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In 1837 Michigan became the 26th State in the Union. Votes in Three Rivers were close as Republicans and Democrats were evenly divided. In 1871 the Village of Three Rivers includes Lockport, Canada and Brooklyn. In 1905 Three Rivers changed to a city of four wards.
President Lincoln issued a call for Michigan to furnish regiments: 30 infantry, 11 cavalry, 14 artillery, 1 mechanics and engineers, 1 sharpshooters. The 11th Michigan Infantry Regiment came from St. Joseph Co. Company E was made up of Three Rivers and Lockport men and boys. Some went to other companies. The 12-year-old Seekell twins were drummer boys. U.S. Grant was commander of all the Union armies west of the Alleghenies. The St. Joseph Co. Historical Society has records of our soldiers. The Civil War was 1861-1865. The statue honoring them was dedicated in 1893 and moved from downtown to Bowman Park in 1928.
Joseph Hooker (1814-1879) US military office – major general and commander of the Union Army of the Potomac during the Civil War (1861-65) was an aggressive leader who cared for the welfare of his men. He entered the Civil War in 1861 as a brigadier general (reliable combat commander at the Peninsula Campaign and the Battle of Antietam). He succeeded Gen. Ambrose Burnside as commander of the Army of the Potomac in 1863. Hooker improved food rations and medical care for his men. He served in the war’s Western Theater during the Chattanooga and Atlanta campaigns in 1864 and ended the war as a department commander in Ohio.
He was an 1837 graduate of West Point and a Staff officer in the Second Seminole War (1835-42), Mexican-American War (1846-48) under future U.S. President Zachary Taylor. He left the service and returned in 1861 as a brigadier general with General Geo. B. McClellan’s Army of the Potomac. In 1862 he was promoted to major general of volunteers after the Battle of Williamsburg and Seven Day Battles. Hooker became commander of the Army of the Potomac, appointed by Pres. Abraham Lincoln. He improved the medical aid, rations and furlough lengths for the Army. 1864 Lincoln placed him in charge of the Northern Department (Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and Ohio). His leadership won the Second Battle of Bull Run and the Battle of Antietam. Fighting Joe mustered out of service in 1866, retiring in 1868.
Next time: Hooker Ave., Fighting Joe Hooker and Civil War. Part 2.
Submitted by Anna Smith, a Three Rivers history and mystery lover.
