Székaak

Hey everyone, thanks for tuning into the 250th episode of our Civil War

Podcast. I'm Rich. And I'm Tracy. Hello y'all. Welcome to the podcast. As y'all

recall in the last episode, we looked at how new Federal Army Commander, Major General

Joseph Hooker, reorganized and re-energized the Army of the Potomac.

Yep. To everyone's astonishment, fighting Joe quickly proved himself an excellent administrator.

He mandated new sanitary rules. He cut desertions by setting up a popular system of furloughs.

He vastly improved the hospital services. Hooker also won the men's hearts by forcing

the Army's vast but inefficient supply court to provide fresh vegetables, mostly onions

and potatoes twice a week. Most popular of all with the troops, he ordered that fresh,

chewable loaves of bread be delivered at least four times a week to replace the usual issue

of insect infested tooth breaking hard-tack biscuits. Hooker also reorganized the Army's

command structure. He did away with the huge unwieldy grand divisions used by Burnside

and reverted to the Corps organization. With the commander of each of the Army's seven

infantry corps reporting directly to him, to distinguish the formations, Hooker approved

the use of a system of badges for the men and officers to wear on their caps or hats.

The various geometric shapes indicated the Corps and the color designated the division

within it. For example, a red diamond was worn by soldiers of the first division of

the third Corps and a white diamond by those of the Corps's second division.

The simple devices did wonders for morale, with the men wearing them like badges of honor.

Even more important for the future, Hooker created a separate cavalry corps similar to

the vaunted Confederate legions commanded by the famous Jeb Stewart. Previously, the Federal

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