| Born the son of a rural doctor in Owingsville, Kentucky, John Bell Hood was raised in the bluegrass region of central Kentucky near the town of Mt. Sterling. After receiving his commission as a brevet second lieutenant in the United States Army, Hood was assigned to duty at Fort Scott, California in February 1854. In October 1855 Hood was promoted to second lieutenant of cavalry and assigned to the newly formed elite Second Cavalry Regiment at Fort Mason, Texas, commanded by future Confederate generals Col. Albert Sydney Johnston and Lt. Col. Robert E. Lee. Hood enlisted in the Confederate Army in Montgomery, Alabama in May 1861, receiving a commission as a lieutenant. Assigned to the Army of Northern Virginia, he received several rapid promotions, and on March 7, 1862 Hood was promoted to Brigadier General and placed in command of the renown Texas Brigade. Hood and his beloved Texans would play prominent roles in Robert E. Lee's important victories at Gaines' Mill (Seven Days Battles) and Second Manassas. The Texas Brigade's heroics in Miller's Cornfield saved the Confederate left flank at Antietam in September 1862, after which Hood would be promoted to Major General by his corps commander, General Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson. As a division commander under native Georgian General James Longstreet, Hood was severely wounded on July 2, 1863 at Gettysburg, forever losing use of his left arm. In September, 1863, after recovering from his Gettysburg wound, Hood was assigned as part of Longstreet's Corps to Braxton Bragg's Army of Tennessee. He reported for duty at Ringgold, Georgia on September 18, 1863, and joined his division as they were positioning for the ensuing Battle of Chickamauga. Hood's division broke the Federal line at the Brotherton Cabin, which led to the rout of Union General William Rosecrans' army. Only the heroic rear guard actions of Hood's former West Point instructor General George Thomas saved the Union Army from destruction. In November of 1864 Hood launched his ill-fated invasion of Tennessee, suffering decisive defeats at Franklin, Tennessee on Nov. 30, and at Nashville on Dec. 16. Retreating with the shattered remnants of the Army of Tennessee into northern Mississippi, Hood resigned his command on January 23, 1865, reverting back to his permanent rank of lieutenant general. During the waning days of the Confederacy, Hood was ordered by Jefferson Davis to travel to Texas and attempt to raise an army. However, learning of the capture of Davis and the surrender of Gen. Kirby Smith in Texas, Hood surrendered to Federal authorities in Natchez, Mississippi on May 31, 1865. After the war Hood entered the cotton brokerage and insurance businesses in New Orleans. On April 30, 1868 he married native New Orleanian, Anna Marie Hennen and over the next ten years he would father eleven children, including three sets of twins. Hood would lose all of his modest fortune during the winter of 1878-1879 due to a yellow fever epidemic that closed the New Orleans Cotton Exchange, and wiped out almost every city insurance company. Later that year, on August 30, 1879, John Bell Hood died of yellow fever within days of his wife and oldest child. His ten orphaned children, all under the age of ten, were left destitute. They would ultimately be adopted by seven different families in Louisiana, New York, Mississippi, Georgia and Kentucky. |
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| John Bell Hood |