Hardee, William Joseph, 1815–73, American army officer, Confederate general, b. Camden co., Ga. A graduate of West Point, he served with distinction in the Mexican War and compiled Rifle and Light Infantry Tactics, a standard army textbook of the time (1853–55). In 1856, he was appointed commandant of cadets at West Point. After Georgia seceded, he became a Confederate brigadier general. Hardee joined A. S. Johnston's army and fought at Shiloh (Apr., 1862). He was promoted to lieutenant general in October and was an able corps commander in the Army of Tennessee, fighting at Perryville, Murfreesboro, and Missionary Ridge and in the Atlanta campaign. He commanded against General Sherman in Georgia and South Carolina (1864–65), abandoning Savannah and Charleston to union troops and surrendering to Sherman in North Carolina in Apr., 1865.
See study by N. C. Hughes (1965).
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