He accompanied President-Elect Lincoln on his train ride into Washington, D.C. in 1861

Wounded at the 1st Battle of Bull Run, Virginia, July 1861

He emancipated slaves in some of the southern states in 1862 without orders which caused quite a controversy!

Presided over the trial of the Lincoln conspirators and was chosen to accompany the body of Mr. Lincoln to Springfield, Illinois for burial in 1865!

(1802-86) His maternal grandfather was Richard Stockton, a signer of the Declaration of Independence. He graduated in the West Point class of 1822, and was commissioned a second lieutenant in the 5th U.S. Infantry Regiment. Hunter was invited by President Elect Abraham Lincoln to travel with him on the inaugural train to Washington, D.C. in February 1861. Selected for high command by President Lincoln himself, Hunter became the 4th highest ranking officer in the volunteer army. He fought in the 1st battle of Bull Run on July 21, 1861, where he was wounded in the neck and cheek while commanding a division under General Irvin McDowell. In August 1861, he was promoted to major general of volunteers and served as a division commander in the Western Army under General John C. Fremont. He was appointed commander of the Western Department on November 2, 1861. He achieved notability for his unauthorized, and controversial 1862 order which emancipated slaves in some of the southern states, but President Abraham Lincoln quickly rescinded this order, because he was concerned about its political effects in the border states, which he was desperately trying to keep neutral. Their leaders advocated instead a gradual emancipation with compensation for the slave holders. Despite Lincoln's concerns that immediate emancipation in the South might drive some slave-holding Unionists to support the Confederacy, the national mood was quickly moving against slavery, especially within the Federal Army. General Hunter was a strong advocate of arming black men as soldiers for the Union cause. Undeterred by the president's reluctance and intent on extending freedom to potential black soldiers, Hunter again flouted orders from the federal government, and enlisted ex-slaves as soldiers in South Carolina without permission from the War Department. This action incensed border state slaveholders. After the Battle of Fort Pulaski, Ga., where black Union soldiers from the North proved their bravery, Hunter began enlisting blacks as soldiers from the occupied districts of South Carolina. He formed the first such Union Army regiment, known as the 1st South Carolina African Regiment. He was initially ordered to disband it, but eventually got approval from Congress for his action. The Confederates reacted strongly to the Union efforts to emancipate Southern slaves, and Confederate President Jefferson Davis issued strict orders to the army that General Hunter was to be considered a "felon and to be executed if captured." Hunter took over command of the Army of the Shenandoah, and the Department of West Virginia on May 21, 1864. General Ulysses S. Grant ordered Hunter to employ scorched earth tactics similar to those that would be used later in the year during General William T. Sherman's infamous March to the Sea. General Hunter's troops moved from Staunton to Charlottesville to Lynchburg, "living off the country" and destroying the Virginia Central Railroad "beyond any possibility of repair for weeks." General Robert E. Lee was concerned enough about Hunter that he dispatched a corps under General Jubal A. Early to deal with him. On June 5, 1864, Hunter defeated General William E. "Grumble" Jones at the Battle of Piedmont. Following orders, Hunter moved up the Valley destroying military targets and other industries such as blacksmith shops and stables that could be used to support the Confederacy. After reaching Lexington, his troops burned down the celebrated Virginia Military Institute, on June 11, 1864, where General Stonewall Jackson had been a professor, and artillery instructor before the war. This was done in retaliation for the V.M.I. cadets fighting heroically in the battle of New Market, Va. Hunter also ordered the home of Governor John Letcher burned down to retaliate for its absent owner's having issued "a violent and inflammatory proclamation that incited the citizens of the country to rise up and wage guerrilla warfare on his troops." Hunter also wreaked havoc on Washington College, in Lexington, later named Washington and Lee University, in which General Robert E. Lee became its president after the war. According to General Fitzhugh Lee's biography of his uncle, Robert E. Lee, "Hunter had no respect for colleges, or the peaceful pursuits of professors and students, or the private dwellings of citizens, though occupied by women and children only, and during his three days occupancy of Lexington in June, 1864, the college buildings were dismantled, apparatus destroyed, and the books mutilated." General Hunter was thus given the name of "Black Dave." Hunter served in the honor guard at the funeral of President Abraham Lincoln, and accompanied his body back to Springfield, Illinois for burial. Thus Hunter had the unique distinction of accompanying Lincoln on his inaugural train trip from Springfield, Illinois, to Washington, D.C., in February 1861, and his last one out of the Capitol city as he took Lincoln home to lie at rest in Springfield! He was the president of the military commission that tried the Lincoln conspirators after the president's assassination, the trial taking place in Washington, D.C., from May 8, 1865, to July 15, 1865. He retired from the U.S. Army in July 1866. General David Hunter died in Washington, D.C., on February 2, 1886, and is buried at the Princeton Cemetery, in Princeton, New Jersey.

Wet plate, albumen carte de visite photograph, mounted to 2 3/8 x 4 card. The corners of the mount are very slightly trimmed. Bust view in uniform. Back mark: J.E. McClees, 910 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia. Very fine, sharp and desirable image.