American soldier, born in Washington, DC, on the 21st of July 1802. After he became a captain of dragoons in 1833, he was assigned to frontier duty, and twice crossed the plains to the Rocky Mountains. In the Mexican War (1846), he was chief paymaster of General Wood’s command. When President-elect Lincoln went to Washington in February 1861, Hunter accompanied him. On May 14, 1861, he became colonel of the Sixth United States Cavalry. During the war he commanded a division at Bull Run, where he was wounded. In August 1862, he became major-general of volunteers, and successively commanded the Western and Southern military departments. To provide for the fugitive slaves, General Hunter organized the First South Carolina Volunteers, which was the first regiment of black troops in the national service. Upon this, Jefferson Davis issued a proclamation declaring Hunter an outlaw, who, if captured, should not be treated as a prisoner of war, but held in close confinement and executed as a felon. In May 1864, Hunter was placed in command of the department of West Virginia. He defeated a Confederate force at Piedmont on June 5, 1864; served on various courts-martial and presided over the commission which tried the conspirators who were engaged in the assassination of Lincoln. He was retired from active service in 1866, and died in Washington, DC, on the 2nd of February 1886.
