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From Dictionary.com:

Word History: In his Personal Memoirs Ulysses S. Grant described Maj. Gen. Joseph Hooker as "a dangerous man ... not subordinate to his superiors." Hooker had his faults. He may indeed have been insubordinate; he was undoubtedly an erratic leader. But "Fighting Joe" Hooker is often accused of one thing he certainly did not do: he did not give his name to prostitutes. According to a popular story, the men under Hooker's command during the Civil War were a particularly wild bunch, and would spend much of their time in brothels when on leave. For this reason, as the story goes, prostitutes came to be known as hookers. However attractive this theory may be, it cannot be true. The word hooker with the sense "prostitute" is already recorded before the Civil War. As early as 1845 it is found in North Carolina, as reported in Norman Ellsworth Eliason's Tarheel Talk; an Historical Study of the English Language in North Carolina to 1860, published in 1956. It also appears in the second edition of John Russell Bartlett's Dictionary of Americanisms, published in 1859, where it is defined as "a strumpet, a sailor's trull." Etymologically, it is most likely that hooker is simply "one who hooks." The term portrays a prostitute as a person who hooks, or snares, clients.

And yet, there is a magnificent statue to “Fighting Joe” atop a mighty steed outside the Senate entrance to the Massachusetts State House.

That entrance to the building is known as “The Hooker Entrance.”

Legend has it that, once upon a time, a former speaker of the state House of Reps espied several House pages painting Joe’s steed day glow orange - but only the horse’s testicles.

The way the story goes, the speaker had the same pages scrape off the paint - during midday so that hundreds and hundreds of people, passing through the “Hooker Entrance” would see them.

A fun thing to know and tell!