John Bell Hood
(1831-1879)

John B. Hood excelled as a brigade and division leader, was uncooperative as a corps commander, and was a disaster at the head of an army, which he almost destroyed. A Kentucky-born West Pointer (1853), he became associated with Texas while with the 2nd Cavalry.

Resigning his first lieutenant's commission on April 16, 1861, he joined the South. His assignments included:

first lieutenant, Cavalry (spring 1861)
colonel, 4th Texas (October 1, 1861)
commanding Texas Brigade, Whiting's Division (known as Forces Near Dumfries and in the Potomac District until March and the Valley District in June), Department of Northern Virginia (February 20 - June 1862)
brigadier general, CSA (March 3, 1862)
commanding Texas Brigade, Whiting's Division, 2nd Corps, Army of Northern Virginia (June 26 - July 1862)
commanding the division, 1st Corps, same army (July-August 30, 1862; September 14, 1862 - February 25, 1863; and May - July 2, 1863)
major general, CSA (October 10, 1862)
commanding division in the Department of Virginia and North Carolina (February 25 - April 1, 1863) in the Department of Southern Virginia (April 1 - May 1863);
temporarily commanding the corps (September 20, 1863)
lieutenant general, CSA (February 1, 1864)
commanding 2nd Corps, Army of Tennessee (February 28 - July 18, 1864)
temporary rank of general, CSA, and commanding the army (July 18, 1864 - January 23, 1865)
commanding Department of Tennessee and Georgia (August 15, 1864 - January 25, 1865).

He organized cavalry on the Peninsula and was distinguished at West Point and saw action at Seven Pines, Seven Days, 2nd Bull Run. He was arrested by General Nathan G. Evans after a dispute over some captured ambulances. He was allowed to accompany his division and was released by Lee on the morning of South Mountain.

He distinguished himself at Antietam he was promoted to major general and fought at Fredericksburg. He then served in southeast Virginia and led a division at Gettysburg where he was wounded in his arm.

He resumed command and while commanding the corps at Chickamauga, was wounded again, this time in the leg. While recovering in Richmond, he received a promotion and was permanently assigned to the Army of Tennessee.

Hood then had a great deal of difficulty in coordinating with the other corps commanders during the Atlanta Campaign. When the army fell back to the outskirts of Atlanta, Hood was appointed a temporary general and replaced Joe Johnston.

In a series of disastrous attacks over the next several days he failed to drive Sherman from the city. After a siege he was forced to evacuate and in the autumn resorted to attacking Union supply lines to force Sherman north. This failed so he launched a move into middle Tennessee, trying to draw the enemy from Georgia. He missed his opportunity at Spring Hill,and then he sent his infantry into a bloody frontal attack at Franklin that decimated them.

He besigeied the Union forces in Nashville, and when he attacked in mid-December 1864, his army was all but wiped out. He retreated south with the fragments of the army and relinquished his command and his temporary commission in January 1865.

After the war he settled in New Orleans and was a prosperous merchant until the financial crisis in 1878. He died the next year in a yellow fever epidemic.

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