Andrew Hunter

(Reference 19)

ANDREW HUNTER: clergyman, b. in Virginia in 1752; d. in Washington, D.C. 24 February 1823. He was the son of a British officer, was licensed to preach by the Presbytery of Philadelphia in 1773, and immediately afterward made a missionary tour through Virginia, and Pennsylvania. He was appointed a Brigade Chaplain in 1775, and served throughout the Revolution, and received the public thanks of General Washington, for valuable aid in the Battle of Monmouth. In 1794, he was principal of a school near Trenton, N.J. In 1804 he was elected professor of Mathematics and Astronomy in Princeton, but resigned in 1808 to take charge of the Bordertown Academy, and in 1810 became a Chaplain of the Navy. He married a daughter of Richard Stockton the signer; his son David, soldier, b. in Washington, D.C. 21 July 1802; d. there in February 1886. He was graduated at the United States Military Academy in 1822, appointed 2nd Lieutenant in the 5th Infantry, promoted 1st Lieutenant in 1828, and became a Captain in the First Dragoons in 1833. He was assigned to frontier duty, and twice crossed the plains to the Rocky Mountains. He resigned his commission in 1836. He reentered the military service, as a paymaster with the rank of Major in March 1842, was chief paymaster of General John E. Wool’s command in the Mexican War, and was afterward stationed successively at New Orleans, Washington, Detroit, St. Louis and Lincoln. On the 14th May, he was appointed Colonel of the 6th United States Cavalry, and three days later was commissioned Brigadier General of volunteers. He commanded the main column of McDowell’s army in the Manassas Campaign and was severely wounded at Bull Run, 21 July 1861. He was made a Major General of volunteers, 13 August 1861, served under General Fremont in “Missouri,” and on November 2nd succeeded him in the command of the western department. From 20th of November 1861 till 11 March 1862 he commanded in department of Kansas. He defeated a Confederate force at Piedmont on 5th June, and at- tacked Lynchburg unsuccessfully on the 18th. He was president of the commission that tried the persons who conspired for the assassination of President Lincoln. He was brevetted Major General of the United States Army 13th March 1865, and mustered out of the volunteer service in January 1866, after which he was president of a special-claims commission, and of a body for the examination of cavalry officers. He was retired from active service by reason of his own 31st July 1866, and thereafter resided at Washington. General Hunter married a daughter of John Kinzie, who was the 1st permanent citizen of Chicago.


Surnames:
Hunter,

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Genealogy,

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