UUNTER
IIL'NTER
jy^/cCoui^'^^^
retired list. He was made captain on the retired
list by special act of congress in 18G6, and after-
ward resided in Newport, R.I. In 1873 he left
New York for France with his wife and daugli-
ter on board the steamer Villede Havre, and they
were lost at sea. with 0',' 4 others, Nov. 22, 1873.
HUNTER, David, soldier, was born in Wash- ington. D.C., July 21, 1802; son of the Rev. An- drew and Mary (Stockton) Hunter, and grandson of Andrew Hunter and of Richard Stockton, the signer. He was graduated at the U.S. Military ac&demj-in 1822; was assigned to the 5th infantry as 2d lieu- tenant; was promot- ed 1st lieutenant in 1838, and captain in the 1st dragoons in 1833, resigning in 1836 to engage in business in Chicago, 111. In March, 1842, he re- entered the army as paymaster and was commissioned major. He was attached to Gen. John E. Wool's command in Mexico in 1846 as chief paymaster. After the con- quest of Mexico lie served at New Orleans and at various other posts, including those on the frontier, and in February, ISGl, was assigned to accompany President-elect Lincoln from his home at Springfield, 111., to the national capital. An accident at Buffalo, N.Y., resulting from the pressure of the crowd to see Mr. Lincoln, dislocated 3tIajor Hunter's collar-bone and he was not able to reach Wasliington until May 14. 1861, when he was appointed colonel of the 6tli U.S. cavalry, and on the 17th was commis- sioned brigadier-general of volunteers. He was in command of the 2d division, composed of the brigades of Burnside and Andrew Porter, Mc- Dowell's army, at the battle of Bull Run, July 21,
1861, where he opposed the brigades of Evans, Bee and Barton, and was severely wounded. On Aug. 13, 1861, lie was promoted major-general of volun- teers and served in Missouri under General Fre- mont. On Nov. 2, 1861, he succeeded to the com- mand of the Western Department, and was re- lieved by Gen. H. W. Halleck, November 29. and the department became the Department of the Missrmri. He was in command of the Department of Kansas from Nov. 20, 1861. to Marcli 11, 1862, and liis prompt reinforcemejit of General Grant at Fort Donelson, at the solicitation of General Halleck. made possible the victory of Feb. 16,
1862. On March 31. 1862, he was transferred from the Department of Kansas to the command
of the Department of the South, with headquar-
ters at Port Roj'al, where he relieved Gen.
Thomas W. Sherman, and hisfirst effective move-
ment was the capture of Fort Pulaski, April 11,
1862. General Hunter here found a large colored
population within his lines, able-bodied and with-
out employment. He assumed that liis instruc-
tions from the war department authorized him
to employ, arm, and train as soldiers, this aggre-
gation of willing helpers, and to make the help
effective, he issued, on April 12, 1862, the order
announcing that slaverj' and martial law were
incompatible, and declaring free all slaves in
Fort Pulaski and on Cockburn Island, Ga., and
on May 9th he extended the declaration to .slaves
in Georgia, Florida and South Carolina. The
mails went north by sea, and a week elapsed be-
fore this order came to the knowledge of the
President. On May 19, 1862, the President issued
a proclamation reciting that the government had
no knowledge or part in the orders issued by-
General Hunter, and that neither Hunter nor any
other person had been authorized to declare free
the slaves of any state, and that his order was
altogether void. On June 16, 1862, an expedition,
against Charleston, S.C, by way of James Island
resulted in the disastrous battle of Secessionville,
in which the force of General Benham. composed
of the divisions of Generals Stevens and Wright,
were repulsed. General Hunter, in his report,
states that the attack was made contrary to his
orders. He organized the 1st South Carolina
volunteers, made up of refugee slaves, the first
to be received in the U.S. volunteer service, and
the proceeding called out considerable opposition
from both Federal and Confederate general offi-
cers. In September, 1862, he was president of a
court of inquiry to investigate the cause of the
surrender of Harper's Ferry, and in November
President Lincoln ordered that he assume com-
mand of General Burnside's corps, and that Burn-
side assume command of the Army of the Poto-
mac, but the order was modified by General Hal-
leck, and Hunter was made president of the
court-martial instituted by General Pope to try
Gen. Fitz-John Porter for disobedience of orders.
In the spring of 1863, General Hunter asked for
co-operation of the navy in an effort to capture
Morris Island, at the time strongly fortified by
the Confederates and being the key to land oper-
ations against Charleston, but Admiral DuPont
discouraged the movement, and on June 12, 1863,
General Hunter was superseded in the command
of the Department of the South by Gen. Q. A.
Gillmore. On May 20, 1864, he succeeded Gen.
Franz Sigel in command of the Department of
West Virginia, his army being at Winchester.
On June ."5 he fought the battle of Piedmont, and
after ten hours' hard fighting captured 1500 men.
