 Gettysburg National Military ParkVirtual Tour - Day Two Warfield Ridge: General John Bell Hood |
 General John Bell Hood. Dyer, The Gallant Hood |
Born in Kentucky in 1831, Hood was the son of a doctor who enjoyed a successful practice and owned land, slaves and horses. As a boy he immediately took to horseback riding, fishing and hunting, and earned something of a reputation for his unruliness. His father hoped his son would study medicine but Hood was more interested in adventure, the kind an army career offered. Hood's uncle, a U.S. Congressman, managed to obtain an appointment for him to West Point where he excelled in sports but struggled with academics. He later admitted he was "more wedded to boyish sports than to books," so did poorly in his studies. In 1852 the academy received a new superintendent, Colonel Robert E. Lee, who Hood came to know and greatly respect. Little did either man imagine how their association would change within the next ten years.
Hood graduated 44 out of 52 in the class of 1853, and was sent to an infantry post in California before his transfer to the 2nd U.S. Cavalry, which he joined in Texas. When the war broke out in 1861, Lieutenant Hood’s sympathies were with the South even though his home state of Kentucky did not secede. He resigned from the army, offered his services to the Confederate States, and was commissioned a colonel in command of the 4th Texas Infantry before the regiment was sent to Virginia. In the winter of 1862 he was promoted to brigadier general and ordered to take command of what was called the "Texas Brigade" even though it contained Georgia as well as Texas units. On June 27, 1862, Hood led his brigade into combat at the Battle of Gaines Mill, northeast of Richmond, Virginia. A costly battle for the new brigadier (his brigade lost 87 men killed and 425 wounded), it was his command that broke through the Union defenses; but it may have been his leadership alone that won the day. One of his soldiers recalled: "I tell you what.... I got mighty nervous and shaky while we were forming in the apple orchard to make that last desperate charge on the batteries. But when I looked behind me and saw old Hood... looking as unconcerned as if we were on dress parade, I just determined that if he could stand it, I would."
Hood led the Texas Brigade through the Battles of Second Manassas, South Mountain, and Sharpsburg where he commanded a division of two brigades. At Sharpsburg in the bitterly contested Miller corn field, Hood suffered 1,000 casualties in his 2,000 man command. After the battle, General Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson recommended that Hood be promoted to major general: "I regard him as one of the most promising officers of the army." The promotion was approved and Hood became a major general. Hood's division avoided heavy fighting at the Battle of Fredericksburg, after which his division was ordered to Suffolk, Virginia, where they collected supplies for the army and sparred with a Union force which occupied the city. During this time he met Sally Preston, a pretty, sophisticated young woman who was a member of Richmond's social elite. Hood was immediately taken by Preston, nicknamed "Buck", but duty called him away from her company when his division was ordered back to Northern Virginia after the Battle of Chancellorsville. By mid-June, Hood and his 8,000 men had rejoined the Army of Northern Virginia, and camped near Culpeper Court House prior to beginning the march toward Pennsylvania.
General Hood's contempt for the ground he was to attack on July 2 at Gettysburg is well documented. The long, tiring march of 18 miles, a precious few moments to rest his men before going into battle, and the strength of Union artillery positions frustrated him. As he rode into battle with his troops, a large fragment of a Union artillery shell slashed into the general's arm, tearing away much of the muscle and some of the bone. Pale and weak, Hood was taken to a field hospital where doctors decided not to amputate the arm, believing that it could be saved. Hood was grateful, but the damage so severe that the arm was useless. He carried it in a sling for the rest of his life.
General Hood had not yet fully recovered from his Gettysburg wound when he accompanied his division to Georgia that fall and was severely wounded in the leg at the Battle of Chickamauga in September 1863. This time, surgeons could not save his shattered limb and amputated before infection could set in. Though crippled and suffering, Hood's will to serve the Confederacy had not waned. In 1864 he was assigned to command a corps in the Confederate Army in Georgia under Joseph Johnston. Hood was later promoted to command that army after it had become nearly surrounded near Atlanta. The agressive spirit still in him, the general ventured out of the city's defenses to attack encircling Union forces under General William T. Sherman. The Battle of Atlanta was a devastating Confederate defeat and Hood was forced back into the city defenses, now so thoroughly weakened that it could not be held. Hood attempted to draw the Yankee army out of Georgia by invading Tennessee where the battles of Franklin and Nashville resulted in additional disasters. Thoroughly dejected, Hood asked to be relieved of command after the Battle of Nashville and his service to the Confederacy ended.
Hood surrendered to Federal authorities in Natchez, Mississippi, at war's end. After he was paroled and signed an oath of allegiance, he decided to move his family to New Orleans, Louisiana, where it appeared he could prosper. Hood opened a modestly successful law office in the city and dealt in land speculation through the period of reconstruction. In 1879, New Orleans was struck by an epidemic of yellow fever which took the lives of his wife and one of their children. The crippled Hood succumbed to the disease on August 30, 1879,and is buried in Metairie Cemetery in New Orleans beside his wife and child.
National Park Service
Gettysburg National Military Park
97 Taneytown Road
Gettysburg, PA 17325