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When General Joseph “Fightin’ Joe” Hooker took over the Army of the Potomac in early 1863, he realized he was fighting blind. For the task of "commanders' eyes," Hooker recruited George Henry Sharpe, an attorney from Kingston, New York. Sharpe was a dedicated leader, conscientious and efficient, characteristics which would be put to good use when Hooker approached him in 1863 to head the new Bureau of Military Intelligence.

A Moment in Time is a brief, exciting and compelling journey into the past. Created to excite and enlighten the public about the past, its relevance to the present and its impact on the future, A Moment In Time is a captivating historical narrative that is currently broadcast worldwide.

Transcript

Lead: For 400 years, service men and women have fought to carve out and defend freedom and the civilization we know as America. This series on A Moment in Time is dedicated to the memory of those warriors whose devotion gave, in the words of Lincoln at Gettysburg, "the last full measure."

Intro: A Moment in Time with Dan Roberts.

Content: When General Joseph “Fightin’ Joe” Hooker took over the Army of the Potomac in early 1863, he realized he was fighting blind. The only real intelligence capability serving the eastern Union Army up to this point had been an effort by Chicago detective Allan Pinkerton, who had departed the service when President Lincoln relieved General George McClellan.

For the task of "commanders' eyes," Hooker recruited George Henry Sharpe, an attorney from Kingston, New York, who received degrees from Rutgers and Yale Law. He was practicing law when, in response to Lincoln’s call for volunteers for the war effort, he raised a regiment of militia. Sharpe was a dedicated leader, conscientious and efficient, characteristics which would be put to good use when Hooker approached him in 1863 to head the new Bureau of Military Intelligence. Sharpe determined that, in order for Hooker to make good decisions, the General had to have accurate information on the disposition of enemy forces. Soon abundant data was flowing to Sharpe and his staff, who then provided increasingly accurate analysis to field commanders. His approach was neither flashy nor romantic--but rather the almost dull, systematic accumulation and analysis of data from multiple sources.

The BMI became so adept that within just a few months Sharpe was able to estimate the size of General Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia to within 2% of the actual size. These facts would prove decisive--though not at Chancellorsville in the late spring which, despite accurate intelligence, turned out to be another Union rout because of Hooker’s failure to follow up his early advantage. However, Union intelligence greatly helped turn the fight at Gettysburg on the third day of this climactic battle of the Civil War.

Next time: "General, we got them nicked.”

Research by Kendra Lahue, at the University of Richmond, this is Dan Roberts.

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