"The Dead at Franklin TN " Topic

In January 1865, Confederate Gen. John Bell Hood traveled to Columbia, S.C. with the diarist Mary Chesnut and the family of his recent but fading love interest, Sally "Buck" Preston. After some pleasantries, the houseguests discussed the recent, horrific battles at Franklin, Tenn. and Nashville, fought in quick succession in early December. Hood had been the Confederate leader in both battles, and both times had lost thousands in bitter defeat. "My army is destroyed," he mourned.

The attendees quickly shifted to a more jovial topic, but Hood simply sat, stared into the fire, and relived "some bitter hours," according to Chesnut. One guest spoke of the emotional agony that appeared writ large on Hood's face time and time again as he spoke of the "dreadful sight" of so many dead at the battlefield at Franklin.

Hood's nightmare of shredded flesh and smoldering corpses commenced less than two months earlier in central Tennessee. On Nov. 30, 1864, as part of his strategy to go around Gen. William T. Sherman in Georgia and capture the Union-occupied city of Nashville, Hood sent nearly 30,000 men in a frontal assault against the Union commander John Schofield, whose forces were entrenched just south of Nashville in the town of Franklin.

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I have a soft spot for Gen'l Hood, but this was sheer idiocy and had no chance of success. He should've been relieved of ALL command and sent home. Too many men died due to such a poorly planned assault….

He was flying on laudanum to ease the pain from his amputated leg. He was also angry at his fractious generals, forgetting that he had schemed against Johnston earlier.

Jeff Davis wanted battles so he picked Hood. He got battles.

A good book about Franklin and the aftermath: The Widow of the South.

Widow of the South -- good book. Read it this past summer.

If Hood wasn't suffering from PTSD, he was an Almighty strong character.

vtsaogames, can you provide a reference for that claim? How do you know Hood was on laudanum? Hood's doctor's medical records show that he did have opiate pain relief immediately after the amputation, and that his doses gradually diminished then stopped, long before he returned to the field.

So said Widow of the South, which may not be the ultimate source. The book is mostly about the woman who organized the Confederate cemetery at Franklin.

ptsd sounds more likely than any drug-addiction …hood had a warrior's heart, sadly it seemed he lacked the necessary qualities necessary to make the leap from division to army command.

for me Hood remains unproven even as a corps commander …nothing I've read suggests he was a success at that level during the entirety of the Atlanta campaign?

Reportedly Hood's men added this verse to The Yellow Rose of Texas:

And now I'm going homeward for my heart is full of woe,
I'm going back to Georgia to find my Uncle Joe [Johnston].
You may talk about your Beauregard and sing of General Lee,
But the gallant Hood of Texas played Hell in Tennessee.