James Allen Hardie was an American Union soldier. He served also as one of the inspector generals of the Army.
Background
James Hardie was born on May 5, 1823, in New York City, New York, United States, the eldest child of Allen Wardwell Hardie, of Scotch and Dutch descent, and Caroline Cox, a descendant of James Cox, a Quaker, who settled on Long Island about 1650. His father was a real-estate broker.
Education
James received his early education at Western Collegiate Institute, Pittsburgh, and at the Poughkeepsie Collegiate School. At the age of sixteen he entered the United States Military Academy, the appointee of President Van Buren. He graduated in 1843, number eleven in a class of thirty-nine.
Career
For a year as brevet second lieutenant James Hardie served with his regiment, the 16t Artillery, at Hancock Barracks, Maine, and then returned to West Point as assistant professor of geography, history, and ethics. While he was there the Mexican War began. He received a commission as major with a New York regiment raised for service in California and sailed with his command. After service in California, Oregon, and Lower California, he returned to the East and joined the 3rd Artillery, to which he had been assigned, with the grade of first lieutenant. Duty with his regiment both in the East and on the Pacific slope, where he saw service against the Indians near Spokane, occupied the years until the outbreak of the Civil War.
Hardie's principal appointment during this period was as adjutant-general of the Department of Oregon, which position he left to return to the East After a few weeks of recruiting in New England, he received an appointment as lieutenant colonel on the staff of General McClellan. Here, under the immediate command of Gen. Seth Williams, he acted as assistant adjutant-general of the Army of the Potomac. Through the Peninsular campaign and the Maryland campaign of 1862, he followed the fortunes of McClellan, and later those of Burnside at Fredericksburg. His services had won him promotion to a brigadier general of volunteers in November 1862. The faithfulness and accuracy of his work was such that in the controversy which arose between William Buel Franklin and Burnside over the responsibility for the dismal failure on the Rappahannock, both contestants agreed to accept Hardie’s field dispatches as the correct record of the orders given and of the resulting operations.
Subsequently Hardie filled in rapid succession several important positions. McClellan used him in preparing for the War Department the memorial which was to restore the fallen leader. Hooker made him judge advocate-general of the Army of the Potomac. He relinquished this office and his volunteer rank, however, to become a major on the regular staff with duty in Washington. His career was rounded out by the receipt, March 3, 1865, of brevet rank of brigadier-general and of major-general, March 13, 1865. All his subsequent service was as inspector either in Washington or elsewhere. He died in Washington from illness contracted on an arduous inspection tour.
Achievements
Religion
While on the Pacific Coast Hardie became a Roman Catholic and helped raise money to build the first cathedral church in San Francisco.
Connections
During a tour of duty with his company at Jefferson Barracks, Missouri, Hardie married, 1851, Margaret Hunter, the niece of Colonel Mason, his commander in California.