General Order No. 11 – HDQRS Dept. of the South, Hilton Head, Port Royal, S.C.
“The three States of Georgia, Florida and South Carolina, comprising the military department of the south, having deliberately declared themselves no longer under the protection of the United States of America, and having taken up arms against the said United States, it becomes a military necessity to declare them under martial law. This was accordingly done on the 25th day of April, 1862. Slavery and martial law in a free country are altogether incompatible; the persons in these three States — Georgia, Florida, and South Carolina— heretofore held as slaves, are therefore declared forever free.”
General David Hunter achieved fame by issuing an unauthorized order in April 1862 freeing the slaves in Florida, Georgia and South Carolina. Upon hearing of Hunter’s “Emancipation Proclamation” Abraham Lincoln immediately declared that order null and void.
Hunter graduated from the U.S. Military Academy in 1822 and was commissioned a 2nd Lieutenant in the 5th U.S. Infantry regiment. From 1828 to 1831 he was stationed on the northwest frontier, at Fort Dearborn, Illinois, where he met and married Maria Kinzie, the daughter of the city’s first permanent white resident, John Kinzie. He served in the infantry for 11 years, and was appointed Captain of the 1st U.S. Dragoons in 1833. Hunter later resigned from the Army in July 1836 and worked as a real estate agent in Illinois. He rejoined the Army in November 1841 as a paymaster and was quickly promoted to Major in March 1842. A Whig turned Democrat and a one-time Chicago businessman, Hunter was a professional soldier before the Civil War but lacked any real military experience.
In 1860, Hunter was stationed at Fort Leavenworth in Kansas. Being politically astute and connected, he seized opportunities to advance his career. Hunter began corresponding with Abraham Lincoln with topics concerning his strong anti-slavery views. This relationship had long-lasting political effects. With strong divisions between the Northern and Southern states simmering, Hunter expressed his concern for President Elect Lincoln’s safety prior to the inauguration . Hunter volunteered and was invited to ride on Lincoln’s inaugural train from Springfield, Ill. to Washington D.C. in February 1861. Four years later, as an army general, he over-saw President Lincoln’s funeral and escorted President Lincoln’s body back to Springfield. Later, he presided at trial of those charged with conspiring to murder the President.
His actual military career was undistinguished. Upon arrival in Washington in 1861, he sought to command the city’s defenses; instead, he was briefly appointed to take charge of the security of the White House. He worked with Cassius Clay and Kansas Senator James H. Lane to organize volunteer militia companies to protect the Executive mansion. For a few days, they bedded down in the White House East Room
Soon after the firing on Fort Sumter, Hunter was promoted to Colonel of the 3rd U.S. Cavalry, but three days later, May 17, 1861,his political connection to the Lincoln administration bore fruit and he was appointed the fourth-ranking Brigadier General of volunteers, commanding a brigade in the Department of Washington.
Hunter was wounded in the neck and cheek while commanding a division at the First Battle of Bull Run in July 1861. In August he was promoted Major General of volunteers. He served as a division commander in the Western Army and was appointed as commander of the Western Department on November 2, 1861. That winter he was transferred to command the Department of Kansas and in March 1862 was transferred again to command the Department of the South at Hilton Head Island, South Carolina. At that time, preparations to retake the Confederate held Fort Pulaski on the Savannah River in Georgia, was already underway. Hunter sent a flag of truce to the fort that was immediately ignored. Union troops opened fire on Fort Pulaski on April 10, 1862, and within 30 hours had forced the surrender of the massive fortress.
With his duties as the Commander of the Department of the South, Hunter advocated arming freed blacks as soldiers for the Union. This action caused deep concerns on both sides of the Mason-Dixon line. He proclaimed by General Order No. 11, the emancipation of the slaves in Georgia, South Carolina, and Florida on April 13, 1862, which was rescinded by President Lincoln. That reversal may have influenced an opinion Hunter expressed in early October 1862 that President Lincoln was a “man irresolute but of honest intentions – born a poor white in a Slave State, and, of course, among aristocrats – kind in spirit and not envious, but anxious for approval, especially of those to whom he has been accustomed to look up to, hence solicitous of support of the Slaveholders in the Border States…”
After General Order No. 11, Hunter began enlisting black soldiers from the occupied districts of South Carolina and formed the first such Union Army regiment, the 1st South Carolina (African Descent),which he was initially ordered to disband, but eventually got approval from Congress for his action. This order was quickly rescinded by Abraham Lincoln, who was concerned about the political effects that it would have in the border states, driving some slave holders to support the Confederacy. (Lincoln’s own Emancipation Proclamation was announced in September, taking effect in January 1863.) Nevertheless, the South was furious at Hunter’s action and Confederate president Jefferson Davis issued orders to the Confederate Armies that Hunter was to be considered a “felon to be executed if captured.
Hunter’s ideas on public and military policy were often more fanciful than practical, but his role in burning the Shenandoah Valley earned him a reputation for viciousness and hatred from Southerners. His ineptness in command – leaving the way clear for Gen. Jubal Early to attack Washington in July 1864 – led to his replacement by the more aggressive General Philip Sheridan. Historian Edward G. Longacre wrote: “Lincoln’s and Stanton’s panic over the raid drove Grant to make a major decision. After visiting the president at Fort Monroe on July 31, the commanding general went to Frederick, Maryland to confer with David Hunter. He came away from the meetings convinced that a more enterprising and energetic officer than Hunter should command the Army of West Virginia and other troops as well.”
Hunter was essentially unemployed for the rest of the war – relegated to conducting court martials.
He retired from the Army in July 1866. He was the author of Report of the Military Services of Gen. David Hunter, U.S.A., during the War of the Rebellion, published in 1873. Hunter died in 1886 in Washington, D.C., and was buried in Princeton, New Jersey.