The Making of a Fighter

John Bell Hood was born in Owingsville, Kentucky in 1831 and graduated from West Point in 1853. His prewar career gave little indication of the controversies to come — he served in cavalry postings in California and Texas, where he gained a reputation as a capable, aggressive officer.

When the Civil War began, Hood resigned his U.S. Army commission and offered his services to the Confederacy. His rise was rapid and remarkable, driven by an almost reckless personal courage that inspired his men while occasionally alarming his superiors.

Rise to Prominence: The Texas Brigade

Hood's first major command was the Texas Brigade, a hard-fighting unit that became one of Robert E. Lee's most reliable shock troops in the Army of Northern Virginia. At the Battle of Gaines' Mill (June 1862), Hood led a decisive assault that broke the Union line — a performance that earned him widespread admiration and promotion to division command.

He fought brilliantly through the Second Bull Run campaign and at Antietam, where his division bore the brunt of the fighting in the infamous Cornfield. Hood was emerging as one of the Confederacy's most capable offensive generals.

Gettysburg and the Turning Point

At Gettysburg on July 2, 1863, Hood led his division into the assault on the Union left flank — the fighting that swept through Devil's Den, Little Round Top, and the Wheatfield. Early in the attack, an artillery shell fragment severely wounded Hood's left arm, leaving it nearly useless for the rest of his life.

Two months later, at Chickamauga in September 1863, Hood was again in the thickest fighting when a rifle ball struck his right leg. The limb was amputated near the hip. He was 32 years old, with one working arm and one leg, strapped into the saddle for every subsequent engagement.

Command of the Army of Tennessee

When Jefferson Davis replaced Joseph Johnston with Hood in July 1864, he was betting that Hood's aggressive instincts would stop Sherman's advance on Atlanta. The gamble failed. Hood's attacks — though tactically bold — were conducted against prepared Union positions with insufficient Confederate strength, resulting in staggering losses the Confederacy could not replace.

After the fall of Atlanta, Hood launched his ill-fated Tennessee Campaign, hoping to draw Sherman north and threaten the Union rear. The campaign culminated in the disastrous Battle of Franklin (November 30, 1864), where Hood ordered a frontal assault across two miles of open ground. Six Confederate generals were killed in the assault. The subsequent Battle of Nashville (December 15–16) effectively destroyed the Army of Tennessee as a fighting force.

Hood's Reputation and Historical Reassessment

For generations, Hood was portrayed in Civil War historiography primarily as a man promoted beyond his abilities — a brilliant division commander turned into a catastrophic army commander. This assessment is not entirely unfair, but modern historians have added nuance:

  • Hood's tactical situation in 1864 was nearly impossible regardless of commander. The Confederacy was running out of men, material, and time.
  • His aggression, while costly, was what Davis demanded and what Confederate strategic circumstances seemed to require.
  • His personal physical courage throughout his command — fighting in constant pain, strapped to his horse — was extraordinary by any measure.

After the War

Hood settled in New Orleans after the war, working as a commission merchant and insurance agent. He married and had eleven children — including three sets of twins. He wrote his memoirs, Advance and Retreat, as a defense of his wartime decisions. Tragically, in 1879 yellow fever swept through New Orleans, killing Hood, his wife, and one of their daughters within a matter of days. He was 48 years old.

His surviving children were left orphaned, and it was the veterans of his old command — men he had led to both glory and disaster — who raised funds to care for them.