 1846. Later released as part of a prisoner exchange, Hardee found that his command decisions at Carricitos came under question, and so he was determined to clear his tarnished reputation in combat. He was brevetted twice for gallantry during Winfield Scott’s campaign to capture Mexico City.
Hardee’s exploits gained the attention of Secretary of War Jefferson Davis, who chose Hardee to write a new infantry tactics manual for the American army. Hardee’s “Rifle and Light Infantry Tactics” was completed in 1855 and became the standard textbook for Union and Confederate officers during the Civil War.
In 1856, Davis appointed Hardee commandant of cadets at the United States Military Academy. As commandant until 1860, Hardee earned a reputation as a firm disciplinarian. After Georgia seceded from the Union, Hardee resigned his commission and joined the Confederate army. He was appointed brigadier general on June 17, 1861, and received a command in northeastern Arkansas. Based at Pitman’s Ferry, he organized several Arkansas regiments.
Hardee’s task of recruiting Arkansas state troops to the Confederacy was difficult because officers feared loss of rank if incorporated into the Confederate army, and many soldiers believed that they would be sent east, leaving Arkansas undefended. The Arkansas recruits were an odd mixture: the 9th Arkansas was known as the “regiment of preachers” because it contained a number of frontier ministers, while one company with many Irishmen was dubbed the “Shamrock Guards.” Hardee, an able drillmaster, molded the rough Arkansas recruits into soldiers. He was promoted to major general and given command of a division on Oct. 21, 1861. The division, which would become one of the most famed in the Army of Tennessee, was composed primarily of Arkansans, with eight of the division’s 11 regiments from Arkansas. To instill loyalty, Hardee designed a unique flag for the division. The flag contained a blue field with a silver moon in the center. Hardee’s division (later Patrick Cleburne’s) was the only one in the Confederacy officially permitted to carry a flag other than the traditional Confederate battle flag into battle.
Hardee and his division joined Albert Johnston’s newly created Army of the Mississippi in March 1862. Hardee commanded a corps at the Battle of Shiloh on April 6, 1862, where he was slightly wounded. He was then transferred to Braxton Bragg’s Army of Tennessee.
Hardee fought at most of the Army’s major battles. He was promoted to lieutenant general on Oct. 10, 1862. Following the defeat at Chattanooga, he temporarily took charge of the Army of Tennessee in December 1863. He declined permanent command of the Army because he believed his abilities were better suited to that of a corps commander.
Hardee served in the Atlanta campaign under the Army’s new commander, Joseph E. Johnston. When Jefferson Davis lost patience with Johnston’s defensive tactics, he replaced him with the aggressive John Bell Hood. Hardee became convinced that Hood was unsuited to army command. After the Battle of Jonesboro in Georgia, Hardee requested a transfer and, in September 1864, assumed command of the Department of South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida, where he helped oppose Sherman’s March to the Sea. Hopelessly outnumbered, Hardee’s men successfully evacuated Savannah, Ga., in December 1864. Hardee opposed Sherman’s Carolinas campaign but finally surrendered at Archdale, N.C., on April 26, 1865.
After the war, Hardee managed his second wife’s two plantations near Demopolis, Ala. In February 1866, Hardee moved to Selma, Ala., to take the position of president of the Selma and Meridian Railroad, which he held until 1868. While on an annual trip north to escape the summer heat, Hardee fell ill and died in Wytheville, Va., on Nov 6, 1873. He is buried in Selma. — Clement Mulloy
This story is adapted by Guy Lancaster from the online Encyclopedia of Arkansas, a project of the Central Arkansas Library System. Visit the site at encyclopediaofarkansas.net.
