Hardee, William Joseph

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.

The Cambridge Dictionary of American Biography, by John S. Bowman. Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1995. Reproduced with permission.