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 HistoricalSociety 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