SUCCESS OR FAILURE?????
We are scattered, stunned, the remnant of heart left alive is filled with brotherly hate. Whose fault? Everybody blamed somebody else. Only the dead heroes left stiff and stark on the battlefield escape.—Mary Boykin Chestnut
After this urgent protest against entering Battle at Gettysburg according to instructions—which protest is the first and only one I ever made during my entire military career, I ordered my line to advance and make the assault.—Major General John Bell Hood
Individuals are usually marked favorably or unfavorably in history by an accumulated list of accomplishments. Some are then placed on the historical pedestal with many of their failings buried underneath so as to not tarnish their reputation. Others are often buried in time because of one grave error or episode that often unfairly distinguishes their character. They may be quite accomplished in total, but are rated negatively because of isolated poor decisions made under duress that occupied only minutes of their life.
I developed a great interest and strong sense of admiration for this Confederate General while watching the movie Gettysburg. It certainly did not hurt that he was a native of my home state of Kentucky. His name was John Bell Hood, and he had an heroic, and accomplished military career. Delving deeper into a study of his life uncovered a controversial and extremely polarized range of opinions about him. His final military command of The American Civil War would be considered by his staunchest critics as an abject failure. In Hood's case his overall command of The Confederate Army Of Tennessee in 1864 has often been used as the sole measuring stick to grade his entire career. Historical writer Wiley Sword, for instance, labeled Hood, “a fool with a license to kill his own troops.” Other extreme criticisms accused Hood of being a borderline “psychotic” who “associated valor with casualty figures.” Some have claimed his mind was clouded by an addiction to Laudanum that he was prescribed after being treated for debilitating wounds he received in battle. Whether his final command failure was due merely to poor circumstances he inherited, or as some critics would say, "a command beyond his abilities", is certainly subject to debate. His command decisions at The Battle of Franklin Tennessee on November 30th 1864, (discussed shortly), would result in his most damning evaluations. As most men of true military honor do, they accept responsibility and blame for their commands failures. In his letter of resignation addressed to his troops at Tupelo, Mississippi, on January 23, 1865, in reference to the unsuccessful Tennessee Campaign, he stated “I am alone responsible for its conception.”In his memoirs written after the war had ended, he declared plainly, “I failed utterly to bring on battle at Spring Hill.” He reached the pinnacle of military command in the Confederate army. And in my opinion, due to circumstances beyond his complete control was removed from instead of falling from the top. As we shall learn, he certainly sacrificed much of himself, (literally), for a cause he so deeply believed in. He was dedicated and fearless, and while a subordinate commander, was ordered into some of the fiercest engagements of the war, where he would perform his duties brilliantly.
John Bell Hood was born in Owingsville, Kentucky in June of 1831. (birthplace pictured below), A close relative obtained for him an appointment at the United States Military Academy, in 1849. He graduated in 1853, ranked 44th in a class of 52 that originally numbered 96,. West Point cadets were allowed a maximum of 200 disciplinary demerits over the course of their 4 year tenure before they would be automatically expelled. Hood had accumulated 196 demerits before barely graduating. His more famous classmates included James B. McPherson and John M. Schofield. He also received instruction in artillery from George H. Thomas. These three men became Union Army generals who would later face Hood in The American Civil War at Atlanta, Franklin and Nashville. The superintendent of West Point academy from 1852–55 was Col. Robert E. Lee. After graduation Hood was commissioned as a 2nd Lt. then served in the infantry in California. He later transferred to the state of Texas.
When the American Civil War began, Hood was very sympathetic to the Southern cause and stated that he would resign from the U.S. Army should his home state of Kentucky join the Confederacy. Historian Richard O’Connor stated that Hood “considered himself a southerner by birth and sympathy. Unlike many United States army officers who joined the Confederacy, he [suffered no qualms] over the righteousness of placing his loyalty to the South above…duty to the Federal government.” In short, Hood identified with his region, including its culture, politics and economic structure, and felt bound to defend it. Although Kentucky did not secede from the Union, Hood resigned his commission with the U.S. army in April of 1861 and was appointed a first lieutenant in a cavalry division. He decided to serve for the state of Texas. He was soon promoted to the rank of colonel and led what would soon become famously known as Hood’s Texas Brigade. His performance in the field was rather remarkable. Promotions came rapidly and within less than a year he advanced from a first lieutenant in artillery, to brigadier general in command of a Texas brigade that became the most famous in Robert E.Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia.
He was a gallant and aggressive leader and those who served under him were quite loyal. Hood’s Texas brigade was highly respected by all in the Confederate army and the Union army as well. His brigade would perform brilliantly at the Battle of Gaines Mill on June 27th 1862 and at the Second Battle of Bull Run on August 28-30 1862. While in pursuit of enemy forces during Lee’s northern invasion, Hood captured some Union ambulance wagons. His superior officer, Brig. Gen. Nathan “Shanks” Evans, wanted the captured vehicles for his own brigades use. He and Hood disputed bitterly over the ultimate use of the wagons. Hood feeling that the wagons should be returned to higher command. Evans had Hood arrested and sent to the rear. In stepped Robert E. Lee who had little time for military tribunals. He asked Hood to apologize to Shanks. But Hood refused and was sent back to the rear. Before the Battle of South Mountain Maryland on September 14th 1862 with Hood still under arrest, the Texas Brigade began cheering “We Want Hood.” Robert E. Lee relented and replied, “And you shall have him.” Despite Lee's insistence, Hood refused to apologize for the dispute with Evans feeling he was in the right in retaining the ambulances for the higher command. Lee assured Hood that they would ultimately settle the manner at a later date. But apparently the subject never came back up.
At the bloody Battle of Antietam on September 17, 1862. Hood’s brigade supported General Stonewall Jackson's division. His brigade of two thousand fought in an area of the battlefield known as “the cornfield.” Hood would lose almost half the men in his brigade on that day. After dark, Lee met with his generals as defeat looked inevitable. Seeking opinions on what course of action to take if fighting resumed the following day, he questioned his officers. Hood, when asked about the readiness of his division, replied that it no longer existed. “Great God, General Hood,” Lee exclaimed. “Where is the splendid division you had this morning?” Hood’s only answer was: “They are all lying on the field where you sent them, sir, but few have straggled.” Mercifully, and mistakenly an overwhelming Union force did not press the issue on the next day. The Battle of Antietam would be the bloodiest day one day battle in American history with total casualties of over 24000. Stonewall Jackson was so impressed by Hood's performance at Antietam that he recommended his promotion to major general.
Hood’s superiors as well as those serving under him admired him greatly for his boldness and unflappable courage. He was fearless in leading his men into battle. He never sat back and watched the fighting from afar preferring to personally participate. On July 2nd, 1863, on the second day of The Battle of Gettysburg, Hood was issued orders to attack the Union left flank near a hilly rock strewn spot known as the Devil’s Den. Hood disagreed with the orders and vehemently protested that the terrain was very poor to institute such an attack. He requested permission from Lee’s number one subordinate Lt. General James Longstreet to instead be allowed to circle around the enemy’s flank and attack from the rear. But Longstreet, though agreeing with Hood, refused permission citing higher orders from Lee. Hood reticently but obediently attacked.
As the attack commenced, Hood was injured by an exploding artillery shell that severely damaged his left arm and forced him to retire from the field. Disarray occurred due to a confused command chain, and the attack did not succeed. Hood’s left arm did not require amputation, but it was basically unusable for the rest of his life. British observer Colonel Arthur Fremantle, later saw Hood riding in a carriage and remarked that “he looked rather bad, and has been suffering a great deal; the doctors seem to doubt whether they will be able to save his arm.”
While Hood healed from his wound in Richmond, he seemingly charmed many of the ladies in the area. Civil War diarist Mary Chestnut who would keep her famous diary during the American Civil War described Hood as he recuperated in Richmond: "When Hood came with his sad Quixote face, the face of an old Crusader, who believed in his cause, his cross, and his crown, we were not prepared for such a man as a beau-ideal of the wild Texans. He is tall, thin, and shy; has blue eyes and light hair; a tawny beard, and a vast amount of it, covering the lower part of his face, the whole appearance that of awkward strength. Some one said that his great reserve of manner he carried only into the society of ladies. Major [Charles S.] Venable added that he had often heard of the light of battle shining in a man's eyes. He had seen it once — when he carried to Hood orders from Lee, and "found in the hottest of the fight that the man was transfigured. The fierce light of Hood's eyes I can never forget."
While in Richmond, he would meet a woman named Sally Preston, (pictured below), whom he later said caused him to “surrender at first sight.” He proposed to her frequently, but she would never give a committal answer. It turns out that her parents did not approve of Hood thus scuttling the proposals. However this did not deter the persistent Hood from courting her. He continued for years but to no avail.
After the Confederate defeat at Gettysburg Lt. General James Longstreet requested a transfer to the Western Theater of the war which was granted. Hood’s division went with Longstreet. His next engagement was at the Battle of Chickamauga on September 19- 20, 1863. On the 2nd day of the battle Hood was wounded once again. He was struck while on horseback by a bullet in the right thigh. The wound was very serious and his right leg required amputation just four inches below the hip. The attending surgeon evaluated Hoods overall condition as mortal and had the amputated leg sent back with Hood in the ambulance to be buried with him. Amputations like Hood’s, in the upper third of the femur, resulted in a death rate of more than 50% in over all cases, and a third of the 50% who survived the surgery usually died of sepsis within five days of the amputation. The danger of post-operative infection was great as well. But Hood would somehow manage to survive the entire ordeal. Longstreet would recommend Hood for promotion to lieutenant general for his gallantry and daring leadership. (Picture below of a tombstone denoting the burial spot of Hood's amputated leg).
During Hood's second recuperation in Richmond that fall, he would befriend Confederate President Jefferson Davis. He also resumed his courtship of Sally Preston, who was a cousin of Confederate Major General John C. Breckinridge. Despite giving him more mixed signals, she refused him on Christmas Eve. Hood confided to Mary Chesnut that the courtship "was the hardest battle he had ever fought in his life." In February of 1864, Hood proposed again and this time demanded a specific response. She gave him a reluctant agreement which she never honored.
By the time Hood recuperated from his wound in the Spring of 1864, war fortunes had turned heavily in favor of the Union. Union General William Tecumseh Sherman was making his famous march through the south toward Atlanta. It was a mission to not only conquer Atlanta and ultimately end the war, but a mission designed to destroy land, crops, infrastructure, and most importantly southern morale. Sherman would be referred to as “Satan” by southern residents, due to utilizing military tactics known as “scorched earth policy.” This style of war tactics had been and still is considered very controversial on humanitarian grounds.
To this point in Hood’s career, he had been a sensational commander. There was no mistaking his courage and gallantry even though many deemed his command style as overtly aggressive and even reckless. The Confederate government decided to give Hood the head command of the Army of the Tennessee. Hood had now reached the pinnacle of his career. But from this point forward, his career would take a serious downturn and his historical reputation would suffer much bitter and scalding criticism. His fiercest critics would forever label him as a total failure as commander of the Army of the Tennessee. In his defense, he would take over an army on the ragged edge of demoralization due to the South's declining fortunes in the war. In all fairness to Hood, he took over a force that had generally always played second fiddle to the military forces in the Eastern Theater. The Army of The Tennessee generally suffered more slights when it came to being supplied. To make matters even more dire, within the last two years it had suffered an aggressively malignant growth of officer infighting, backbiting, and overall malcontent. With the exception of the Confederate victory at Chickamaugua, it had suffered nothing but bloody stalemates, defeat, and retreat. Vicksburg had fallen, Nashville had fallen, The Kentucky Campaign had failed. Stones River and Shiloh were both bloody and costly stalemates. With the fall of Chattanooga to Union forces late in 1863 the force had officially been expelled from the state of Tennessee. The southern army by this stage of the conflict was basically surrounded on all sides. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia was completely occupied in bloody engagements with Union General Ulysses S. Grant in the Eastern Theater of the war and could lend no support. In addition, the Confederate army had always been outnumbered and was now even more so. Their resources, supplies, and munitions had always been inferior to the Union. But now those disparities had magnified. Virtually every major supply route had been cut off or was under solid Union control. Many southern soldiers were marching and fighting barefoot and were well underfed. I do not think there is any question that Hood took command over a bedraggled and wearied force. It was a difficult and marginally hopeless situation. His army, though filled with spirit and determination, was a group short on numbers, using inferior weaponry, underfed and short on supply. Many wore shoes that were falling apart and many had none at all.
Hood was appointed to use the Army of Tennessee to defend the city of Atlanta Georgia from the onslaught of Sherman’s forces. Hood was only thirty three years of age and was the youngest man ever to be appointed as head commander of an entire army. Robert E. Lee was very fond of Hood, but once stated on Hood's aggressive command style that “he was all lion and no fox.”
Hoods situation may be likened to that of some football coaches. Often times the defensive or offensive coordinator of a football squad will move on to take a head coaching job. Quite often his success as a genius at a coordinator position does not always translate to his success as a head coach. He was often so one minded as a coordinator, either being totally focused on defense or offense, depending on the situation, that he carries that tendency with him to his head coaching position, and unintentionally pays less attention to the other side of the football. There is no question that John Bell Hood was an offensive coordinator. He was aggressive, liking to score in battle. It was not his way or natural tendency to dig in and hold fast to prevent the other team from scoring. Hoods success as a head coach is certainly questionable. The question is, was he a poor head coach? Or did Hood just inherit a team that was in a league where he had less resources, was being out recruited, and lacked the Jimmys and Joes instead of the X’s and O’s for success.
Jefferson Davis offered Hood the position of corps commander of the Army of Tennessee in the spring of 1864. Many questioned the move if for no other reason because Hood had only one arm he could use and an artificial leg made of cork. After suffering, the wound at Chickamauga, Hood’s men took up a collection amounting to a sum of over $3,000 to have a state of the art artificial leg imported from Europe. Despite his infirmities and needing to be helped in and out of the saddle, Hood was still able to travel up to twenty miles per day on horseback.
The ever-aggressive Hood replaced Gen. Joseph T. Johnson, a rather non aggressive general whose field actions were often choked with caution. William Tecumseh Sherman was very pleased that Johnston had been replaced. He believed that at last the rebels with the aggressive Hood in charge would emerge from their entrenchments and fight an open field battle he had so long desired. When Sherman asked General John Schofield, who had known Hood at West Point, what the new Confederate commander was like, he received confirmation for his thoughts. Schofield answered, “I will tell you what sort of man he is. He’ll hit you like hell, now, before you know it.” Hood tried repeatedly to break Sherman’s siege of Atlanta, but all attempts failed. On September 2, 1864, Hood reluctantly felt compelled to evacuate Atlanta and burned all remaining military supplies and installations.
Hood met Confederate Pres. Jefferson Davis to discuss the launch of an offensive designed to draw Sherman into battle and away from Atlanta. He also hoped to free up the Cumberland Gap to allow Hood’s army to ultimately meet up with Lee’s army in Virginia. But Sherman did not take the bait. He instead placed Hood’s former West Point artillery instructor Maj. Gen. George H. Thomas in charge of Union Tennessee forces to defend against Hood, while Sherman continued his march south. Two other men, General James S. Schofield and General James B. McPherson, who were classmates of Hood’s at the Point were under Thomas’s command.
Hood and McPherson, (pictured below), were very good friends while at West Point. Once the war began, both chose a different path, or, if you will, chose a different team to play on. There are numerous cases from the American Civil War, of West Point classmates who were close friends before the War who chose different sides. Most remained friends afterward. Even in a war where they were bound to fight each other to the death, these men still held a deep respect and an even deeper bond that the carnage of war could not touch. They almost treated it like childhood friends who both join the little league and are chosen for different teams. When the two teams play, both friends want their team to beat the other's soundly so they can rub salt in the wound. Yet after the game is over and the season is over, they are best of buddies and are now devoted and supportive teammates. James B. McPherson led a Union corps against his old friend John Bell Hood during the Atlanta campaign. On the way from the Atlanta campaign, McPherson was killed in action. Upon hearing the news of McPherson’s death, Hood was deeply grieved at the loss. In his own words:
"I will record the death of my classmate and boyhood friend, Gen. James B. McPherson, the announcement of which caused me sincere sorrow. Since we had graduated in 1853, and had each been ordered off on duty in different directions, it has not been our fortune to meet. Neither the years nor the difference of sentiment that had led us to range ourselves on opposite sides in the war had lessened my friendship; indeed the attachment formed in early youth was strengthened by my admiration and gratitude for his conduct toward our people in the vicinity of Vicksburg. His considerate and kind treatment of them stood in bright contrast to the course pursued by many Federal officers."
The proposed Tennessee Campaign lasted from September 1864 through December 1864. Hood’s army marched hundreds of miles during this period and fought in seven different battles. Hood's army in addition to being under supplied and malnourished also suffered from severe fatigue. Sergeant-Major Sumner Cunningham remembered one Sunday, “in which we RESTED, the men lay asleep nearly all day.” He added that “the only ration issued was corn…one ear to four men. We roasted acorns and crab apples.” The Battle of Franklin Tennessee on November 30th 1864 is considered to be the bloodiest five hour battle of the American Civil War. It resulted in heavy Confederate casualties. While final casualty figures for civil war battles are difficult to calculate with complete accuracy, the totals for both armies were around 9000. This number includes dead, wounded, captured, and missing. It is known that a conservative estimate for the dead directly from the battle was approximately 2000. In a five hour battle that equates to roughly one death every ten seconds. The rate for being either wounded or killed during the battle was an astounding one man every two seconds. I have read numerous eyewitness accounts that have been preserved through history from those who actually fought or witnessed numerous battles during The American Civil War, AND NONE come close to describing the fierceness and brutality of the Battle of Franklin not to mention the gruesome sites and sounds of the post battlefield scene. Historian Stanley Horn puts the Carnage at Franklin into proper perspective by comparing it to The Battle of Gettysburg: "The annals of war may long be searched for a parallel to the desperate valor of the charge of the Army of Tennessee at Franklin, a charge which has been called "the greatest drama in American history." Perhaps its only rival for macabre distinction would be Pickett's Charge at Gettysburg. A comparison of the two may be of interest. Pickett's total loss at Gettysburg was 1,354; at Franklin the Army of Tennessee lost over 6,000 dead and wounded. Pickett's charge was made after a volcanic artillery preparation of two hours had battered the defending line. Hood's army charged without any preparation. Pickett's charge was across an open space of perhaps a mile. The advance at Franklin was for two miles in the open, in full view of the enemy's works, and exposed to their fire. The defenders at Gettysburg were protected only by a stone wall. Schofield's men at Franklin had carefully constructed works, with trench and parapet. Pickett's charge was totally repulsed. The charge of Brown and Cleburne penetrated deep into the breastworks, to part of which they clung until the enemy retired. Pickett, once repelled, retired from the field. The Army of Tennessee renewed their charge, time after time. Pickett survived his charge unscathed. Cleburne was killed, and eleven other general officers were killed, wounded or captured. "Pickett's charge at Gettysburg" has come to be a synonym for unflinching courage in the raw. The slaughter-pen at Franklin even more deserves the gory honor".
Stanley F. Horn, The Army of Tennessee Critics of Hood have accused him of being so irate over fouled communications at the Battle of Spring Hill Tennessee just days earlier that he deliberately sent his men into a brutal frontal assault as punishment. The following are criticisms made by Captain Sam Foster of the 24th Texas: “The wails and cries of widows and orphans made at Franklin…will heat up the fires of the bottomless pit to burn the soul of General J.B. Hood for murdering their husbands and fathers.…It can’t be called anything else but cold blooded murder.” This claim has never been proven nor substantiated in any way. I find it to be borderline absurd. In fairness to his critics, it must be said that several of Hood's subordinate commanders including Patrick Cleburne, Nathan Bedford Forrest, and Franklin Cheatham argued strongly against the attack, which some considered suicidal. In Hood's defense, he was under strong pressure from Richmond to take Nashville at all costs. At Franklin he had a Union corps isolated with its back to the swollen Harpeth River. He saw a chance to disable this force before it could reach the safety of Nashville and meet up with with totally superior reinforcements.
Hood and part of his staff rode the next morning into the eerily silent town of Franklin. One soldier remembered how; “Hood stopped close to where I was standing and took a long…view of the arena of the awful contest…His sturdy visage assumed a melancholy appearance, and for a considerable time he sat on his horse and wept like a child." Exhausted and emotionally overwrought, he noticed a chair in someone’s front yard, had one of the men help him off his horse, and sat down. Hunched into his great coat, his hat low on his head, he stared out into the haunted landscape." After Franklin, Hood led what was left of his beleaguered forces to just outside of Nashville Tennessee where an early and hard winter made it an even greater hardship on his troops. Southern soldier James Cooper revealed the extent of the numerous shoeless men in Hood’s army, whose “bloody tracks could be plainly seen on the ice and snow,” and continued “I had read of such things occurring during the Revolutionary War, but here were scenes eclipsing in suffering all…I had ever imagined.” Hood’s forces were defeated at the Battle of Nashville on December 15-16 1864 by Thomas. The Army of Tennessee had started in Atlanta with just under forty thousand men. After the Battle of Nashville, less than fourteen thousand remained.
Hood’s army retreated to Tupelo Mississippi. On January 23, 1865, he resigned his command of the Army of Tennessee. In the remaining two-and-a-half months of the war, he attempted to bring forces from the west across the Mississippi River to aid the Confederate cause, but before reaching Texas, he surrendered to Union forces in Natchez Mississippi. He was paroled on May 31, 1865. An intriguing passage from Senator Louise Wigfall's memoirs gives us a glimpse of Hood's demeanor at this time of his life. Louise Wigfall’s memoirs, “A Southern Girl in 1861: The War-Time Memories of a Confederate Senator’s Daughter”: "We made the journey with him homeward when the war was over. I can see him now – we were in a baggage car, seated on boxes and trunks in all the misery and discomfort of the time. He sat opposite, and with calm, sad eyes looked out on the passing scenes, apparently noting nothing.
The cause he loved was lost – he was overwhelmed with humiliation at the utter failure of his leadership – his pride was wounded to the quick by his removal from command and Johnston’s reinstatement in his place; he was maimed by the loss of a leg in battle. In the face of his misery, which was greater than our own, we sat silent – there seemed no comfort anywhere. And the ending of his life, years after, was even more somber – dying by the side of his wife with yellow fever and leaving a family of little children to mourn a father, who, though unsuccessful in the glorious ambition of his young manhood, left to them the precious heritage of a stainless name, linked ever with the highest courage and purest patriotism". Confederate Lt. General John Bell Hood’s postwar years were spent as a cotton broker and as president of an insurance company in New Orleans. He retired from battle with a wound that had rendered his left arm useless at The Battle of Gettysburg. He suffered a wound at Chickamauga that led to amputation of his right leg just four inches below the hip. He finally married in 1868, (but it was not Sally Preston, the southern belle he had courted persistently throughout the war years), to Anna Marie Hennen, (pictured below),. His best man was former Confederate Major General and future Governor of Kentucky Simon Bolivar Buckner. He would subsequently father eleven children in a ten-year period, (three sets of twins). He was involved in a number of veterans’ and orphan fundraisers after the war. He also wrote his war memoirs entitled “Advance and Retreat” where he attempted to justify his military actions and denounce his critics. In 1878-1879, a massive yellow fever epidemic swept through the city of New Orleans, killing some 3000 individuals. The high death toll wiped out Hood's once successful insurance business. His beloved wife Anna Marie Hennen Hood would succumb to the disease on Sunday, August 24, 1879. Walter V. Crouch, a family friend, described the scene in the Hood home after Anna's death in an August 31 letter: "I never saw a man so completely crushed in my life... He said that he was completely ruined and now without his wife he had nothing to live for. The precious little lambs who had gone to bed Sunday night knowing nothing of their mother's death, began to come in one by one until nine came in and such a scene I never want to witness again". After the children left he said, "Major, I have never had the fever, but if I should have it and it's God's will l'm ready to go. I have requested Colonel Flowers to take charge of my children, and to appeal to the Confederate soldiers to support them for I have nothing on earth to leave them."
Completely devastated by the loss of his wife, struggling physically from his crippling war wounds, and under the stress of financial ruin and its impact on the security of his eleven young children, Hood contracted yellow fever on August 27 1879. His eldest daughter, ten-year-old Lydia, fell victim to the ravages of the disease on that same day and died on August 29th 1879. Hood was soon advised of his own impending demise. Calmly accepting his fate, he agreed to receive last rites, and a priest at Trinity Episcopal Church was summoned to his house. Over the next twelve hours, Hood drifted in and out of consciousness and passed away at 3:30 am Sunday, August 31, 1879, General John Bell Hood was age 48. This left his ten remaining children aged one to ten years old as destitute orphans. As per Hood's request, the Hood Orphan Memorial Publication Fund was set up by former Confederate general, P.G.T. Beauregard. (Picture of the Hood Orphans below)
Beauregard also organized a campaign to find future homes for the children. They were ultimately adopted by seven different families located in Louisiana, New York, Mississippi, Georgia and Kentucky. A charity fund had raised over $30,000 for their support and future educations. The American Civil War was still breaking up families more than ten years after the shooting had stopped. It was a tragic and sad, ending for such a gallant, honorable, and dedicated man. .
How can one not admire the bravery, service, and courage of such a man? I try to picture and imagine this man with a gallant mind and spirit riding into battle without one leg and the use of only one arm, riding miles and miles every day, giving orders, making plans, and needing assistance to get in and out of the saddle.
He led an outnumbered and underfed army with many soldiers in tattered clothing and in tattered shoes, some had no shoes at all. They had to constantly hear the whisperings of Union victories at Gettysburg, Vicksburg, Atlanta, and on and on. Any news that reached their ears from the outside world relayed the message that their cause was failing, the side you’re on is losing. This had to fill them with grave despair and doubt. This ragtag bunch marched into an early winter at Nashville with unseasonable cold and snow. Hood, with only one arm and one leg, led an army with only one arm and one leg, bravely, courageously, and dutifully and did his best. What more could anyone expect? Hood’s case to defend himself was hurt by his untimely death. At that time, his memoirs remained unpublished. Confederate General P.G.T.Beauregard took on the responsibility, as part of an effort to raise money for the Hood orphan fund. Advance and Retreat is somewhat incomplete due to Hood's sudden passing. It appears he may have strayed from the main goal in order to defend himself against Joseph Johnson's post war criticism by writing a chapter entitled “Reply to General Johnston,”
“But the half of brave Hood’s body smolders here:
The rest was lost in honor’s bold career.
Both limbs and fame he scattered all around,
Yet still, though mangled, was with honor crowned;
For ever ready with his blood to part,
War left him nothing except his heart.” by Pvt. Sam Watkins, “Southern Bivouac 2” (May 1884)