I just finished reading Stephen M. Hood's book about his distant relative General John Bell Hood. Sam Hood feels like his famous relative has had a bad time at the hands first of former Confederate officers who wanted to deflect the blame for the Southern defeat away from them and onto Hood, and from 20th and 21st Century historians and writers who have perpetuated myths and falsehoods about the General.
If you Google this book, you will find plenty on the web about Stephen Hood's bashing of other Civil War historians, especially Wiley Sword, the author of the acclaimed book The Confederacy's Last Hurrah. Reviews and discussions of the controversy swirling around this book can be found Here, Here, Here, Here, and Here.
I don't want to wade into all the controversy. Suffice it to say that I greatly enjoyed reading the book and I think that Mr. Hood has proven that his famous cousin has been libeled by history. For whatever it's worth here's my two cents about General Hood. I think that General Hood was a brave and competent officer who was given an impossible job. In my judgment, even if the Army of Tennessee had been commanded by Napoleon Bonaparte, Alexander the Great and George Patton, by the Summer of 1864 it probably wouldn't have made too much difference. The North had an overwhelming superiority in men and supplies and, unless the South could have scored enough victories to cause Lincoln to lose the election of 1864, military defeat was inevitable.
As to the whole controversy surrounding the Battle of Spring Hill and the Battle of Franklin, I think that Hood's plan at Spring Hill was sound but he was poorly served by his subordinates who failed to block the road out of town and allowed the Union Army to slip away during the night. While I think that Stephen Hood has conclusively proven that General Hood was not drunk or high on laudanum during the Battle of Spring Hill, I think (and if Stephen Hood reads this, this is just my opinion and is not based on any evidence) that a more physically vigorous man without Hood's devastating injuries (General Hood had an arm mangled at Gettysburg and lost a leg at Chickamauga) might have personally gone to the front and made sure that the road from Spring Hill was blocked.
What really interests me is what this book shows about how history is written and transmitted. Mr. Hood has proven conclusively that many myths, falsehoods, half-truths and down right lies have crept into the history books about General Hood. If this is true of a relatively modern figure like John Bell Hood, how can we rely on anything written about an ancient figure like Hannibal, Alexander or Caesar?
One of the things that Stephen Hood criticizes Wiley Sword for is playing up Hood's engagement to the Southern Belle Sally "Buck" Preston and saying that Hood ordered the assault at Franklin, TN to impress his girlfriend. In order to play up the prurient interests of the readers of this blog, here's a picture of Sally "Buck" Preston
