Background
HOOD, John Bell was born on June 29, 1831 in Owingsville, Bath County, Kentucky, United States, United States.
HOOD, John Bell was born on June 29, 1831 in Owingsville, Bath County, Kentucky, United States, United States.
Private school, United States Military Academy.
His parents, whose ancestors had helped to settle the state, were John W. Hood, a prosperous physician, and his wife Theodocia (French). Young Hood attended a subscription school in Clark County and graduated forty-fourth in a class of fifty-two from the U.S. Military Academy in 1853. Hood, a nonconforming Baptist, became an Episcopalian during the war as a result of his contact with General Leonidas Polk.
He married Anna Maria Hennen on April 30, 1868. They had three sons and eight daughters. A favorite of Robert E. Lee, he was a career officer in the U.S. Army before the war.
He served in California and Texas from 1853 to 1857 and fought in the Indian Wars on the frontier in 1857. In April 1861, Hood resigned his commission and joined the Confederate Army. His first duty was at Yorktown, Virginia.
He was a simple man, though tactless and crude, who hated staff duty and was a good fighter but a mediocre strategist. Hood entered the Confederate Army as a captain of cavalry and was promoted to brigadier general on March 6, 1862. In the summer of 1862, he displayed heroism during the Seven Days and at the battle of Second Manassas.
On October 10, 1862, he was promoted to major general. Hood was a hero of the battle of Gettysburg, where he lost an arm. He fought at the battle of Chickamauga just two months later and lost his right leg.
He was incapacitated for only a short while. On February 8, 1864, he was promoted to lieutenant general, and on July 18, 1864, he was temporarily promoted to full general. With the failure of the Atlanta counteroffensive which he led.
Hood asked to be relieved of his command. He reverted to lieutenant general in rank and subsequently fought under General P.G.T. Beauregard at the battles of Franklin and Nashville, Tennessee. He was involved in the most destructive phase of the Confederate war effort in the battles around Nashville.
Hood surrendered in Natchez, Mississippi, in late May 1865, and he was soon paroled. After the war, he worked as a factory and commercial merchant in New Orleans. But by the late 1860s, he had made some poor business ventures, and he was soon reduced in circumstances.
He wrote a volume of memoirs, Advance and Retreat (1878-1879) and opposed the Louisiana lottery.
"Peculiar institution" of slavery was not only expedient but also ordained by God and upheld in Holy Scripture.
Stands for preserving slavery, states' rights, and political liberty for whites. Every individual state is sovereign, even to the point of secession.
Spouse Anna Maria Hennen.