Transcripts For CSPAN3 The Civil War 20140803

The painting is being exhibited under stringent security measures, particularly temperaturecontrolled case. Nearly 10,000 people filed by mona lisa the first day, making her by far the most popular hostess in washington. Everybody wants to meet the new girl in town. Next, stephen hood discusses his book on the military career, personal life, and legacy of general John Bell Hood. The author is a distant relative of the general. He analyzes his actions at divingauga and antietam, into records recently released by hood descendents. He said many controversial acts are clarified or redeemed through examination of the documents. Atlantant is from the cyclorama museum. It is about an hour and ordered five minutes. 45 minutes. For coming. I was in atlanta in january. I am going to be able to vote down here if i keep showing up. In West Virginia you could, probably. To mention a couple of people that are here. My beloved cousin, barbara hopkins, and her husband, mark, are here. They are from huntington, and moved down to atlanta about 10 years ago. General hoods greatgranddaughter, mary hood pearlman, and her husband skip, from asheville, North Carolina, are here. I am going to embarrass her and make her raise her hand. [applause] marys grandfather was oswald hood, one of the 1100 children we will talk about later. Hood children we will talk about later. As anthony mentioned, i wrote a book on hood, and it was originally to be titled history versus John Bell Hood. And i will was be talking about this here in a few minutes i was a little bit distressed at a lot of the things that had been written about hood, especially from. Round the 1970s on and i decided to write a book a lotould really expose of the myths and the legends about him that you read about, and actually use primary Source Information to let the reader what that is about, what that legend or what that myth is about. It was with information readily available, Southern Historical Society Records and those things. From one of general hoods greatgrandchildren, and he said, you know, weve got a trunk load, or weve got some boxes, of letters that had been passed down through the generations, and you might want to look at these to see if there is any important scholastic information in there, before you send your book to the publisher. So, i did. I went up and looked at them. It was a treasure trove. It was the papers of John Bell Hood that every scholar, every civil war scholar since the end of the war, or since his death in 1879, thought they were lost. Within 72is wife died hours of each other of yellow fever, and left 11 orphans, all under the age of 10. Yes. 11 and 10. They have three sets of twins. When hood died unexpectedly, his friends obviously he had 11 little mouths to feed three times a day. Felt likes always that his papers were just discarded in the housecleaning that happened after his death. But as it turns out, they werent. So i went through the papers and transcribed them as quickly as i found some just incredible new information. Publisher and i said, what should i do with this new information . He said, well, go ahead and kind of rewrite your chapters, and go ahead and put it in. And i did, very quickly, and i sent him the new manuscript. And he called me and he said, wow. He said, this is big. And he said, it was persuasive before it is even more persuasive now. We are going to change the title of the book from history versus John Bell Hood to John Bell Hood the rise, fall, and resurrection of the confederate general. I thought that was a bit presumptuous perhaps, but the response i have had to the book has just been incredible. So that is how the papers came to be. Them wererpts from inserted into my manuscript. And the lost papers of John Bell Hood, which as anthony mentioned , he, and i, and everybody else thought was going to be available in midmay, as been delayed. Has been delayed. So what i am going to do here is going to be kind of a hybrid presentation, if you will. I want to take a little bit of time to go over some of the controversies occurred of hood. Is aume everybody here civil war enthusiast to some degree. A lot of these, you will be familiar with. I am going to show you some information that will probably hopefully change her opinion of this truth, this historic truth that you always thought you knew. Is, ihat i am going to do am going to do a back turn, and toward the end i am going to go not going to is have anything to do with controversies. It is just some of the fascinating letters that were , the transcripts of which will be in the book. It will be unannotated volume. Annotated an volume. Let me say this. The owners of the papers the asked me what my opinion was that he should do with them, and i said, keep them, because the family has done such a great job of keeping them over the last 130 or 140 years. Why not . They have been scanned, and a digital archive of these letters will be at Memorial Hall museum in new orleans, tentatively. Chosenpretty much been where these images will be. Let us start. Starters, this photograph. In these records, in the boxes of papers, if you will, are not just letters. There were photographs, ephemera,ephemeral everything. One was a photograph of John Bell Hood. I had never seen it, and had not across anybody who had ever seen it. The only one in existence was in the possession of the descendents. This is a photograph of him. Is obviously taken in the winter of 1864. He had recovered from his right arm was wounded excuse me. His left arm was wounded at gettysburg. His right leg was shot and amputated at the hip at chickamauga. He recovered in richmond, and returned to duty at the beginning of the atlanta campaign. This is obviously a photograph of him taken in richmond after he had recovered, and probably just before he boarded the train and headed south as a Lieutenant General to command the core under Joseph Johnston. That was in the newly discovered papers, if you will. Ok. These are things that i would love to stand up here for however long you are going to give me, and i would like to go over all the stuff, but i cant. But im going to read these things, and im making these assertions, and by golly, i can back them up, even though i am not going to tonight, as you all came here to see other things. Hood did not call his men cowards. He did except responsibility for his defeats. , andsnt angry at franklin decided to slaughter his own army because he was mad. He didnt like frontal assaults. As a matter of fact, the only one he ever ordered was at franklin. A a matter of fact, if he had problem, it was being too wedded , committed, to flanking movements. He didnt position any of his brigades or divisions at franklin so that they would be shot up the most, because he was menaced at them. Ofyou all havent read some the books on the tennessee campaign, you would think i am making this stuff up, but it is pretty well entrenched in certain areas of civil war history. He didnt just go to nashville and sit and wait to be destroyed. There was a good reason to send Nathan Bedford forrest murphysboro. He and beauregard did not squabble before the campaign. And so forth and so on. And another thing. He did not he was not a drug addict. As a matter of fact, there is not there isnt a shred of evidence, not a single piece of paper, that he took anything, ever. Hard to, in ais short amount of time, to back all these things up. I go into all these things in great detail in my book that is out. Hoods reputation before around 1970, when thomas currently conleys book came out, followed by a book by Thomas Conley and James Madonna donnough. What was his reputation . In the nashville banner, in the 100th anniversary of the civil war in nashville, there was a big insert in the paper, and it 36ed, at the end of a page insert was this poem. , when iays at the end saw you captive, trembling at the end of johnsons rope, i could, the one legged man, i was your only hope. This is what the perception was of John Bell Hood in middle 1964, which was the 100th anniversary, the centennial of the civil war. Nd its a lot different now another couple of things. Hospital, in cuthbert, georgia. I will have to admit i do not know where cuthbert is. School inwas a girls the civil war era, and they transformed it into a Hospital Home and in honor of John Bell Hood, they named it would hospital it hood hospital. There is hood avenue in atlanta. And then there are numerous sites in texas, manassas, virginia, fort oglethorpe, which you might expect, the cousin was becauseuga where it was at chickamauga will wear whe where hood excelled. There is one in brentwood, in ,ashville, there is two of them and two streets named after John Bell Hood. I do not know what Good Real Estate developer would spend hundreds of thousands, if not developingf dollars a subdivision and naming streets in honor of drug addicted army commanders. But something obviously happened in the last 20, 30, 40 years, with hoods reputation. So, one of the problems wily sword, and accomplished civil 1992,storian, writes, in of hood was a fool with a license to kill his own man. Also a brilliant guy, a historian. He wrote an article in the wall street journal that John Bell Hood was the most destructive american of all time. Things, this was in an article on whether the faa was going to allow cell phone use in flight. Somehow or another, John Bell Hood got brought into that one. So it gets pretty outrageous. As a matter of fact, stephen is a civil war historian, phd and author, very well respected. He wrote one time, some recent accounts of excuse me. He was talking about John Bell Hood and Braxton Bragg. He wrote, recent accounts of these hapless generals lead the reader to wonder not why they held command of an army, but rather why they were not in an insane asylum. Wondering, what has happened with the sensationalism with John Bell Hood and some of the civil war characters . Example of how one literary license or artistic license, where they can take something and paraphrase it, and then footnoted to a source. Rds book, he wrote of hood, after he got to nashville, that the army had gained only 162 recruits since entering tennessee. Hood reacted angrily and resolved to bring into the army by conscription all men liable for military duty. Voluntarilywouldnt flocked to his standards, he intended to bring them in at the point of a bayonet. I read that and i thought, i want to go to the footnote and see what it says. , in as what hood said letter to james said in se ddon. As yet, i have not had time to adopt conscription, but hope soon to do so, and bring in all men liable for military duty. Hood reacted angrily , to bring them in at the point of a bayonet. That is an example. Here is another example. Been just ant have honest mistake, but i have a problem with it. But this is an excerpt from stanley horns book, the army of tennessee. Horn was a legendary, a very renowned historian. He was referring to a telegram for redheads sent to richmond after the defeat in tennessee a telegram sent to richmond after the defeat in tennessee. That must go down in history as a masterpiece of his leading understatement. He quotes hood. The army has recrossed the Tennessee River without material loss since the battle of franklin. Stanley horn says he wrote nothing of the shocking losses of franklin, nothing of the disaster at nashville. Ord while he wiley sw has army had claim safely cross the Tennessee River without material loss since the battle of franklin. Could plus report was misleading hoods report was wildly misleading. Andnt to the report discovered something interesting. This was out of the official records. This is what is recorded in the official records. General hood reports the army of tennessee has recrossed the Tennessee River in bainbridge without material loss since the battle of franklin. , and ite is an asterisk says, see dispatch as sent by hood. This was sent to cooper by hood s superior, beauregard. Was,hood actually wrote the army has recrossed the Tennessee River without material loss since the front of the battle of nashville. Not to get technical, but hood lost 50 cannon at nashville. When he sent in the dispatch, he said he had reported the loss of 50 cannon at nashville. He said, we have not lost anymore since nashville. But somebody made a mistake in the official record and put franklin instead of nashville. Asterisk tot and the corrected one. Stanley horn made a mistake. He did not go here. He used the information in the other dispatch, which would make hood a liar. But hood did not live. Beauregards staff made a mistake. Excuse me. The problem i have with wiley sword is, he basically repeated the same thing, but the problem i have with mr. Sword is, on the same official records page, immediately above it, is another dispatch on something else, and sword sites that in two other pages of his book on different subjects. I find it hard to believe she did not see the correct dispatch. He did not see the correct dispatch. Now, another thing hood is criticized for is being callous. Because of complaining and kind of complaining because his men did not fight enough, and there were not enough of them wounded and killed. What is cited most often is where hood did write he did write, after the battle of jonesboro, the vigor of the attack may in some sort be imagined when only 1400 were killed and wounded out of the two corps engaged. Hood is criticized for that, and if that is all i read, i would think, how would you like to be one of the 1400 . The problem with that is, hood was not at jonesboro. Hood sent two corps to jonesboro, sd lee and william command,d put party in and could remain here in case the jonesboro movement was a diversion. Stayed with what could have been a heavily outnumbered thes, and sent two after battle of jonesboro, hardy got mad and resigned, and hardy went to savannah. Did not submit to hood unofficial report. As a matter of fact, hardy did not submit an official report until late march of 1865. All hood had for the title of jonesboro was a report from stephen d lee. In his official report . The attack was a feeble one and a failure, with a loss to my corps of about 1300 men killed and wounded. He said the assault was not made with that spirit of anyway. Hood, it was a feeble attack and we only lost 1300 men. Hood basically repeats that in his official record, and in most books you will read, hood is criticized for complaining there were not enough casualties at jonesboro. But he was basically just reporting all that he knew, because that was what lee had reported to him. Heres another one. Portion of a much tribute that came out in the new orleans newspaper nine days after John Bell Hood died. Published by the army of tennessee association, which were all of the veterans. And its typically eloquent, the way that people wrote and spoke and talks about what a great guy he was, and brave, and loved by his men, and some such. , thee middle, they wrote army of tennessee association, as expressed in his own forceful language when last with us, five short months since, they charge me with making franklin a slaughter pen, but as i understand it, war means fight and fight means kill. They go on and talk more about what a great guy he was. Book, in 1970,s he wrote this. Hood, ultimately, was a tragic failure, a pathetic soldier whose ambitions outstripped his abilities. Essentially, he was an advocate of outmoded concepts, a general unable to adapt new methods of technology. Always prone to blame others and unable to admit his mistakes, to the bitter end, hood never understood his failings. Madecharge me with having franklin a slaughter pen, he admonished a group of aging veterans, but as i understand it, war means fight and fight means kill. He took that out of a tribute to hood, and said hood was admonishing a group of aging veterans. This one, i am going to go through pretty quick. Atlantans who study civil war history, this is another of those fun stories rebutted tells. Everybody tells. This is in all the books. After the battle of ezra church, each was a horrible defeat for the confederates, supposedly a yankee yelled out, how many of you are there over there . Said, iconfederates guess about enough for another killing. That is always presented as the fact that the confederates were so fed up with hood having all these attacks, and they were being killed, and it was basically a criticism of hood. Out, not figure this one but steve davis, another historian, did. He sent it to me. Excuse me. As it turns out, he went back. He researched this. And this story actually did happen, according to a diary. But it happened at New Hope Church a month before John Bell Hood took command of the army of tennessee. So it happened when Joseph Johnston was the commander, not hood. But somebody put it in a book while hood was in command. It gets repeated over and over. This, another one that is kind of fun. There is so many different versions of it in the books, but supposedly the army of tennessee , defeated after nashville, and they are all ragged and traipsing home through the mud, and they are hungry and defeated, and somebody decided to take the lyrics to the yellow rose of texas, and sang, supposedly, you may talk about your dearest maid and sing of rosalie, but the gallant hood of texas played hell in tennessee. I thought, i wonder what the source is for that . Supposedly, all these people are singing this song. As it turns out, most of the wileys famous book, the life of johnny reb. Bell wiley does not source it. I felt silly going over the words to a yellow rose of texas song, but i searched and searched. It was in 1904. One confederate soldier said that he heard one of his fellow soldiers say this as hood road by. Rode by. And it shows up everywhere now. And they add onto it and add on was oneo where there fellow who wrote about here to years ago, on the texas brigade of the army of tennessee, and it the, as the troops, as brigade was marching across the pontoons across the Tennessee River, deccan to alabama, they all sang this song. They keep building on this stuff and building on this stuff. And it changes the perception drastically. So here it is. Thats the thats where i found it. And itactually in 1906, was one soldier from the 39th North Carolina or something. Into completened brigades and divisions. Here is another interesting one. , sallyd a girlfriend buck preston. And he courted her. And when the war was over, they both ended up marrying other people. But in some of the later books that are written on hood, they claim that every move hood made, every decision he made, everything he did, he was trying to impress his girlfriend. And i thought, lets look into this. At thomas hay, who wrote the first book, back in the 1920s, on the tennessee campaign, and i thought, how many times did he mention Sally Preston . In his index, zero. Stanley horn wrote, zero. Thomas connelly mentioned her once. Is on 13 pagese in the index alone. And a woman named Susan Tarleton fiance, abors s fiance, isrne mentioned on nine pages. I thought, how often, to use sword for example, these are four of the six generals killed at the battle of franklin. They are mentioned seven times, five, five, and three in the index. And sally gets more than 13. This, it is kind of overdramatizing things. Another one, it has almost always been said that robert e. Lee said that John Bell Hood was all lion, no fox. Too much lion, not enough fox. I researched that. It never happened. The first time that John Bell Hood and fox or lion or whatever was written was in 1928. And it was mentioned not as criticism, but as praise. All right. Now i will get in trouble. This is on the wall upstairs, and assess down here that the photograph is not good enough, that John Bell Hood succeeded joe johnston as commander of the army of tennessee. At atlanta, and the men all called him wooden head. It never happened. There is no record anyone ever called John Bell Hood old wooden head at the time. I will tell you what i will do. I will make a pledge to the cyclorama. If they can find a letter or diary or anything where a soldier called John Bell Hood old wooden head, i will replace this thing at my own cost and make a 10,000 donation to the cyclorama. I dont mean to put you on the spot. [laughter] but how do you like the spot . Ok. Now, getting quickly to the letters. The, some people are not familiar or might not be familiar hoods memoirs are really trashed by a lot of historians, called a highly misleading treatise replete with lies and falsifications. One of the letters i actually found was from John Bell Hood to his wife before he died. It was from washington, d. C. , january 11, 1879. He wrote i have decided to add another chapter of the book, to be the first chapter, which will embrace my life and career up to joining johnston. Gibson who later became a congressman, says i must by all means do this, and as it would take me but little time i shall do so, and then call the book hoods memoirs. The next generation must have this minder to know who i am. We now know that hoods book was never meant to be a memoir, just an answer to johnston, when he joined johnston in spring 1864. A few months before he died, a friend of his said, put some stuff in there before, and you can call it a memoir. That is why the memoirs are so strange. Only 80 or 90 pages up to him joining jonhston than 300 pages of johnston. Now we know what he was doing. He died suddenly. I personally think his publisher would have sent the manuscript back and said, give us a little more. But hood passed away. Here are some of the new letters. A lot of people have heard, i would suppose, it is contended quite often that hood was writing the secret poison pen letters back to richmond, backstabbing joe johnston, trying to get him fired because he wanted his job. That is kind of the narrative. Well, a couple of hoods letters sounded like he had been written to and was responding, but it was not clear. One letter in the boxes now proves he was. Because this is a letter from louis t. Wigfall, a confederate senator from texas and hoods superior earlier in the war. It is a letter to hood in dalton on april 5. , excuse me, this is a letter from hood to wigfall. It says, your letter of march 29 has just been received, and i hasten to answer your direct questions, which must purely be between us. He goes on to talk about what is happening. Hood received the letter from wigfall. What is he supposed to do . Refuse to answer . So this now corroborates another couple letters, one to Jefferson Davis and one to bragg, that sounded like he was answering their letters. This is a letter from the battle of cassville. Again, some of you people are familiar on this in the atlanta campaign. There was a nonbattle at cassville. Johston was going to attack sherman, and hoods corps was to begin the attack, but hood claimed he was attacked and had to stop, which threw the timing off, and they had to call it off. So hood claims he was fired upon by a yankee unit. Johnston wrote, there were no yankee units. It was all in hoods mind. It never happened. This is a letter from captain paul oliver of the u. S. Army. He was in Union General dan butterfields brigade, in command of the artillery unit that fired on hood in cassville. He gives all the details of what he did, how he spread everyone out so it looks like there were more of them than there were. It is kind of funny at the end. These pages are excuse me. These letters are multiple pages. Im only showing the first page because there is not enough room. At the end he says, if you ever send me on another such mission, please let me know so i can make sure my insurance premiums are paid. [laughter] here is a letter from this is actually, hood and johnston squabbled. Hood was claiming that johnston lost 25,000 men between dalton and atlanta. Johnston claimed he only lost 8000 or 9000. It was hard to prove because johnstons chief of staff when all theired, he took records with him and destroy ed them. Nobody knows where they are. Here is an affidavit from a fellow who knew, a member of johnstons staff, saying he did in fact lose 25,000 troops between dalton and atlanta. This was from eb wade. Excuse me. That one was from a man named john smith. That name ought to be easy to remember. Here is another one. They lost 25,000, from e. B. Wade. This is one of the greatest names. Hippolyte oladowski, i think is how you pronounce it, johnstons chief of ordnance. He wrote, saying johnston lost 25,000 men during the campaign. This is a funny letter, from general g. W. Smith, commander of the georgia militia during the battle of atlanta. And he wrote a letter to hood. He was an older fellow. It goes on and says, i wonder if old joe, which is johnston, did intend to leave my little band in charge of atlanta as his three corps and cavalry were hunting for sherman. Wouldnt that have been a kettle of fish. He writes in this letter, where joe johnston was claiming, i was never planning to abandon atlanta. Smith says, he surely was. These are on the battle of the spring hill affair. Some of you are aware of this. It is where hood flanked general schofields army and caught them in the open on the road in the middle of the night, cut them off, had them surrounded. Im trying to use easy to understand terms. But something happened, and the yankees, the confederates did not block the road and the yankees escaped right up the road. Hood claimed he had given orders to block the road. Cheatham he had the luxury of outliving hood, and whoever outlives somebody gets the last word. He claimed, i never got the orders. Stephen lee says to hood, after the war in 1875, he is imploring hood, you have got to tell the world what happened at spring hill. You have to tell them he did not block the road. In these letters, the first says, i think you can now write with more profundity. Than at any time to the state, and possibly it is now your duty. The last one in april 1879, lee is getting really impatient with hood because he is not telling what happened at spring hill. So lee writes this i do hope your book will make clear the spring hill matter, for it is time for that mystery to be cleared up. If you do not, i feel it is my duty to do so after your book comes out. In other words, if you dont do it, i will. So hood wrote that he had given cheatham orders to block the road and they were not followed. He gave a quote from a couple Staff Members of his. Historians over the years have kind of just discounted these guys. They said they were on hoods , staff and were loyal, so they probably would fib a little on his behalf, so there was no corroboration. Well, in the boxes of papers that were recently recently discovered is a letter from major william w. Old, one of Hoods Division commanders. Two was a member of a staff of one of Hoods Division commanders. It says, among other things, in regard to the attack at spring hill this is a letter from old to hood. In regard to the attack at spring hill, major martin says general johnston did go to general cheatham and beg him to let him attack with the division, but general cheatham refused, saying he was opposed tonight attacks. To night attacks. Corroboration from somebody who said he gave cheatham the order and he did not follow the order. And there is another one from s. D. Lee. He wrote, i met stewart at columbus and asked, why was no battle delivered at spring hill . He replied that cheatham thought it was best not to deliver an engagement at night. Now there are four witnesses to what happened at spring hill. Is also criticized when they say, he gave the orders and should have rode out and confirmed they were done. To which an answer would to which an answer was published in confederate veteran. It seems to me a strange military discipline that a commander in chief should issue orders and then go to the front to see they were executed. Was that the custom of general johnston or any other great commander . How could general hood know of the dereliction of any particular officer on the spot to correct it . How are you going to go out and ensure that something was done when you do not know where the mistake was going to be made . Ok, now some of the cool new stuff that was found. I shouldnt say found, because they were always there. Lets say realized. This is a handwritten letter from Stonewall Jackson to richmond, recommending hood for promotion after the battle of antietam. It is written in Stonewall Jacksons handwriting and signed by him. I opened it up and read it and felt very privileged. So that was in there. And this is how it was. This is a frame probably hung on hoods office wall, or a wall in his house, the kitchen. And i guess if i got promoted by Stonewall Jackson, i would probably frame it and hang it on the wall. So that is the way i found it. That is my famous thumb, right there. I took it out of the frame, and we now have the letter stored the way it should be. I told the owners, i did not throw the frame away. It is historic. So that is the way that is the letter of recommendation. On the back excuse me, in the middle, the middle image is this. It is the letter of recommendation for hoods promotion from Major General to Lieutenant General after the battle of chickamauga, signed by james longstreet. That is the frame and the famous thumb again. That was also being stored. Thats the front of the letter. Thats the letter in the middle. What is really interesting, on the back of the letter are all these endorsements by all these notables in the confederate government. Im sitting here looking at the back of it. It says, signed off by the seddon, secretary of war, i wholeheartedly support the promotion. And by Braxton Bragg and samuel cooper, and all the way at the bottom, approved by Jefferson Davis. On the back. These were in an envelope. On the back of the envelope we have here the provenance of how hood got these letters. It says that, in effect, it says that these Important Documents, meaning the letters of recommendation for his promotion, these Important Documents were removed from richmond by a mr. Myers, who worked in the records office. So apparently, while they were gathering the staff and richmond was being evacuated, somebody named mr. Myers got these papers for hood and gave them to t. S. Stockdale, the Lieutenant Governor of texas. He gave them to stockdale, and stockdale said, iran into hood in new york city outside the something or other hotel in 1866 and gave them to him. We know how they got to where they were going. I just thought that was fascinating. Again, theres the longstreet letter. This is something that was really fascinating, and i could not believe it. These are the originals. This, again is only the cover, page one. This particular document was several pages long. This is a report of hoods wounding at gettysburg, by his doctor, dr. John t. Darvey. It talks about what hood was doing, where he was, what happened. The shrapnel hit the arm, then he goes into a bunch of medical stuff that even in 1864, biology was a little over my head. He talks about where the shrapnel entered, what tendons and muscles and nerves were damaged, where it exited. They carried hood off, took him here, did this, did that. It is an itemized a doctors report, written by a doctor, in doctorese. Then i found the chickamauga report. This one is 3000 words long, and i had a severe headache at the end of a week or two after i had to figure out every one of those words. I actually took this up to the National Museum of civil war medicine in frederick, maryland, and spent an afternoon with them. They helped me with it. This not only is a report of his wounding at chickamauga, it talks about who decided to amputate his leg, what kind of saw was used, what it goes into minute detail. Then there is a daily report, every day, from the day he was wounded and the amputation occurred, every single day. How he is doing, how the wound is doing, what he is eating, how his appetite is. Bodily functions, or lack thereof. All kinds of stuff. It goes into incredible detail, day after day after day. Could almost dies around october 8. He wrote, i do not think he is going to survive, but he did. It goes through his removal from a farmhouse in north georgia where he was kept, transported to the railroad, took him to atlanta. Stayed in atlanta for a day or two. The train went to augusta, and then wilmington, North Carolina, and then richmond. Every day, how he is doing, all the way up to several days in richmond. It says, he is now walking on crutches. He can go across the room. He can go back and forth three or four times. All the way through. What is really interesting about this, because of the myth of opiates, which i mentioned early on, did he use morphine . They have dr. Darby has every day the exact amount of grains, not grams, grains of morphine hood was given every time he was given it. It was at night, and it was for sleep. He was not given anything for pain, believe it or not, except milk punch. I did not know what that was. Google helped me. It is like eggnog, they still serve it in louisiana. Milk and rum. Every night, all amounts of morphine for sleep only. They started reducing the doses as he got better, and even noted on several nights, or several days in the log, slept without morphine. So they were very aware of how important it was for somebody to not get addicted. They actually noted when he was sleeping all night without morphine. Here is hoods second lieutenant, his first and Second Lieutenants commission from the u. S. Army after he graduated from west point in 1853. Has been found. It gets better. If this works here we go. Here is his Brigadier General certificate. Im going through the papers i have never seen one of these. A Brigadier Generals certificate. Then i keep looking and there is a Major General certificate. And then a Lieutenant General certificate. And theres the famous thumb again, holding John Bell Hoods full general certificate. One star, two star, three star, and fourstar general certificates. It is unbelievable. I have talked to professional civil war historians. And archivists. They have never seen some of them have never seen a generals certificate, anybodys general certificate. All four of John Bell Hoods are now, we know where they are. This is, i got way ahead of myself. This is oh, i meant to, hood was in the Insurance Business. Its funny, toward the end he says, i dont like selling insurance. I think i will do something else. In the 1870s, he traveled a lot. In the records, 60 letters from him to his wife, anna, from various places around the south. There are 40 or 50 letters from her to him, which i did not transcribe. Which i did not get and i did not transcribe. So they are still with the descendent. But these are letters. What i wanted to do was read a few. I am getting near the end, here. I want to read a few because John Bell Hood was a professional soldier, a graduate of west point. He went to california and texas , and fought handtohand combat with indians. Got an arrow through the hand. If you read about the battles he fought in virginia it is like a whos who of battles. Mill,mill gaines second manassas, antietam, gettysburg, chickamauga. This guy is a fierce, professional soldier and warrior. He lost part of an arm, lost a leg. You wonder, what kind of guy, what do you do after that career and you get into the Insurance Business . My perception, he would be your prototypical exmilitary guy, kind of stern and terse. Tough guy dad. He was far from it. Heres a letter, january 20, 1870. 1872. I will just read this. If you would like to hear about a private letter from John Bell Hood to his wife. My sweetest one, and thats how he addressed each letter i have indeed much to thank you for. And among many things that stand most paramount, your early teaching, after our blessed marriage, of early to bed and late to rise. You will i know rejoice when i tell you your example cause me to retire at seven and a quarter p. M. And rise at seven and a half a. M. This morning. However, soon as i was comfortably pressed between my little eyes peeping out between blanket and pillow there were many raps on my door. Four gentlemen were trying to pay respects, but from your sweet and gentle training i remained as the highlander ,ing low and peeping high whatever that means, and as reward for my good work i am as well and fresh as this beautiful, frosty morning is bright and bracing. You will say after reading the above and the sound teaching in my letter of yesterday, how lighthearted he writes. Yes, my most precious one. It is ever so with me when not too heavily burdened or kept too busy. I am hopeful of soon freeing myself of all debt and making a comfortable home for me and mine, with the necessities of life. God has indeed been good to you and me. True, our suffering is hard, but how much help he gives us. All glory to him on high. Thanks unto thee, sweet jesus, for all we enjoy. Aboutd you a slip babies, a slip is an article. I am told you are possessed of many. Go to my office and see if the directors. A kiss for mother that was his mother in law with all the love in my heart for you, my darling wife. Ever yours, devoted to death. He signed all his it was his pet letter. She called him bell. He always signed ever your , devoted bell. Do you ever write letters like this to your wives . I talked to martha this way. I do not know how you all do. Heres another one, from pulaski house hotel, savannah, georgia, january 22, 1872. My most precious one, i received the missing letters this morning. Three came to relieve this gloomy day. Sunday intervening cause the delay. All in all, it came through well, as i have been held in my room all day by the rain. I started out but had to return , owing to the falling of the water. I am glad your aunt is with you and lydia has a companion. He goes on. He talks about being left alone. And he says when so left one has a fine opportunity for reflection and i have been thinking of you my darling wife, how necessary that you are to me and how pleasantly and happily i could pass this gloomy day if you were near me. Tomorrow is sunday. One more and another and i hope to be with you again. How sweet the anticipation and how willing we are to have the time quickly pass in order to reach what we look forward to. I thought of the decorations club would be a success. If i could have had my wife present with a white flowir in her hair and a white teule, the question among the women would have been settled. Wait a while my sweet one until i get my swallow tail and brass buttons and we will show them who is who. He said wait until you and i get dressed up and everybody will be looking at us when we enter the party. You are listening to the words of the man that fought all of these battles around atlanta. It may be different than the john bellhood that you have read about. This one is, to me, kind of historic as well. When hood took his war papers to washington late in his life. He is suffering financially. And he did the strangest thing. He was trying to get the deal done but the deal did not get done. A bunch of politicians couldnt get the deal done. Imagine that. He had to go back to new orleans and he left all of his papers with, of all people, william t. Sherman. You can read lots of stuff. What a nut. Left them with william sherman. Are you kidding me . Why would he leave this stuff with william sherman. I thought the same thing until i read this letter. It is from st. Louis 1875 to anna. My most precious one. I am to dine today with mr. Cost and tomorrow with general sherman. He called last evening and paid me quite a long visit. He asked me to dine today but my being engaged forbade my so doing. He then said our names Share Association in history and he wanted to know me. He also asked if i were alone. You see you would veteran in the same box. He said during our conversation he couldnt account for grants actions towards the south and asked me a few things about the south. General sherman has written a book. I think and i want to get it. He was very kind and courteous. I shall post him fully as to the affairs to the south. Then he met sherman. Had dinner with sherman. Here is one you guys will get kick out of it. Here is another letter. In this letter i will show you. That was that letter. Look at this. This is a letter fromhood to anna. And in the envelope were these little envelopes in different shapes, addressed to mr. John bellhood jr. Mr. Duncanhood. Inside of it is a letter. Today it is quite cheerful and pleasant outside. I shall as said before dine with general sherman. I felt like i would have liked to escape such a dinner but couldnt do so without giving offense. Since general sherman having visited new orleans and not being invited to my house at all makes it upon his part quite an advance and in such manner to compel me to accept his invitation. Sherman apparently had been in new orleans and had made gesture about getting together with hood and hood did not do it. Hood it is not nice for me not to meet with him. One of these is to duncan, his oldest son. He ended up go to west point by the way. To any of you all who have more than one child, you will get you will relate to this. My sweet little duncan. Papa sends you a kiss and says you must be a good little boy and if you will not bite your little brother and sisters he will bring you some candy to bite. Papa is very anxious that you should remember this and kiss mama for him. In other words quit biting your brother and sister and i will give you candy. My precious little annabelle, you must bear in mind if you wish to dance and look pretty when you get to be a big young lady you must not forget to turn your little toes out. I guess you are supposed to have your toes out. And this is a letter from the army of the United States , washington, d. C. Dated august 26 anna died on august 25. This is a letter of condolens from william t. Sherman to John Bell Hood. Dear general, my family is all in the allagheny mountains and i am here for breakfast a hotel nearby. Even yet hours have passed i cannot help thinking of that wonderful and Beautiful Group of children you paraded before me last winter at your home in new orleans. So they did meet. And that you took my daughters lizzy and ellie up to see mrs. Hood who was sick in her bed. I cannot banish the sight from my mind. And now write you the simple note to tell you that here in washington there is one that thinks of you and your bereavement and of those motherless children. I believe she will write you words of consolation at a loss that touches the heart more than a loss of a father. Accept the assurance of my heart felt sympathy and great respect. Truly your friend, william t. Sherman. Quite interesting. The sad thing is that hood never got it. He died on august 29. Never got the letter of condolences. Next to last one. Of hoods 11 children, the youngest was anni. When mrs. Hood died, she was only four or five months old. She was adopted by a jewish family in columbus, georgia. Mr. And mrs. Joseph. I dont know why. I always wondered how that came to be. We knew why some families adopted the kids and others dont. But the baby did not live long. I checked. I wrote to people in columbus, georgia. I wrote the jewish historical society. I couldnt find anything out. In the box was the following letter. From clearview, apparently the name of the plantation or home. Columbus, georgia. April 13, 1922. Miss ida hood. My dear miss hood. Yesterday i went to see mr. Wells that gave me the news his sister was too sick and that you asked her from me about little gertrude. I am glad to hear you are in new york and i am glad to write how my husband and i were privileged to secure such a child. One of your fathers, your noble fathers posterity. We never had a child. And whenever i would ask mr. Joseph to lets adopt one he would refuse and say we do not know who we might get. But it came about that one day i was visiting mr. Wells and saw a picture of the hood orphans children on his mantel. I was drawn to the small baby in the front of the picture on the little couch. Mary, you know the picture. So mr. Wells gave me the picture. This is a picture of the orphans. Took it home, showed it to my husband and asked if i can apply to be guardians of the children and see if i can get little gertrude. His reply is you cannot get one of general hoods children. I insisted he let me try and he consented. I went to new orleans in february 1880 for her. I went to court to have the papers made and signed and i found the presiding judge was judge campbell. In questioning me, he asked me what my maiden name was. I said howard. Howard. Was that your fathers name . What was your fathers name . Augustus i replied. He took both my hands in his and said your father was one of my dearest friends. Then turning to mr. Morris who was related some way to the children, he said let her have the child for i knew her father well. So you see what it means to have a good name through a parent. Well, i brought the baby home. She was the talk of the town. She was a dear cherished baby for seven months. God wanted her to be with her parents in heaven. The first time a physician here saw her he said take good care of her. She is not strong. In august we took her out of town thinking the change would benefit her. Took her to warm springs about 40 miles from here but she did not improve and died there after several days of illness. This same doctor was up there and had charge of her and did all he could to no purpose. He said she would not live. Said her little heart was deeply involved. That she was born with it. Your mother was in anish of the in much anguish of the soul at that time and that accounted for the babys nervous condition. She was a very nervous little darling. Her precious dust rests here in our cemetery and every 26th of april her grave is decorated in memory of her father. I hope to meet all of his family in heaven in gods own time and may all the children still living be under gods allseeing eyes is my prayer. Now we know how the little one ended up in columbus. I am done. I want to read a short letter to finish this. It was a letter from hood. Sara dorsey was a woman ahead of her time. A professional writer back when women were want professional women were not professional writers. She lived in new orleans. A lot of people do not know this but sara dorsey owned the West Virginia pronunciation for wherever Jefferson Davis lived after the war. In biloxi, mississippi. Sara dorsey owned it. Jefferson davis lived there. I thought Jefferson Davis lived there but he didnt. Apparently she had written to hood and ised when you took command of the army in tennessee in atlanta what were your plans. What were you trying to do at that point in the war . These are his words. New orleans, march 30. 1867. My experience as a soldier taught me at an early day an army could not retreat in the face of the enemy without great loss of spirit and numbers. The army of tennessee when i assumed command having lost over 25,000 affected men during a retreat of over 100 miles was not in condition for pitched battle. As we can alone rely on offensive flows to guard long lines such as the one from mobile to richmond, i felt my position was an embarrassing one but did not refuse to comply with the order and wishes of those in authority, although i did not desire the command. The holding of my position around atlanta for 43 days improved the morale of the soldiers but finally being forced to abandon the city again causing retreat my army was discouraged to find itself standing upon the flat plains of georgia with all of the mountain fortressses, no spring ridge between them and the sea. twas here that all of the core commanders saw the stand still is going own. Mississippi. Alabama. Georgia and the carolinas having no men that could be sent to my aid, i decided to push forward into tennessee, attempt the capture of nashville, move into kentucky and open communications with general lee. This accomplished i thought would compel general sherman to abandon the swamps of georgia and accept battle between the waters of the cumberland and ohio. The capture of nashville and regaining so much lost territory i was certain would give new life to our people, recruit our thinned ranks and give that tone to the army i had been so long accustomed in virginia which would assure victory to our arms and finally secure our freedom. Accidents however, perhaps beyond human control caused the campaign to fail at a time the fruits of victory were seemingly within our grasp. I thank you all for your attention. And i thank this guy for being a great detail man that kept me organized and got this thing set up thank you. Any questions . Do you have enough material to write more than one book on this . No. No. I think that i mentioned that there are about 200 letters. I dont know how many of those 60 i will include. It will be a footnoted volume. He had a lot more paperwork. That is the paperwork in the National Archives that he left with sherman. These were his personal papers. I am hoping as soon as this book is published one or more people will jump on writing a new biography. I wrote a article on hood and now you are going to make me revise it. You can teach it the way it is. I am going to have to change the whole thing. That is a nice thing about an article. When you write a book it is based on what you know at the time then somebody finds something. Did both hood and sherman go to the academy . Yes. How many years apart were they . Several. Sherman was several. I dont know what class sherman was in. Somebody might know. Hood graduated in 1853. There is a camaraderie in the academy. Yes. It is not unusual that sherman would be interested in the general of the opposite army. I dont think it is strange. There is a camaraderie even if you are fighting on different fronts. Yeah. But there are a lot of people you can leave papers with. The guy that beat you in atlanta was kind of odd. But now we know because hood and sherman had become friends. Follow the orders, is that correct . It makes sense now that we know that i just thought hood never met sherman. The only thing they did is sherman waved bye to hood when he entered atlanta as far as i knew but it turned out as i said they developed a friendship. It is interesting that johnson had a relationship both with sherman and grant. He participated in both of their funerals. Yeah. When the war was over most of the confederate and the union officers, they buried the hatchet. You know it is funny. There was more feuding that went on among the confederate generals and among the Union Generals than there was contention between each other. On the confederate side they were blaming each other for the loss. On the union side a lot tried to claim credit for the victory. A lot of egos there. To what extent was the publication of hoods book . When hood died, an organization the hood Relief Committee or hoods Orphans Committee or whatever. There was an organization formed. To collect money for the wellfare of the children. As a matter of fact the picture that mrs. Joseph referred to, maybe a lot of you have seen this picture reproduced quite a bit. It is all the children in one picture. That was published and sold to raise money. Then what they did is that they gave hoods manuscript to that committee. So if you look at the First Edition of hoods memoirs, it says published by the hood Relief Committee i think it is. Hood does not mention much about it. Early in your presentation you mentioned a woman that had been embroidered by other historians and her relationship with general hood. Later towards the close you point out what a wonderful family man he was. What was going on there . I understand women followed men around on campaign trails. What really went on . Hoods relationship with buck preston is written about quite a bit in mary chestnuts the most famous of the diaries of the civil war. Diary from dixie. She was a socialite from South Carolina and spent a lot of time in richmond. This mostly comes from mary chestnuts diary. A lot of people think that Margaret Mitchell had scarlet ohara that her character was inspired by sally buck preston as portrayed in mary chestnuts diary. She apparently was pretty and flirty. Hood was a handsome hero. She stayed in richmond in South Carolina. When the war ended she married. I dont know. There is one particular book that has so much of hood and Sally Preston like i am watching a reality show or something. Like i said, when you give more ink to a supposed relationship between a general and his girlfriend 500 miles away. When you spend more time talking about that than three or four generals killed in the battle that is in the subtitle of your book you wonder what the book is about. You know he gave his speech. After the speech a question came from the floor. Should johnson have been given more time to be relieved because hood was basically had a bum arm. Missing a leg. He obviously had not read the book yet. There are no records to tying general hood to be hook on the substance or seen as topsy or tipsy. Now there is a great article in blue and gray magazine in 1998, i think. It is written by steve davis who is an atlanta guy. Steve researched and you know, you can put something on a Bumper Sticker. Soandso is a jerk. It will take soandso longer than a Bumper Sticker to try to prove that he is not. Steve researched it. Not even hoods critics or rivals. Guys that you know, they were hoods critics after the war. They did not write about it. There were not even routine quartermasters slips. Here is your supply. What steve did, he researched it. It is an extract or form of morphine or opium. The earliest he found any reference was in a book published in 1940 about another confederate general who lost a leg. In the book while the guy is writing about how euell did not use any painkillers after the war John Bell Hood might have. Then somebody writes a book a year or two later. The next guy said hood used. I have a whole chapter on it. It gets to the point where there are people that have written exactly how much of a dose he took and how often that he took it. They cite something written a couple of years earlier. It is bizarre. Steve davis if you google it. If you get ahold of steves article, and again i have the chapter in my book. I am not here to sell my book. My publisher might. There is no record of it whatsoever. I had people come up to me saying you are related to John Bell Hood. Was he really addicted to morphine. I went to a place in tennessee one time during an open house. You have to sign in. The nice lady there said a descendant of general hood was in there the other day. Yeah. She was talking about how grandpa was hooked on drugs. Anyway, there is no evidence of it whatsoever. All of the evidence that we have is just the opposite. The 3,000word medical report i have them verbatim in the book. You can read that thing and say that it ends on november 6. That is the last entry. You get to that saying does this sound like a good who was hooked on morphine. Guy who was hooked on morphine . It is just total speculation and exaggeration. Add a little more spice. Have read Steve Davises article published in 1998. If i may, can i share a short story that came about when i built a restaurant. In Underground Atlanta exists one of the Oldest Hotels in the city. We rented the basement. I am a digger. The process of digging down into the muck i knew from Franklin Garrett the building that we were in had become a hospital during the war. Franklin shared with me the story that back in the period of but canon with the knowledge that the war was coming they wanted to get england to support the north and not the south. With the two major countries supporting the north and south it would be a tragic war. In the process the high member of the crown of england was given a private train to tour the south to show how underdeveloped the south was industrialally compared to the north. The train got as far as richmond. It is assumed the train got further, possibly to thrant. Well, in my digging i came across a piece that had on the back side an interesting stamp on it. Franklin garrett gave me the name of a gentleman up north who studied the stamps of that period and he came back with a very, very long letter saying that i had just proven a point that was the carried by the british member of the crown so that he did in fact get to atlanta. He found the cotton gin operating at the time. I could be mistaken on that. But that is the main reason england and france supported the two countries. I still have that piece. I know that the north was trying to get all of the european powers not to recognize the south. The south tried to get them to recognize the south. They never recognized the south but they sold them stuff. So trade is trade. That is the reason they moved the capitol from montgomery, alabama to richmond. So they could get back and forth. One was proximity to europe and diplomacy and such. There was an arm over here somewhere. [inaudible] one of the neat things about that and is fascinating. In the Cemetery Beautiful little section dedicated to those that died in the hospital. If you have ever been there it is stunning. It has the soldiers saluting and the whole thing. It is very interesting. I wanted to ask you if you think there is a reason. I go there quite often. There is a lot of hood references. I knew exactly who that was. I was contacted a long time ago by a couple of ladies who were getting ready to write or archive the history of the female academy. I knowledge the Main Building is still there and some of the others are gone. She said do you know this is called hood hospital during the civil war. I did not know it. She sent a bunch of information including the old photograph. I am curious have you heard from any of your authors . None. I wonder why. I have a thousand footnotes in it. Take all of the footnotes i ever did in college and i foot noteded and footnoted and footnoted. I have not heard a word. Nobody has said thanks for straightening this up or you are wrong. Nobody has said you are right or wrong. Nothing. Not a word. What is the percentage breakdown of the pro and con response you get . I think everybody considers the test to be amazon. Com reviews. After you get your sons and neighbors and everybody. I have had a couple of reviews that were not very good. And i am serious about it. The reasons the people said they did not like it, they did not get it and understand. One said this is not a very good biography. It isnt a biography. I never said it is a biography. If you are expecting a biography, it is a bad one. The response has been positive. But really, i have not heard a word about or from any of the authors whatever you want to call it where i have given other information. I dont know what they think. This gentleman here, i have missed him. I will pay the overtime. Did you come across any information that said who possibly lived in severe pain as a result of the amputation . Some of the things that i have read indicate at least some people that suffer such wounds did live in pain and the idea that he took pain relief along the way doesnt seem to me to be something that should result in the criticism that has been leveled. You know i agree. If i had one of my arms withered by shrapnel and if you had my right leg cut off i would take morphine by the barrel full. You know. I was really interested in the 60 letters. There is one time he said it was sleeting. He is in savannah with a head cold. He never mentioned a word about it. Now was there pain . I am sure that there was. Was he just trying to be a macho man or whatever . He just does not mention anything about any physical pain or even the fact that he cant do anything other than that one mention in 60 letters. And nothing in wartime. None of his staff officers. Everybody just said here he comes. Riding by. And he needed help to get up and down. Nothing. Nothing. I am with you. If he did i do not think that anybody would blame him, but there is nothing. If i remember what you said at the beginning that he was not devoted to frontal attacks it would seem to me that history is replete with examples was nothing more than. That is what happened. He did not order a frontal attack. That is not what he designed. That is not what he ordered. That is what happened. He did not order a frontal attack. At Peachtree Creek or anywhere else. General has to take responsibility for the action of the troops. You are right. Yes. He is considered the losing general in that one. But he did not order a frontal attack. You know in the age before radios and communications you gave orders to suboordinates and trusted them to carry them out or to attempt to. [indiscernible] as opposed to direct. That is just a word that covers it. Like brother. Exactly. His uncle. Makes it even more confusing, but yeah. John bell hoods grandfather was my great times whatever grandfather but i come off of a different branch. We use the word collateral rather than direct. All right. Thank you very much. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute] [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2014] follow us on twitter at cspan history for information on our schedule, upcoming programs, and to keep up with the latest history news. Booktvs indepth, former republican congressman from texas and president ial candidate ron paul. He has written more than a dozen books on politics and history. Conversation as he takes your calls, emails, and tweets live three hours, at noon eastern on cspan2. Booktv in prime time, monday at 8 30 p. M. Eastern. Featuring a wide range of topics, including the middle east, marijuana, and covering book fairs and festivals from across the country. Television for serious readers. Monday night on the communicators, three members talk about their technology legislation. An open internet without government intervention. When you look where the internet has come from and where it is going in the future, this is all being done. Why wouldnt they want their product exposed to tens of th