Early Years
Hunter was born in Troy, New York, or Princeton, New Jersey. He was the cousin of writer-illustrator David Hunter Strother (who would also serve as a Union Army general) and his maternal grandfather was Richard Stockton, a signer of the United States Declaration of Independence. He graduated from the United States Military Academy, in 1822, and was commissioned a second lieutenant in the 5th U.S. Infantry Regiment. Records of his military service prior to the Civil War contain significant gaps. From 1828 to 1831, he was stationed on the northwest frontier, at Fort Dearborn (Chicago, Illinois), where he met and married Maria Kinzie, the daughter of the city's first permanent white resident, John Kinzie. He served in the infantry for 11 years, and was appointed captain of the 1st U.S. Dragoons in 1833. He resigned from the Army in July 1836 and moved to Illinois, where he worked as a real estate agent or speculator. He rejoined the Army in November 1841 as a paymaster and was promoted to major in March 1842. One source claims that he saw action in the Second Seminole War (1838–42) and the Mexican-American War (1846–48).
In 1860, Hunter was stationed at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, and he began a correspondence with Abraham Lincoln, focusing on Hunter's strong anti-slavery views. This relationship had long-lasting political effects, the first of which was an invitation to ride on Lincoln's inaugural train from Springfield, Illinois, to Washington, D.C., in February 1861. During this duty, Hunter suffered a dislocated collarbone at Buffalo, due to a crowd pressing the president-elect.
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