John Bell Hood

John Bell Hood (June 1, 1831 – August 30, 1879) was a Confederate general during the American Civil War. Hood had a reputation for bravery and aggressiveness that sometimes bordered on recklessness. Arguably one of the best brigade and division commanders in the Confederate States Army, Hood became increasingly ineffective as he was promoted to lead larger, independent commands, and his career is marred by his decisive defeats leading an army in the Atlanta Campaign and the Franklin-Nashville Campaign.

Post-bellum career

After the war, Hood moved to Louisiana and became a cotton broker and ran an insurance business. In 1868 he married New Orleans native Anna Marie Hennen, with whom he would father eleven children, including three pairs of twins, over ten years. His insurance business was ruined by a yellow fever epidemic in New Orleans during the winter of 1878–79 and he succumbed to the disease himself, dying just days after his wife and oldest child, leaving ten destitute orphans, who were adopted by families throughout the South.

Related Topics:
Louisiana - Cotton - Insurance - 1868 - New Orleans - Yellow fever - 1878 - 79

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John Bell Hood is buried in the Army of Tennessee Memorial in Metairie Cemetery, New Orleans. He is memorialized by Hood County, Texas, and the U.S. Army installation, Fort Hood Texas.

Related Topics:
Metairie Cemetery - Hood County, Texas - Fort Hood - Texas

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Steven Vincent Benet's poem Army of Northern Virginia included a poignant passage about Hood:

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: Yellow-haired Hood with his wounds and his empty sleeve,

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: Leading his Texans, a Viking shape of a man,

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: With the thrust and lack of craft of a berserk sword,

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: All lion, none of the fox.

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:              When he supersedes

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: Joe Johnston, he is lost, and his army with him,

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: But he could lead forlorn hopes with the ghost of Ney.

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: His bigboned Texans follow him into the mist.

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: Who follows them?

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