Suffered a crippling wound to his arm at Gettysburg, on July 2, 1863

Severely wounded at the battle of Chickamauga, Ga., resulting in the amputation of his leg

(1831-79) Born in Owingsville, Kentucky, he graduated in the West Point class of 1853. His classmates were James B. McPherson, and John M. Schofield, and he received instruction in artillery tactics from George H. Thomas. All 3 of these men became U.S. Army generals who would fight against Hood in battle during the Civil War. The superintendent at the academy when Hood attended was Colonel Robert E. Lee, who would become Hood's commanding general in the Army of Northern Virginia. He resigned his U.S. Army commission on April 17, 1861, immediately after the bombardment of Fort Sumter, and thereafter distinguished himself on many Civil War battlefields as a regimental, brigade, division and army commander. At the end of September 1861, he was commissioned colonel of the 4th Texas Infantry Regiment. The hard fighting Hood was promoted to brigadier general effective March 3, 1862, and he saw battle action while leading the "Texas Brigade," in the Army of Northern Virginia, during the 1862 peninsular campaign. He earned a respected reputation as an aggressive combat commander, eager to personally lead his troops into battle, and his "Texans" quickly gained notice as one of the army's elite fighting units. At the Battle of Gaines's Mill, Va., on June 27, 1862, General Hood distinguished himself by leading his brigade in a charge that broke through the Union lines, and it was the most successful Confederate performance in the Seven Days Battles. Hood survived unscathed, but over 400 men, and most of the officers in the "Texas Brigade" were killed or wounded. Hood broke down and wept at the sight of his dead and dying men on the battlefield. After inspecting the Yankee entrenchments, General Stonewall Jackson was heard to say, "The men who carried this position were truly soldiers indeed!" At the battle of 2nd Manassas, Va., fought on August 28-30, 1862, Hood spearheaded the assault on the Federal left flank that forced them to retreat from the field. Hood's two brigades lost over 1000 men in the battle. During the Battle of Sharpsburg, Md., on September 17, 1862, Hood's division came to the relief of General Stonewall Jackson's corps on the Confederate left flank, fighting in the infamous cornfield, and turned back an assault by the Union's 1st Corps in the West Woods. Afterward, they became engaged with the 12th Corps. In the evening after the battle, General Lee asked Hood where his division was. He responded, "They are lying on the field where you sent them. My division has been almost wiped out." Of his 2,000 men, almost 1,000 became casualties. Jackson was impressed with Hood's performance and recommended his promotion to major general, which occurred effective October 10, 1862. In the spring of 1863, Hood's division was with General James Longstreet's 1st Corps at Suffolk, Va. When the news of General Stonewall Jackson's death reached him, Hood expressed enormous grief for the man he most deeply admired, both personally and militarily. At the Battle of Gettysburg, General Longstreet's Corps arrived on the field late in the day of July 1, 1863. General Lee planned an assault for July 2nd in which Longstreet's Corps was to attack up the Emmitsburg Road into the Union's left flank. Hood was dissatisfied with his assignment in the assault because his men would face difficult terrain in the boulder strewn area known as Devil's Den. He requested permission from Longstreet to move around the left flank of the Union army, beyond the mountain known as Big Round Top, to strike the Yankee soldiers in the rear. However, Longstreet, refused permission, citing General Lee's orders were set, despite repeated protests from Hood. Yielding to the inevitable, Hood finally gave in, and his division stepped off around 4 p.m. on July 2nd. General Hood's troops would eventually encounter the Union forces at Little Round Top. As the attack started, Hood was the victim of an artillery shell exploding overhead, severely damaging his left arm, which incapacitated him, although the arm was not amputated. His ranking brigade commander, General Evander M. Law, took over command of the division, but they were not able to beat back the Yankees who were heavily fortified on the high ground at Little Round Top, and Hood was sent to Richmond to convalesce from his serious Gettysburg battle wound. Meanwhile, in the Western Theater, the Confederate army under the command of General Braxton Bragg was doing poorly, so General Lee decided to dispatch two divisions of Longstreet's Corps to Tennessee, to aide Bragg's troops. Hood had just rejoined his command and was sent west. At Chickamauga Ga., on September 19, 1863, Hood repulsed an attack by General Jefferson C. Davis's division. On the 20th, Hood led Longstreet's assault that exploited a gap in the Federal lines, leading to the defeat of General William S. Rosecrans's Army of the Cumberland. However, Hood was once again wounded severely; his right femur was fractured, and his leg was amputated four inches below the hip. Hood's condition was so grave that the surgeon sent the severed leg with him in the ambulance, assuming they would be buried together. Hood was taken to the home of Colonel Francis Little to recover for several weeks before going back to Richmond to continue his recovery. Because of Hood's bravery at Chickamauga, Longstreet recommended that Hood be promoted to Lieutenant General which the Confederate Senate confirmed. He later fought at Atlanta, and Franklin and Nashville, Tenn. In March 1865, Hood was transferred to the Trans-Mississippi Theater to report on the situation and assess the possibility of moving troops across the Mississippi River to reinforce the East. He met with Lieutenant General Richard Taylor in Mississippi in late April, and agreed with Taylor's proposal that his force should surrender. General Lee's Army had already surrendered in Virginia earlier in the month. Hood departed to take this recommendation to the commanders remaining in the field, but before he arrived in Texas, General Edmund Kirby Smith had surrendered his forces, and Hood surrendered himself in Natchez, Mississippi, where he was paroled on May 31, 1865. After the war, Hood moved to Louisiana and became a cotton broker and worked as president of the Life Association of America, an insurance business. In 1868, he married New Orleans native Anna Marie Hennen, with whom he had 11 children over ten years, including three pairs of twins. He also served the community in numerous philanthropic endeavors, assisting in fund-raising for orphans, widows, and wounded soldiers. During the postwar period, he began a memoir, "Advance and Retreat: Personal Experiences in the United States and Confederate States Armies." Though rough, incomplete, and unpublished until after his death, this work served to justify his actions, particularly in response to what he considered misleading or false accusations made by General Joseph E. Johnston, and to negative portrayals in General William Tecumseh Sherman's memoirs. He died of yellow fever at New Orleans, La., together with his wife and his oldest daughter Lydia, in August 1879. John Bell Hood is interred in the Hennen family tomb at Metairie Cemetery, in New Orleans.

Wet plate, albumen carte de visite photograph, mounted to 2 3/8 x 4 card. Chest up view in Confederate uniform with rank of brigadier general. Period pencil ID on the front mount, "Hood ConFed.[erate]" Back mark: E. & H.T. Anthony, 501 Broadway, New York. John Bell Hood's collar insignia is that of colonel, and his button spacing indicate his rank is brigadier general. Consequently this image was most likely taken in the spring or summer of 1862 just after his promotion to brigadier. Very fine, and an extremely desirable Confederate general. Very popular!