John Bell Hood: The Rise, Fall, and Resurrection of a Confederate General

by Hood, Stephen

  The adventurous life of a soldier appealed to the younger Hood, who gained an appointment to the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1849. It was there he received his nickname “Sam.” Although no written explanation for the source of the nickname has been found, many of his modern descendants believe his classmates tagged him with the moniker after the famous British war hero, Admiral Samuel Hood (1724-1816), viscount of Whitley, whose naval exploits in the late 18th century were studied by West Point students in the mid-19th century. Academically Hood struggled at the academy. He graduated in 1853 near the bottom of his class (44 out of 52), though he was nearly removed from West Point in his last year when he bumped up against the demerit limit.3

  Hood’s first assignment in the U.S. Army was in the rugged and untamed environs of northern California, where the young second lieutenant of cavalry served at Fort Jones. Described by Hood’s comrade Lt. George Crook (later a Federal general in the Civil War) as “a few log huts built on the two pieces of a passage plan,” the fort was established in October 1852 to protect miners and pioneer farmers from Indians.4

  Hood’s duties consisted primarily of commanding cavalry escorts for surveying parties into the rugged mountainous regions near the California-Oregon border. His final escort mission was in the summer of 1855, when he accompanied a party led by Lt. R. S. Williamson of the U.S. Army Corps of Topographical Engineers to explore and survey a railroad route from the Sacramento River Valley to the Columbia River. On August 4, Lt. Philip Sheridan (who would later become a prominent Federal cavalry commander) overtook the Williamson surveying expedition with orders to relieve Hood, who was instructed to return to northern California’s Fort Reading and then proceed east for a new assignment in Texas. “Lt. Hood started this morning with a small escort, on his return to Fort Reading,” Williamson wrote in his journal on August 5, “much to the regret of the whole party.”5

  “The duty of repressing hostilities among the Indian tribes, and of protecting frontier settlements from their depredations,” wrote Secretary of War Jefferson Davis in September of 1853, “is the most difficult one which the Army has now to perform; and nowhere has it been found more difficult than on the Western frontier of Texas.” After nearly two more years of little progress, Davis authorized in 1855 the formation and equipping of two new regiments of cavalry, whose mission was to suppress hostile Indian activity on the Texas frontier. One of these was the U.S. Second Cavalry Regiment.

  The vast majority of U.S. Army officers (either veterans of the war with Mexico or recent graduates of West Point) were bored and despondent over the dull routine of an inactive or fading military career. For them, the news of the formation of new cavalry regiments—an active assignment, coupled with the possibility of long-overdue promotions—was greeted with genuine enthusiasm. Among the fortunate few assigned to the new cavalry regiments were future Civil War notables Colonel Albert Sidney Johnston, Lieutenant Colonel Robert E. Lee, Major William J. Hardee, Major George H. Thomas, Captain Earl Van Dorn, and Second Lieutenant John Bell Hood.

  A year passed, during which Hood traveled east from his northern California duty station, spent time in Kentucky, and then made his way at last to Jefferson Barracks in St. Louis, where the Second Cavalry Regiment was organized and outfitted. After reporting for duty to Lieutenant Colonel Lee in Texas in January of 1857, Hood soon transferred to serve under Major Thomas at Fort Mason, a stronghold built in 1851 on Post Oak Hill near Comanche and Centennial creeks in what would later be Mason County.

  On July 5, Hood led a 24-man cavalry expedition south from the relative safety of the fort, embarking on what would become an extremely long and hazardous search for a renegade Indian war party reported to be in the remote and desolate area of the appropriately named Devil’s River. On July 20, the patrol encountered 40 to 50 heavily armed mounted Comanche warriors and a hand-to-hand battle ensued. Hood, who was still mounted, suffered his first combat wound when an arrow pierced his left hand, pinning it to his saddle. Hood broke the arrow, freed his injured limb, discharged his shotgun, and then drew his Colt Navy revolvers, emptying the 12 rounds pointblank at his attackers. The Comanches killed two troopers and wounded several more during the initial round of fighting.

  Unable to reload under such pressing conditions, Hood ordered a retreat. The troopers fell back and regrouped in the rear, where they prepared for another assault from the warriors. Much to the relief of Hood and his men, the Comanches ceased their attack and withdrew overnight, taking their dead with them. Hood praised his soldiers, writing in his official report, “It is due my non-commissioned officers and men, one and all … during the action they did all men could do, accomplishing more than could be expected from their number and the odds against which they had to contend.”6

  Hood resigned his U.S. Army commission on April 16, 1861, shortly after the bombardment of Fort Sumter and the outbreak of the Civil War, and enlisted in the Confederate Army. For a second time since their days at West Point he was reunited with Robert E. Lee, his former superintendent at the Academy. The young soldier reported to Lee in the Confederate capital at Richmond in the summer of 1861 and was assigned to the Virginia peninsula, where Confederate infantry and cavalry units were being organized and trained. Rapid promotions followed. Hood’s first command was as colonel of the 4th Texas Infantry Regiment. He was promoted to brigadier general on March 6, 1862, and appointed commander of the Texas brigade, a mixed outfit of Texans, Georgians, and South Carolinians.7

  Hood’s decision to wear the blue or the gray had not been an easy one. On September 27, 1860, he declined a coveted assignment as an instructor of cavalry at West Point because he feared that civil war would soon break out, and he “preferred to be in a situation to act with entire freedom.” Instead of accepting the prestigious West Point offer, he took an extended furlough from the Second Cavalry and spent the fall and winter of 1860 in his native Kentucky, waiting to see how the sectional crisis would evolve. He was still on furlough when he returned to Camp Wood, Texas, in January 1861. “I see that dissolution is now regarded as a fixed fact. And that Kentucky will have an important part to perform in this great movement,” Hood wrote on January 15 to Beriah Magoffin, the governor of Kentucky. “I thereby have the honor to offer my sword & services to my native state. And shall hold myself in readiness to obey any call the Governor of said state may choose to make upon me.”

  On April 15, three days after the attack on Fort Sumter, President Abraham Lincoln called upon Governor Magoffin to provide four regiments to assist in suppressing the rebellion. Magoffin flatly refused and Lincoln dared not insist, for fear that he would drive Kentucky into the Confederacy. By April 16 Hood had lost his patience: “I have the honor to tender the resignation of my Commission as 1st Lieutenant 2nd Cavalry U.S. Army—To take effect on this date.” His resignation was approved by the Secretary of War on the 25th and announced on the 27th. By then, Hood was already a first lieutenant of cavalry in the Confederate Army, and on his way back to Kentucky to recruit.8

  By the end of April 1862, the focus of Confederate and Union military operations had moved from the environs of northern Virginia to the peninsula between the York and James rivers. Federal General George B. McClellan had transferred the bulk of his Army of the Potomac by water to Fort Monroe and was endeavoring to move up the peninsula to capture the Confederate capital at Richmond from the east. The strong fortifications at Yorktown and heavy rains, however, convinced McClellan to commence siege operations. Just hours before his artillery barrage was to begin, General Joseph Johnston withdrew his Confederate army from the Yorktown entrenchments and retreated west toward Richmond, followed by a brisk rearguard action at Williamsburg on May 5. Correctly assuming that McClellan would use the York River as a means of flanking his line of retreat, on the same day Williamsburg was raging Johnston ordered General Gustavus W. Smith’s division, including the Texas brigade, to march hastily toward Richmond via Barhamsville, a small town a few miles inland from the
headwaters of the York River.

  By the morning of May 7, Johnston had most of his Confederate army positioned around Barhamsville. Smith’s division, situated northeast of town, protected the army’s main line of retreat toward Richmond. Johnston’s fears of a Federal flanking maneuver by water were soon realized when Generals William B. Franklin and John Sedgwick landed with their divisions at Eltham’s Landing near the head of the York River. The enemy column was only two miles from the road that was crowded with Johnston’s retreating supply trains. To ensure that no Federals were moving to threaten the Confederate line of retreat, Johnston sent a portion of Smith’s division under General William H. C. Whiting toward the enemy position. Whiting’s orders were simple: drive the enemy back far enough so they could not threaten the Confederate withdrawal.

  When orders arrived from Whiting, Hood marched his brigade forward at 7:00 a.m. In a bid to avoid accidental discharges that might reveal his position and also incur friendly fire losses, Hood’s men moved through the heavy woods with unloaded muskets. After an uneventful march of about one mile, with Hood riding at the head of the column, the troops entered an open field that rose to a small hill upon which stood a small cabin. Hood ordered Company A of the 4th Texas to form in line at the base of the hill, followed by the rest of the regiment, and spurred his own horse up the slope with a staff member and courier to reconnoiter. The small party was approaching the crest when a squad of Federals appeared from the other side of the cabin. The men belonged to the 16th New York, and had climbed the height’s steep counter-face while Hood and his aides ascended the gentler slope on the other side. Stunned by the sudden appearance of their opponents and just paces apart, everyone involved froze. After a short pause Hood and his companions instinctively turned their horses to provide cover, quickly dismounted, and sprinted back to the nearby Confederate line as the New Yorkers opened fire.

  The unexpected appearance of the enemy, combined with their unloaded weapons, threw the Texans into confusion. Many scurried for any cover they could find. Hood was rallying his men when a Federal corporal named George Love raised his weapon and took aim at the Rebel general. Before he could pull the trigger, however, a Texan kneeling behind a stump fired first. The round whizzed past Hood and killed Love instantly. Hood’s savior was John Deal, a private in the 4th Texas whose unsuccessful hunting expedition the night before had left him with the only loaded gun in the regiment.

  Hood’s brigade, along with the balance of Whiting’s division, forced the Federals back to the York River landing and the protection of their gunboats. Whiting shelled the enemy position without much effect. The battle of Eltham’s Landing was a well-fought heavy skirmish that secured the Confederate retreat route to Richmond at the cost of fewer than 50 Southern killed and wounded (Union losses were about 200). It was also the first Southern victory on the Peninsula. G. W. Smith praised Hood’s brigade for having earned “the largest share of the honors of the day at Eltham,” while Whiting wrote of Hood’s “conspicuous gallantry.” The Texas brigade was once again designated as the rearguard of the army as it continued withdrawing toward Richmond. Eltham’s Landing established the brigade’s early reputation as a hard-fighting unit, and Hood demonstrated capable and aggressive leadership in the fight.9

  It is fair to say that the battle of Seven Pines (Fair Oaks) on May 31 and June 1, 1862, changed the course of the war in the Eastern Theater and with it, Hood’s career. When Joseph E. Johnston fell severely wounded near the end of the first day of his botched offensive, President Jefferson Davis appointed Gen. Robert E. Lee to command the Virginia army, which would become famous under Lee as the Army of Northern Virginia.

  In the Seven Days’ Battles (fought the last week of June and the first day of July), Lee attacked McClellan north of the Chickahominy River and drove the Union army southward toward the James River. The Texas brigade played an important role in the Confederate victory at Gaines’s Mill when Hood led his troops in a stunning breakthrough of a strong fortified Union line that initiated the collapse of the entire position. Later that summer at Second Manassas, Hood (now in temporary command of the division) participated in Longstreet’s massive counterattack that swept John Pope’s Army of Virginia from the field. Less than a month later on September 17 at Sharpsburg, Hood led his division in a vicious counter-assault against overwhelming numbers that helped stabilize the Confederate left flank and save Lee’s army from disaster. His gallant performances and personal leadership abilities impressed Lieutenant General Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson, who recommended his promotion to major general and a permanent assignment to command a division.10

  Hood’s division did not see action at Fredericksburg in December of 1862, and missed Chancellorsville in May of 1863 because of his participation in a large-scale foraging operation known as the Suffolk Campaign. He and his division were back with the army when it moved out in June and headed north toward Pennsylvania. Late in the afternoon of July 2 at Gettysburg, Hood’s division (part of Longstreet’s corps) was deployed to attack the extreme Federal left, with another division under Lafayette McLaws aligned to attack on Hood’s left. The Union line was anchored in heavy hilly terrain covered with rocks and boulders, trees, brush, and other obstacles. General Evander Law, the division’s senior brigade commander, formally protested Longstreet’s order to Hood, who agreed and in turn protested to Longstreet. According to John Dyer, Law noted,

  The strength of the enemy’s position rendered the result of a direct assault extremely uncertain; that even if successful the victory would be at too great a sacrifice of life; that a frontal assault was unnecessary and a movement around the enemy’s left flank was not only possible but comparatively easy; and that such a movement would compel the Federals to abandon their position on the ridge and thus reverse the situation, forcing the displaced Federals to attack the Confederates in position.11

  Hood’s own account recalled sending staff officers to Longstreet on two occasions to appeal for the flanking movement. When Longstreet denied the requests, Hood sent his own adjutant, Colonel Harry Sellers, who was also unable to persuade Longstreet to change tactics. Hood was ordering the attack as planned when Longstreet arrived in person. Hood took the opportunity to once more request the abandonment of the frontal assault, and for the fourth time Longstreet insisted that Lee’s original instructions be followed.12

  Within minutes of ordering his division into action an artillery shell exploded and shredded Hood’s left arm with iron fragments. He was carried from the field, his career with the Army of Northern Virginia at an end. Although his own division and that of McLaws achieved some initial success, Meade poured thousands of reinforcements into the fighting and by the close of the day the Federals held the important position of Little Round Top.

  That September, Hood’s division (as part of Longstreet’s corps) was sent west to reinforce Braxton Bragg’s Army of Tennessee. On September 20, the second day of the battle at Chickamauga, Hood was wounded in the upper right leg by a minie ball while leading his division as part of a large-scale attack that broke through the Union line and swept most of the Army of the Cumberland from the battlefield. The ball that struck Hood broke his femur and required the amputation of his leg. For his gallantry and conspicuous role in the Southern victory, the 32-year-old Hood was promoted to the rank of lieutenant general.13

  As 1864 dawned, both the Confederacy and John Bell Hood were crippled. War had cost Hood half of his limbs, and the Confederacy had lost much of its territory and many of its senior commanders. With Southern resources and manpower on the wane, and Northern elections later that fall, President Lincoln and General Ulysses S. Grant, who was promoted to command all Union forces, planned a series of simultaneous major operations against Rebel forces in Louisiana, Virginia, and Georgia in the spring of 1864. They hoped this strategy would prevent the South from using its interior lines to shuttle reinforcements to threatened points, and that steady combat against enemy armies would weaken the South and b
ring the war to a decisive conclusion.

  Hood, who spent the winter of 1863-64 in Richmond recovering from his leg amputation, developed a close relationship with President Jefferson Davis. By all accounts the two men grew close; both were natives of Kentucky, and both advocated aggressive military tactics. With the rank of lieutenant general, Hood was assigned to command an infantry corps in Joseph Johnston’s newly reinforced Army of Tennessee in northern Georgia.14

  With three armies and a powerful cavalry arm under his direct control, Federal General William T. Sherman commenced his Atlanta Campaign in early May of 1864. Johnston fell back almost immediately. By the middle of July Sherman had advanced about 100 miles into Georgia and Johnston’s army was within five miles of Atlanta. Desperate to save the important city, Davis on July 17 relieved Johnston of command of the Army of Tennessee and replaced him with the aggressive and enthusiastic Hood, who was promoted to the rank of full general. Although for political reasons Hood’s promotion was temporary, at age 33 he became the youngest full general in the Civil War, Federal or Confederate. He remains the youngest full general in American military history.

  Hood’s later failures as an army commander in 1864 would be as notorious as his successes were notable in the war’s early years. At a rank equivalent to that of Robert E. Lee (who was more than 20 years older), Hood conducted a spirited defense of Atlanta but failed to break the Federal siege. The important city fell to Sherman’s forces on the second day of September. With the blessing of Davis and his immediate superior, General P. G. T. Beauregard, Hood led the Army of Tennessee on a desperate invasion of Tennessee, where he suffered decisive defeats at Franklin on November 30 and at Nashville on December 16. After leading the survivors of his army on its retreat to Tupelo, Mississippi, in early January, Hood resigned his command and returned to Richmond.