John Bell Hood

• 1. West Point And Early Service

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  John Bell Hood graduated from the United States Military Academy in 1853, ranking 44th out of a class that originally numbered 96 students. His final year was marked by excessive demerits totaling 196 against a permissible limit of 200, nearly resulting in expulsion. Despite this troubled record, he received commissions as a brevet second lieutenant in the 4th U.S. Infantry and served at Fort Jones in California. He later transferred to the 2nd U.S. Cavalry in Texas under the command of Col. Albert Sidney Johnston and Lt. Col. Robert E. Lee. On the 20th of July 1857, while leading a reconnaissance patrol from Fort Mason, Hood sustained his first significant wound during action against the Comanches at Devil's River, Texas. An arrow pierced his left hand, marking the beginning of a lifetime of physical injuries that would define his military career.

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• 2. Rising Through The Ranks

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  Hood resigned from the United States Army immediately after the Battle of Fort Sumter and chose to serve his adopted state of Texas. By the 30th of September 1861, he had been promoted to colonel of the 4th Texas Infantry Regiment. On the 26th of March 1862, he became brigadier general, commanding a new brigade composed mainly of Texas regiments known as the Texas Brigade. During the Seven Days Battles, his aggressive leadership style distinguished him from other commanders. At the Battle of Gaines's Mill on the 27th of June 1862, Hood led his brigade in a charge that broke the Union line, suffering over 400 casualties among his men while remaining unscathed himself. He later wept at the sight of the dead and dying soldiers on the field. When Maj. Gen. William H.C. Whiting left the army on medical furlough on July 26, Hood assumed permanent division command under Maj. Gen James Longstreet's corps.

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• 3. The Wounds Of Gettysburg

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  At the Battle of Gettysburg, Longstreet's Corps arrived late on the first day, the 1st of July 1863. Lee planned an assault for the second day featuring Longstreet's Corps attacking northeast up the Emmitsburg Road into the U.S. left flank. Hood was dissatisfied with his assignment because it would face difficult terrain in the boulder-strewn area known as Devil's Den. He requested permission from Longstreet to move around the left flank beyond the mountain known as Big Round Top, but Longstreet refused permission citing Lee's orders. His division stepped off around 4 p.m. on July 2, yet various factors caused it to veer eastward away from its intended direction. As the attack started, Hood became the victim of an artillery shell exploding overhead, severely damaging his left arm which incapacitated him though the arm was not amputated. Brig. Gen. Evander M. Law assumed command of the division while Hood recuperated in Richmond, Virginia where he made a social impression on the ladies of the Confederacy.

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• 4. Chickamauga And Limb Loss

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  Hood rejoined his men at Chickamauga Creek on the 18th of September 1863 after being dispatched to Tennessee by General Braxton Bragg. On the afternoon of the 19th, Hood repulsed an attack by Jefferson C. Davis's Union division before advancing to assist Brig. Gen Henry D. Clayton's outnumbered men near Lafayette Road. During the battle on the 20th, Hood led Longstreet's assault that exploited a gap in the Federal line leading to the defeat of Maj. Gen. William Rosecrans's U.S. Army of the Cumberland. However, Hood was once again wounded severely when his right femur was fractured requiring amputation four inches below the hip. The surgeon sent the severed leg with him in the ambulance assuming they would be buried together. Because of his bravery at Chickamauga, Longstreet recommended that he be promoted to lieutenant general as of that date, the 20th of September 1863 though confirmation by the Confederate Senate occurred later on the 11th of February 1864. During this second recuperation in Richmond, Hood resumed his courtship of Sally Buchanan Preston known as Buck who had first met him while traveling through Richmond in March 1863.

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• 5. Commanding The Army Of Tennessee

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  On the 17th of July 1864, President Jefferson Davis relieved General Joseph E. Johnston and ordered General Braxton Bragg to interview both commanders. Hood presented a letter branding Johnston as ineffective and weak-willed while telling Bragg he had often urged aggressive action against Union forces. Despite criticism from senior officers including William Hardee, Davis promoted Hood to temporary full general rank on July 18 giving him command of the army just outside Atlanta gates. At age 33, Hood became the youngest man on either side to be given command of an army though his temporary appointment was never confirmed by the Confederate Senate. Robert E. Lee gave an ambiguous reply calling Hood bold yet careless off the battlefield while expressing doubt about whether Hood possessed all qualities necessary to command an army in the field. Hood conducted the remainder of the Atlanta Campaign with strong aggressive actions launching four major attacks that summer attempting to break Sherman's siege before finally ordering civilian evacuation on the 1st of September 1864.

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• 6. The Franklin Disaster

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  Hood's Tennessee Campaign lasted from September to December 1864 comprising seven battles and hundreds of miles of marching. He attempted to trap Union forces under Major General Schofield at Spring Hill but command failures allowed them to pass safely into Nashville. The next day at the Battle of Franklin, Hood sent his men across nearly two miles of open ground without artillery support in a last-gasp effort to destroy Schofield's forces before they could withdraw across the Harpeth River. His troops suffered severe casualties in an assault sometimes called the Pickett's Charge of the West though recent scholarship discounts claims that Hood acted rashly out of anger. Unwilling to abandon his original plan, Hood laid siege to heavily fortified Nashville with inferior forces enduring the beginning of a severe winter. Two weeks later U.S. Maj. Gen. Thomas completely routed Hood at the Battle of Nashville costing the Army of Tennessee about 23,500 of its initial strength of 38,000 men.

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• 7. Postwar Life And Death

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  After surrendering himself in Natchez Mississippi where he was paroled on the 31st of May 1865, Hood moved to Louisiana working as a cotton broker and president of the Life Association of America insurance business. In 1868 he married Anna Marie Hennen producing eleven children over ten years including three pairs of twins. During the postwar period he began writing memoirs titled Advance and Retreat though these remained rough incomplete and unpublished until after his death serving primarily to justify his actions against accusations made by Joseph E. Johnston and William Tecumseh Sherman. His insurance business collapsed during the Lower Mississippi Valley yellow fever epidemic of 1878 killing him within a single week alongside his wife and eldest daughter Lydia leaving ten orphaned children destitute. The Texas Brigade Association supported the children for more than twenty years while seven families eventually adopted all ten orphans across multiple states.

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