Sketch Of The Life And Services Of Gen. Harvey Brown, U.s. Army ...: Read Before The Association Of Graduates Of The Military Academy At West Point, June 11, 1874...
(This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. T...)
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Sketch Of The Life And Services Of Gen. Harvey Brown, U.S. Army ...: Read Before The Association Of Graduates Of The Military Academy At West Point, June 11, 1874
Henry Jackson Hunt
Appleton, 1874
Henry Jackson Hunt was an American soldier and artillery officer.
Background
Hunt was born at Detroit, Michigan, in 1819. He was the son of Lieut. Fanuel Wellington Hunt, 3rd Infantry, and grandson of Col. Thomas Hunt, 16t Infantry, who had served with distinction in the Revolution. His mother was Julia Ann (Herrick) Hunt.
Education
Although the boy was but ten years old when his father died, he received a good education from friends and at sixteen went to West Point, graduating in 1839 and being assigned as second lieutenant to the 2nd Artillery.
Career
In 1846 he participated in the siege of Vera Cruz and in the battles ending in the capture of Mexico City. Wounded at Molino del Rey, he was highly commended for gallantry and brevetted major. In 1852 he was promoted to captain. In 1856, with W. F. Barry and W. H. French, he was appointed to a board to revise the light artillery tactics. Their report, made three years later, was adopted by the War Department in 1860, and was used throughout the Civil War. It was Captain Hunt who, early in 1861, prepared the arsenal at Harper's Ferry for defense, or for destruction, should defense be impracticable. He left to go to the relief of Fort Pickens, which he secured to the Federal government.
Arriving at New York on July 13, and at Washington the next day, he marched his battery on July 19 to the extreme left of McDowell's army at Bull Run. On the 216t, after the Federal forces had been driven back, Hunt, at Blackburn's Ford, by artillery fire alone, broke the Confederate attempt to pursue the retreating troops. Promoted to major, 5th Artillery, he became chief of artillery of the Washington defenses, and on September 28, 1861, he was commissioned colonel and placed in charge of training the artillery reserve of the Army of the Potomac. He took part in the Peninsular campaign, at Malvern Hill, July 1, 1862, handling a hundred guns with such skill as to overcome the hostile artillery and render great assistance in winning the battle.
For his services he was appointed brigadier-general of volunteers. At Antietam he served with distinction. He organized the great battery of 147 guns which opened the battle of Fredericksburg, and suggested sending infantry across in boats to seize the houses nearest the water's edge, a move which led to the capture of the town. Soon afterward his authority was materially curtailed by Hooker, the new army commander, but when in the Chancellorsville campaign the artillery was evidently poorly handled, Hunt's authority was immediately restored and enlarged.
At Gettysburg he was instrumental in securing the Peach Orchard for the Federals. Placing seventy-seven guns along Trostle Lane, he engaged the Confederate artillery in a duel on July 3. As his ammunition approached exhaustion he stopped firing, and ten minutes later Pickett started his famous charge. With his remaining ammunition Hunt reopened fire and broke this charge, thus marking the turning point of the war. During the Wilderness campaign, he continued to serve as chief of artillery. On June 27, 1864, Grant issued an order placing him in general charge of all siege operations about Petersburg. On this duty he remained until the end of the war. He was brevetted major-general, March 13, 1865.
After the war he was sent to Fort Smith, Ark. , to command the Frontier District. In 1866 he was mustered out of the volunteer service, and reverted to his regular army rank of lieutenantcolonel, 3rd Artillery, to which he had been promoted in 1863. In 1869, he became colonel of the 5th Artillery. In 1870 he collected, disarmed, and returned to their homes, without expense to the government, the bands of Fenians then disturbing the Canadian border. Ten years later he was assigned, under his brevet commission, to command the Department of the South, and remained in this assignment until he retired in 1883. He then settled in Washington, becoming in 1885 governor of the Soldier's Home in that city. His death occurred while on this duty.
(This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. T...)
Membership
General Hunt was a veteran member of the Aztec Club of 1847 and a First Class Companion of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States which were military societies of United States officers who had served in the Mexican War and Civil War respectively. He was also a hereditary member of the Massachusetts Society of the Cincinnati by right of his grandfather's service in the Revolution.
Connections
Hunt was married twice: first to Emily C. De Russy, daughter of Col. R. E. De Russy, who died in 1857, and second to Mary B. Craig, who survived him.