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Early Life and Education

John Bell Hood was born in 1831 in Owingsville, Kentucky, and came of age in a border-state world that would later mirror the nation's divisions. He secured an appointment to the United States Military Academy at West Point, graduating in 1853. During his cadet years the Academy was led for a time by Superintendent Robert E. Lee, whose quiet professionalism and exacting standards left an impression on many young officers, including Hood. Though not a top scholar, Hood showed determination and a soldierly demeanor that foreshadowed his battlefield aggressiveness.

Service in the U.S. Army
Commissioned into the regular army, Hood served on the frontier, notably with the 2nd U.S. Cavalry in Texas. There he came under the broader command influence of Albert Sidney Johnston and spent periods under the immediate command of Colonel Robert E. Lee. The hard riding and constant exposure to danger on the plains built in him a reputation for fearlessness. Those years also honed his preference for decisive action, a trait that would define both his rise and the controversies of his later career.

Rise in the Confederate Army

With secession and the outbreak of the Civil War, Hood resigned his U.S. commission and joined the Confederacy. He was quickly recognized as a talented leader of volunteers and became the driving force behind the famed Texas Brigade in the Army of Northern Virginia. Promoted to brigadier general and then major general under James Longstreet, Hood earned renown in the Seven Days Battles, where his brigade helped break the Union line at Gaines Mill. He fought with distinction at Second Manassas in Longstreet's massive counterstroke, and at Antietam his division surged into the Cornfield in ferocious combat that left heavy casualties but cemented his status as a hard-hitting commander.

Wounds, Reputation, and Service under Lee and Longstreet

At Gettysburg on July 2, 1863, Hood led part of Longstreet's attack against the Union left near Devil's Den and Little Round Top. Early in the action he was seriously wounded in the arm by artillery fire, an injury that limited his mobility thereafter. After recovering sufficiently to return to duty, he accompanied Longstreet west in the autumn of 1863 to reinforce Braxton Bragg's Army of Tennessee. At Chickamauga, Hood participated in the breakthrough that unhinged the Union line, but he suffered a devastating leg wound that required amputation. The loss of a leg did not end his career; he returned to duty with a cork leg and a reputation for indomitable courage that inspired troops and concerned superiors who feared his propensity for costly assaults.

From Corps Commander to Army Command in 1864

In 1864 Hood was assigned to the Army of Tennessee as a corps commander under Joseph E. Johnston, who was conducting a defensive, maneuver-based campaign against William T. Sherman's advance toward Atlanta. Confederate president Jefferson Davis, impatient with steady withdrawals at a moment when Ulysses S. Grant pressed Robert E. Lee in Virginia, replaced Johnston in mid-July with Hood, promoting him to full general and entrusting him with the defense of Atlanta. Advisers such as P. G. T. Beauregard were nearby to coordinate theater strategy, but operational decisions fell to Hood, whose instinct was to strike. He launched a series of aggressive battles at Peachtree Creek against George H. Thomas, at the Battle of Atlanta on July 22 where Union commander James B. McPherson was killed, and at Ezra Church against John M. Schofield. These actions inflicted casualties but did not change the strategic picture. Union forces cut railroads at Jonesborough, forcing Hood to evacuate Atlanta in early September, a major strategic gain for Sherman and a political blow to the Confederacy.

The Franklin-Nashville Campaign

Seeking to shift the initiative, Hood marched north in the autumn to threaten Sherman's lines and draw Union forces back. The campaign was marred by confusion at Spring Hill, where Schofield's column slipped past Confederate forces commanded by Benjamin F. Cheatham and Alexander P. Stewart, despite the presence of Nathan Bedford Forrest's cavalry. Frustrated, Hood ordered a frontal assault at Franklin on November 30, 1864, resulting in a disastrous repulse and the loss of many veteran officers, including the admired Patrick Cleburne. Undeterred, he moved on to Nashville and entrenched, but Thomas's well-prepared army launched a crushing two-day attack on December 15-16. Forrest's cavalry screened the retreat, yet the Army of Tennessee emerged shattered. Hood carried the burden of command decisions that had led to grievous losses and resigned his army command in early 1865.

War's End and Postwar Life

Hood's military career, marked by conspicuous personal bravery and relentless aggressiveness, ended with the Confederacy's collapse. He settled in New Orleans, where he worked as a cotton broker and later in the insurance business, attempting to rebuild a life in the postwar South. He married Anna Marie Hennen and started a large family, forging civilian ties in a city that had long been a crossroads of commerce and culture.

Memoirs, Debate, and Death

In the turbulent postwar literature of memory and blame, Hood took up his pen to defend his record. His memoir, Advance and Retreat, addressed the removal of Joseph E. Johnston before Atlanta, explained his own tactics there and in Tennessee, and answered critics within the Confederate high command, including those loyal to Johnston and to James Longstreet. He cited correspondence with Jefferson Davis to justify his interpretation of strategic necessity. The book appeared shortly after his death, which came during the 1879 yellow fever epidemic in New Orleans. The same epidemic claimed his wife and an eldest child, prompting the creation of a relief fund that drew support from people on both sides of the former conflict, a reminder that the war's human costs outlasted its battles.

Leadership Style and Assessment

Hood's legacy provokes enduring debate. Admirers emphasize his courage, his rapport with rank-and-file soldiers, and his early-war successes under Robert E. Lee and James Longstreet, particularly as commander of the Texas Brigade and as a division leader at Second Manassas and Antietam. Critics argue that his elevation to army command in 1864 asked of him a strategic prudence he did not possess, and they cite the assaults at Atlanta, Franklin, and the decision to stand at Nashville against George H. Thomas as evidence of a pattern of overreach. His friction with subordinates such as Cheatham and with cavalry commander Nathan Bedford Forrest during the Tennessee operations further complicated execution of already ambitious plans. In the larger fabric of the war, his story is entwined with towering figures he fought beside or against: Lee and Longstreet in Virginia, Johnston and Davis in the Confederacy's inner councils, and Union commanders Sherman, Thomas, and Schofield in the West.

Legacy

John Bell Hood remains one of the most striking studies in the contrast between valor at the tactical level and the demands of high command. His personal story bears the marks of the era's tragedies: grievous wounds endured in service, the destruction of the army he led, the struggle to rebuild in peace, and a family devastated by epidemic. For many Texans and veterans of his old brigade, he was the personification of fearless leadership. For military historians, he is a cautionary case in how temperament and context shape outcomes. Across the decades, as scholarship has reassessed Civil War leaders including Ulysses S. Grant, William T. Sherman, and Joseph E. Johnston, Hood's record continues to invite reexamination, ensuring that his life remains a central thread in the tapestry of the conflict that defined his generation.