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

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

I enjoyed John Bell Hood: The Rise, Fall, and Resurrection of a Confederate General.  For anyone interested in the subject, I highly recommend it.

THE CONFEDERACY'S LAST HURRAH

It's probably not politically correct anymore to even study Civil War history.  Seemingly we have reached a point where we will be required to white wash any history that the ruling elite doesn't like.

After a visit to Franklin, TN in May I got back interested in reading about The Late Unpleasantness With the North.  I have had this book sitting around for a long time and decided to read it.  Originally published in hardback in 1992 as Embrace an Angry Wind: The Confederacy's Last Hurrah: Spring Hill, Franklin & Nashville and released in paperback simply as The Confederacy's Last Hurrah, this is currently the best account of the Army of Tennessee's ill fated 1864 Autumn Campaign now in print.

Written by independent scholar Wiley Sword, the book is well written, well researched and entertaining.  In recent years Sword has come under fire by apologists for Confederate General John B. Hood who object to Sword's portrayal of the General.  Hood apologist and distant relative Stephen Hood has pointed out errors in some of Sword's statements and conclusions.  I find these errors and distortions to be minor.  The Confederacy's Last Hurrah is an excellent book.

Author Wiley Sword

Sword especially takes fire for describing in detail General Hood's relationship and failed engagement to the beautiful young Southern Belle Sally "Buck" Preston.  Although the "moon light and magnolia" romance lends nothing to the military history it does show that Civil War Generals were real flesh and blood human beings who have all of the problems and weaknesses that human beings have.  It also makes for very entertaining reading.

General John Bell Hood, C.S.A.

Sword has also been criticized for alluding that General Hood may have made bad military decisions because he was high on laudanum because of his horrific battle injuries.  (Hood had an arm mangled at Gettysburg and lost a leg at Chickamauga.)  I don't think that there is any doubt that in his crippled condition, regardless of how good his mind was, Hood was not in good enough physical shape for the rigors of commanding a Civil War army in the field.   Hood would have been fine for the job that Jefferson Davis gave Braxton Bragg, to sit around in Richmond and advise the President on strategy. But hours in the saddle in the field had to be taxing on a physically fit man, it was probably brutal on a man in Hood's condition.

Sally "Buck" Preston

It's obvious that Wiley Sword thinks that John Bell Hood was a bad general.  He's entitled to his opinion.  I tend to agree with Bruce Catton that at the stage of the war when Hood was appointed to command the Army of Tennessee there was no good decision that he could make.  Any decision Hood made was going to be a bad one.   By the summer of 1864, in order to win, any Confederate general was going to have to take long chances.  Jefferson Davis fired Joe Johnston because the President perceived that Johnston wouldn't fight.  Hood was expected to fight for Atlanta and that's what he proceeded to do.  Hood's plans were not bad on paper - but the execution of them always seemed to get bungled.

The invasion of Tennessee was controversial even then.  Hood pulled his troops out of Georgia and left Georgia to the mercy of Sherman and headed for Tennessee.  The best chance for victory in Tennessee came at Spring Hill when the Army of Tennessee almost trapped an entire Federal Army Corps.  The failure at Spring Hill is due to several factors.  As Sword points out, due to Hood's physical condition he left matters primarily to his subordinates and rather than going to the front himself and pushing the attack, Hood retired to his headquarters for rest.  A man in good physical condition would have probably gone to the front himself and pushed the attack like Stonewall Jackson did.  The escape of the Federal Army at Spring Hill was not entirely Hood's fault.  As Sword points out, Hood's lieutenants served him poorly at the Battle of Spring Hill.

There is considerable controversy over whether the disastrous assault at Franklin the next day, was ordered by Hood as a punishment for the Army allowing the Federals to escape at Spring Hill.  There is no doubt that Hood was livid at his subordinates for their bungling.  Time and again Civil War Generals ordered frontal assaults on prepared positions which in retrospect should not have been made.   Burnside assaulted Marye's Heights at Fredricksburg, Lee assaulted Cemetery Ridge at Gettysburg, Sherman assaulted Cheatham's Hill at Kennesaw Mountain, and Grant assaulted the formidable Confederate position at Cold Harbor.  Hood was certainly not alone among Civil War Generals in ordering a disastrous front assault.

I don't think that Hood realized how well the Union Army was entrenched at Franklin.  And except for a few accidents of war, like a Yankeee Brigade accidentally resting where it could repulse the Confederate breach of the line, Hood's assault at Franklin almost worked.  Nobody could have predicted the horrendous casualties that would be suffered by the Army of Tennessee on that day.  To the extent that Sword insinuates that Hood may have ordered the attack to impress his girlfriend, that's just nonsense.  Sword also says some unkind things about Hood's post-war marriage and says that he fathered 11 children in order to show he was a still a man.  Stephen Hood is right that Sword's comments along these lines are just plain mean.

The so called siege of Nashville by the Army of Tennessee was a forlorn hope.  That it would eventually repulsed and the Rebel army beaten back were almost a foregone conclusion.

I have left out of the above a lot of really interesting reading in this book regarding the politics and squabbling among the Union High Command during the Autumn Campaign.

The Confederacy's Last Hurrah is a very good book.  Highly recommended.