committee and by the senate -- the watergate committee, were thirdly,peachable, and can we prove that richard nixon knew about them and even authorized then? american history tv. >> next, the civil war. stephen hood discusses the career, personal life, and legacy of confederate general john bell hood. the author, a distant relative of the general, analyzes his actions at gettysburg, byckamauga, and antietam delving into records released by his descendents. he says many of his controversial act are clarified or redeemed through the examination of the documents. this, from the atlanta cyclorama museum, is about one hour and 45

minutes. >> thank you all for coming. will beny mentioned, i able to vote down here if i keep showing up. [laughter] in west virginia, you could. mention a couple people who were here. my beloved cousin, barbara hopkins, and her husband mark are here. they are from huntington and moved to atlanta about 10 years ago. and general hood's great-granddaughter, mary hood perlman, and her husband skip from asheville, north carolina are here. i will embarrass her and make her raise her hand. [applause] her grandfather was oswald could hoodod, one of the 11

children who we will talk about later. as anthony mentioned, i wrote a was on hood, and it originally to be titled "history vs. john bell hood.: what i did, and i will be talking about this in a few minutes, i was a little bit distressed at a lot of things that have been written about hood, especially around the 1970's on. i decided to write a book that would really expose a lot of the myth and legends about him that you read about, and actually use primary source information to let the reader know exactly what that is about, what the legend or the myth is about. so i finished the book. it was with no newly discovered

information. it was with information that is readily available. official records of the southern historical society, and universities. i got a call from one of general hood's great-grandchildren. , we have some boxes of old letters that had been passed down through 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 and looked at them, and it was a treasure trove. it was the papers of john bell hood that every scholar, every endl war scholar since the of the war or his death in 1879 his wife died

within 72 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. so when hood died unexpectedly, mouths tos, he had 11 feed three times a day. scholars always felt his papers were just discarded in the housecleaning that happened after his death. papers andor the transcribed them as quickly as i could. incredibleome just new information. publisher, and i said, what should i do with this new information?

he said, go ahead and reread the chapters and put it in. and i did, very quickly. i sent him the new manuscript and he said, wow, this is big. he said it was persuasive before and is even more persuasive now. he said, we will change the title of the book from "history " to "johnn bell hood bell hood, the rise, fall, and resurrection of a confederate general.:" i thought that was presumptuous, perhaps, but the response to the book has just been incredible. so that is how the papers came to be. they were excerpts, excerpts from them were inserted into my manuscript. and the loss papers of john bell hood, which as anthony

mentioned, he and i and everybody else thought would be available mid-may, has been delayed. so what i will do will be kind of a hybrid presentation, if you will. i want to take a little time to go over some controversies of hood, and i assume everyone here is a bit of a civil war enthusiasts to some degree. a lot of these things you will be familiar with. i will show you some information that will probably, hopefully, make you change your opinion of you historic truth that always thought you knew. then what i will do, i will do a bat turn and toward the end i l notgo through, it wil

have anything to do with controversies, just some of the fascinating letters that were found. that will be the transcripts which will be in the book. it will be an annotated volume. say, thebegin, let me owners of the papers asked me what my opinion was, what they should do with them. i said, keep them. the family has done such a great job of keeping them over the last 140 years. why not? andthey have been scanned, a digital archive of these letters will be at memorial hall easy am in new orleans. -- museum in new orleans. that is tentatively, but it has pretty much been chosen where the scans of these letters will be. so let's start.

thisfor starters, photograph. in these records, in the boxes of papers, were not just letters. there were photographs. justles, ephemera, everything. and one of them was a photograph of john bell hood that i had never seen, that nobody to this day, i have not come across anybody who had ever seen it. apparently the only one in existence was in the possession of the descendents. this is a photograph of him, obviously taken in the winter of 1864. hisad recovered from his -- left arm was wounded at gettysburg. his right leg was shot and

abdicated at the hip at chickamauga. he recovered in richmond and returned to duty in dalyton 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 a corps under joseph johnson. -- johnston. that was in the newly discovered papers. things that i would love to stand up here for however long they will give me, and i would like to go over all this stuff i have seen. but i'm going to read these things, and i'm making these

assertions, and by golly i can back them up, even though i'm not going to tonight because you came here to see other things. hood did not call his men cowards. he did accept responsibility for his defeats. he wasn't angry at franklin and decided to slaughter his own army because he was mad. he didn't like frontal assaults. the only one he ever ordered was at franklin. if he had a problem, it was being too ready, too committed to franklin -- flanking movements. he did not position any of his brigades or divisions at franklin so they would be shot up the most because he was mad. if you have not read some of the books on the battles of 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 did not just go to nashville and it and wait to be destroyed. there was a good reason to send the force to murphysboro. he and beauregard did not squabble before the campaign. so on.forth and another thing, he was not a drug addict. as a matter of fact, there is not a shred of evidence, not a single piece of paper that he took anything, ever. then again, it's hard in a short amount of time to back all these things up. i go into all these things in great detail in my book, which is out. reputationod's 1970, when thomas conley's book came out,

followed by a book by wiley seward? what was his reputation? in the "national banner," the 100th anniversary of the civil war in nashville, there was a big insert in the paper. it ended at the end of a 36-page insert, this poem. and -- end, "i, was, the one-legged man, i your only hope." this is what the perception was of john bell hood in middle tennessee. 1964, the 100th anniversary, the centennial of the civil war.

and it's a lot different now. another couple things. hospital ind cuthbert, georgia. i have to admit, i do not know where cuthbert is. school in therls' civil war era, and they transformed it into a hospital and in honor of john bell hood named it hood hospital. there is hood avenue in atlanta. there is, and then there are numerous sites in texas, manassas. fort over thorpe -- fort oglethorpe, which you might expect. but believe it or not, there are streets and roads named for john bell hood in brentwood, in

nashville there are two of them. and in franklin, tennessee of all places, there are two streets named after john bell hood. good't know what hood -- real estate developer would spend millions of dollars developing a subdivision and naming streets in honor of drug-addicted army commanders, but something obviously happened 's the last 40 years with hood reputation. so one of the problems, wiley seward, a very influential and successful civil war historian. full withhood was a a license to kill his own men." in an article in

the " wall street journal", " john bell hood was the most destructive american of all time." this was in an article on whether the faa was going to allow cell phone use in flight. somehow, john bell hood got brought into that one. it is pretty outrageous. as a matter of fact, even woo dworth, an author, very well respected, he wrote one time, and he was talking about john bell hood and braxton bragg. he wrote, "recent accounts of these hapless generals leave readers to wonder not why they commanded an army, but rather why they were not in an insane asylum." orth was wondering --

what has happened with this sensationalism of john bell hood and other civil war characters? here is an example of how an author can take literary license, if you will, artistic license, where they can take something and paraphrase it. then footnote it to a source. wrote of's book, he hood after he got to nashville, "the army had gained only 164 troops since entering tennessee. hood reacted angrily and resolved to bring into the army by conscription all men liable to military duty. if recruits would not flock to his standards voluntarily, he intended to bring them in at the point of a bayonet." i read that and thought, i want to go to the footnote and he what it says. here is what hood said in a

letter -- "i have not had time to adopt a general system of conscription, but hope soon to do so and bring into the army all men liable for military duty." reacted angrily and will bring them in at the point of a bayonet. that is an example. here's another example. this one might have been just an honest mistake, but i have a problem with that. this is max or from stanley -- an excerpt from stanley horn's book. stanley is a legendary, very renowned historian. he was alluding to a telegram hood has sent to richmond after the defeat in tennessee and the retreat into mississippi.

he received his first direct word from hood. in history asdown a masterpiece of understatement." and he quotes hood. "the army had crossed the river without material losses since the battle of franklin." he writes, "he wrote nothing of the shocking losses at franklin, nothing of the shocking losses at nashville." "hood'sward wrote, claim his army had safely crossed the tennessee river without material loss. his report was highly misleading." well, i went to the report and discovered something very interesting. this is out of the official records. this is what is recorded in the official records. general hood reports that the army of tennessee has recross

the tennessee river without material loss and the battle of franklin, but there is an asterisk. it says, see dispatch as sent by hood. this was sent to cooper by hood 's superior, beauregard. what hood actually wrote, the army has recross the tennessee without material loss and the battle of nashville. nons atst 50 can nashville. when he sent the dispatch, he said, he had reportedly lost of 50 cannons in nashville. he's had, we have not lost -- he said, we have not lost anymore since nashville. someone made a mistake in the official record" wrangling -- and put franklin instead of nashville. they left an asterisk. so stanley horn made a mistake.

he did not go here. he used the information in the other dispatch, which would make hood a liar. he did not lie. beauregard's staff made a mistake. so the problem i have is that he basically repeated the same thing, but the problem i have with mr. seward is that on the same official records page immediately above is in other dispatch on something else. page twice onhat totally other subjects, so i find it hard to believe he did not see the correct dispatch. now, another thing hood is criticized for is being callous. because hislaining men didn't fight hard enough, and there were not enough of

them wounded and killed. what is cited most often is afterhood did write, the battle of jonesboro, "the vigor of the attack may be in some sort of imagined. only 1400 were killed and wounded out of the corps engaged." if that was all i read, i would think, how would you like to be one of the 1400? the problem hood had, he was not a jonesboro. hood sent two corps to jonesboro, and put hardy in command while hood remained in atlanta with one corps just in case the jonesboro movement was a divergent. so he stayed here with what would have been the heavily outnumbered corps.

after the battle of jonesboro, hardy got mad and resigned. hardy went to savannah. hardy did not submit to hood and official report. hardy did not submit an official report until march of 1865. all hood had for the battle of jonesboro was a report from stephen lee. what did lee say in his official report to hood? "the attack was a feeble one, and a failure, with a loss of 1300 men killed and wounded. notays, and assault was made -- anyway. lee tells hood it was a feeble attack and we only lost 1300 men. hood basically repeats that in

his official record. in most books you will read, hood is really criticized for complaining there were not enough casualties at jonesboro. he was basically does reporting all he knew, because that is what lee reported to him. here's another on. -- one. this is a portion of a much longer article that came out in nineew orleans newspaper days after john bell hood died. it was published by the army of tennessee association, which were all of the veterans. it is typically eloquent, the way people wrote and spoke back then. it talks about what a great guy menas, brave, loved by his and somesuch. in the middle, they wrote, "as

expressed in his own forceful language when last with us, five months since, they charged me with making franklin a slaughter pen. i understand it, war means fight and fight means kill." they go on to talk about what a great guy he was. 1970, he's book, in was ultimately a tragic failure, a sad, pathetic older whose ambitions totally outstripped his abilities. he was an anachronism and advocate of outmoded concepts, unable to adapt to new methods or technology. always prone to blame others and unable to admit his mistakes. to the bitter end, hood never admitted his failings. "they charge me with making henklin a slaughter pen,

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 him and said that hood was at monitoring -- admonishing aging veterans. this one i will go through quick. many atlantans who study civil war history, this is another of the fun stories everyone tells. supposedly, this is in all the books, after the battle of as church,rch, -- ezra a horrible defeat for the veterans -- confederates, a yankee yelled out, "how many are there left of you?" the confederate said, "i guess there is enough for another killing." that is always presented as evidence the confederates were so fed up with hood, all these

attacks were they were being killed, and it was a criticism of hood. i did not figure this out, but another historian did. he sent it to me. ks it turns out, he went bac and researched this. this story happened according to a diary, but happen that new hope church a month before john bell hood took command of the army of tennessee. so it happened when joseph johnston was commander, not hood . but somebody put it in a book, it was thought hood was in command, and gets repeated over and over. of fun.one that's kind so many different versions of it in the book. supposedly, the army of tennessee defeated after

nashville, all ragged and traipsing through the mud, hungry and defeated. and somebody decided to take the lyrics to "the yellow rose of texas" and sang, supposedly, " when they talk about your dearest maid and sing of rosalie, but the gallant hood of texas played hell in tennessee." i wonder what the source was for that. as it turns out, most of the wiley's famous book "the life of johnny reb." though he does not source it. silly going felt over the words, but i searched and searched, and found the i suppose what is the primary

source. it was in 1904, one confederate soldier said he heard one of his fellow soldiers say this as hood rose by. -- rode by. and it shows up everywhere now. they add on to it to where -- fellow wrote a few book a book a few years ago on the texas brigade. the brigade was marching across the pontoons back into alabama, they all sang this song." they keep building on this stuff, and it changes the perception drastically. so here it is. it.'s the, where i found oldier in 1906, one s

from the 39th north carolina or something. it has turned into brigades and divisions. here is another interesting one. hood had a girlfriend, sally buck preston, and he courted her. boththe war was over, they ended up marrying other people. but in some later books written on hood, they claimed that every move hood made, every decision he made, everything he did, he was trying to impress his girlfriend. and i thought, let's look into this. at thomas hay, who were the first book in the 1920's on the tennessee campaign. how many times did he mention sally press and -- preston?

zero. stanley horn wrote "the army of tennessee" -- sally preston, z ero. thomas connolly mentioned her once. sword, 13 pages. leton is 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. ofs, it is kind over-dramatizeing things. another one, hood has almost always -- it has almost always been said that robert e lee said

was- that john bell hood all lion, no fox. i researched that. it never happened. the first time that john bell hood and fox or lien or whatever -- lion or whatever was written was in 1928. it was mentioned not as criticism, but as praise. now i will get in trouble. this is on the wall of stairs, -- upstairs, and it says that john bell hood succeeded joe johnston as commander of the army of tennessee. 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 make a pledge to the cyclorama. if they can find a letter or diary or anything where a sold ier called john bell hood "old d," i will replace this at my own cost and make a $10,000 donation to the cyclorama. i don't mean to put you on the spot. [laughter] ok. letters.uickly to the the, some people are not familiar or might not be familiar -- hood's memoirs are really trashed by a lot of historians, called a highly misleading to reassess --

treatise full of lies and falsifications. one of the lies i found was letters i actually found was from john bell hood to his wife before he died. in 1879. he wrote -- "i have decided to add another chapter of the book, which will embrace my life and career of to joining johnson. -- johnston. did since as 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 "hood 's memoirs." bookw know that hood's was never meant to be a memoir, johnston,swer to

johnston ined spring 1864. a few months before he died, someone said put himself in before and you can call it a memoir. that is why the memoirs are so strange. only 90 points up to him joining jonhston than 300 pages of johns ton. now we know. i think his publisher would have sent the manager back -- many script back and said, give us a little more. here are some of the new letters. heard, ipeople have was supposed, it is contended quite often that hood was writing the secret poison pen letters back to richmond, hnston,bbing joe jo trying to get him fired because he wanted his job. that is kind of the narrative.

letters of hood's sounded like he had been written to and was responding, but it was not clear. one letter in the boxes now proves he was. this is a letter from lewis t. confederate senator from texas and hood's superior earlier in the war. a letter to hood in dalton on april 5. me, this is a letter from hood to wigfall. it says, "your letter of march 29 has just been released -- 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? so this now corroborates another couple letters, one to jefferson davis and 12 bragg, that sounded like he was answering their letters. from the letter battle of cast bi -- cassville. there was a non-battle at cassville. johston was going to attack sherman, and hood's corps was to begin the attack, but hood claimed he was attacked and had to stop, and they had to call it off. so hood claims he was fired upon by a yankee unit. wrote, there were no yankee units.

's mind.ll in hood it never happened. this is a letter from captain paul oliver of the u.s. army. general dannion butterfield's per day, in hand therigade, in command of artillery unit that fired on him 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 areas -- there were. these letters are multiple pages. i'm 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. here is a letter from -- this is

actually, hood and johnston squabbled. hood claimed johnston lost 25,000 men between dalton and atlanta. johnston claimed he only lost 9000. johnston's chief of staff when he was fired to call the records with him and destroy them. here is an affidavit from a fellow who knew, a member of johnston's staff, saying he did in fact lose 25,000 troops between dalton and atlanta. -- that one was from a man named john smith. here is another one. e.d.lost 25,000, from wade. this is one of the greatest

names. oladowski, johnston's chief of ordnance. johnston lostng 25,000 men during the campaign. this is a funny letter, from g 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. , i wonder ifd says old joe, johnston, did intend to leave my little band in charge andtlanta as his corps

huntingwere in -- for sherman. wouldn't that have been a catalyst fish. -- kettle of fish. he writes, i was never planning to abandon atlanta. of --are on the battle the springhill affair. some of you are aware of this. it is where hood flanked general schofield's army and caught them in the open on te road in the middle of the night, cut them off, had them surrounded. i'm trying to use easy to understand terms. 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. he had the luxury of outliving hood, and whoever outlives somebody gets the last word. he says, i never got the orders. , after lee says to hood 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. 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 he 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 don't do it, i will. so hood wrote that he had given -- locko bloc the road the road and they were not followed. quote from a couple staff members of his. historians over the years have kind of just down of these guys -- discounted these guys. they were on hood's staff and were loyal, so they probably would fib a little on his behalf, so there was no corroboration. in the boxes of papers that were recently does ever is -- recently discovered is a letter one major william w. old, of hood's division commanders. it says, among other things,

in regard to the attack at martinhill, major says general johnston did go to him to cheatham and beg let him attack with the division, but general cheatham accused -- refused, saying he was opposed tonight attacks. so there is cooperation 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. stewart ati met columbus and asked, why was no battle delivered at spring hill? thoughted that cheatham it was best not to deliver an

engagement at night." now there are four witnesses to what happened at spring hill. he is also criticized, he gave the orders and should have rode out and confirmed they were done. to which an answer would me ably be -- it seems to 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? wasdo you ensure something done when you do not know where the mistake was going to be made? cool newome of the stuff that was found. i shouldn't say found, because

they were always there. let's say realized. this is a hand written letter tom stonewall jackson formond, recommending hood promotion after the battle of antietam. it is written in stonewall jackson's 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. frame probably hung on wall inffice wall, or a 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 t here. i took it out of the frame, and we now have the letter stored the way it should be. not throw the frame away. it is historic. so 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 hood's 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. that's the front of the letter. that's 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. i'm looking at the back of it. it says, signed off by the secretary of war, i whole heartedly support the promotion. and by braxton bragg and samuel cooper, and all the way at the bottom, approved by jefferson davis. 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 documents,important 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 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 he ran into him 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. there's the longstreet letter. this is something that was really fascinating, and i could not believe it. these are the originals. this is only the cover, page one. this particular document was several pages long.

this is a report of hood's wounding at gettysburg, by his .octor, dr. john t. darvey it talks about what hood was doing, where he was, what happens. the shrapnel hit the arm, then he goes into a bunch of medical biologyat even in 1864, 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 him off, took him here, did this, did that. a doctor's report, written by a doctorese.r -- then i found the chickamauga report. this one is 3000 words long, and i had a severe headache at the two after ik or

figured out every one of those words. i took this 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 abdicate his leg, what kind of saw was used, what -- it goes into minute detail. then there is a daily report, everyday, from the day he was wounded an the amputationd occurred, every single day. how he is doing, how the wound , howing, what he is eating his appetite is. bodily functions, or lack thereof. all kinds of stuff.

it goes into incredible detail, day after day after day, for around october 8 you 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 atlanta. stayed in atlanta for a day or two. the train went to augusta, and in wilmington, north carolina, and enrichment. every -- 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. what is really interesting about this, because of the myth of opiates, which i mentioned early on, did he use morphine?

every day the exact amount of grains, not gr ams, grains of morphine hood was givenevery time he was it. it was at night, and it was for sleep. he was not given anything for pain, leave it -- believe it or not, except milk punched. i did not know what that was. it is eggnog, they still serve it in louisiana. milk and rum. every night, all amounts of morphine for sleep only. they reduce the dose is when he got better, and they noted several nights in the log, slept without morphine.

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. hood's second lieutenant, his first and second thetenant's commission from u.s. army after he graduated from west point in 1853. go.ets beter, -- here we here is his brigadier general certificate. i'm going through the papers -- i have never seen one of these. a brigadier general's certificate. then i keep looking and there is a major general certificate. and then a lieutenant general certificate. and there's the famous thumb again holding john bell hood's

general certificate. one star, to star, three star, and four-star general certificates. it is unbelievable. i have talked to professional civil war historians. some of them have never seen a general's certificate, anybody's general certificate. all four of john bell hood's are now, we know where they are. ahead ofi got way myself. hoodis -- oh, i meant to, was in the insurance business. it's funny, toward the end he says, i don't like telling insurance -- selling insurance. i think i will do something else. in the 1870's, he traveled a lot. frome records, 60 letters

fromo his wife, anna, various places around the south. there are 40 or 50 letters from her to him, which i did not transcribe. so they are still with the descendent. but these are letters. what i wanted to do was read a few. was ae john bell hood professional soldier, a graduate of west point. he went to california and texas and five hand to hand, with indians. shot an arrow through the hand. , the battles he fought in virginia it is like a who's who of battles. 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 is nice -- business? my perception, he would be your prototypical ex-military guy, kind of stern and terse. he was far from it. 20,'s a letter, january 1870. i will just read this. toetter from john bell hood his wife. "my sweetest one," -- and that's how he addressed each letter -- "i have much to be -- indeed

much to thank you for. among many things that the most penchant ofour early to bed and early 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 plaintiff 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 -- 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 -- yes, it is ever so with me when not too heavily burdened or kept too busy. i am hopeful of soon freeing making a all debt and comfortable home for me and mine. god has indeed been good to you and me. 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. -- ind you a slip about sweet one., my 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." signed, "ever your devoted bell." do you ever write letters like this to your wives? [laughter] froms another one, pulaski house hotel, savannah, georgia, january 22, 1872. "my most precious one, i received the missing letters this morning to relieve this gloomy day. all, became very well. i have been held in my room all day by the rain. i started, however, but had to return owing to the falling of the water. i am glad your aunt is with you and

and 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. thought of the decorations club would be a success. if i could have had my wife present with a white flowir in the air and a white teule, 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. henhood took his war papers to washington late in his life. he is suffering financially. nd he did the strangest thing. he was trying to get the deal been but the deal did not get

done. a bunch of politicians couldn't get the deal done. imagine that. he had to go back to nerls 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. is from st. louis 1875 to anna. y 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 couldn't account for grant's actions towards the south and ised 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 thislet everybodier, 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. r. duncanhood. nside of it is a letter. today it is quite cheer andfl pleasant outside. i shall as said before dine with general sherman. i felt like i would have liked to escape such a dinner but couldn't 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 busy getting together with hood and hood did not do it. it is not nice for me not to meet with him. duncan, his s to 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 ive 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. from the s a letter army of the united states , washington, d.c. dated august 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 assure you safe and 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 condolens. next to last one. of hood's 11 children, the youngest was anni. she was only four or five months old. she was adopted by a jewish

family in columbus, georgia. mr. and mrs. joseph. don't know why. i always wondered how that came to be. we knew why some families adopted the kids and others don't. but the baby did not live long. i checked. i wrote to people in columbus, georgia. i wrote the jewish historical soit. i couldn't 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 let's 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 ised 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 hood's 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 father's name? what was your father's 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. he 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 soul at that time and that accounted for the baby's nervous condition. she was a very nervous little darling. her precious dust rests here in our cemetery and every 26th of april his grave is decorated in memory of her father. i hope to meet all of his family in heaven in god's own time and may all the children still living be under god's ll-seeing eyes is my prayer. now we know how the little one nded 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 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 didn't. apparently she had writ tone hood and ised when you took command of the army in tennessee in atlanta what were your plans. what hrp 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 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 stand ders saw the till 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 eemingly 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 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 don't 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 he left rchives that ith sherman. hese 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 don't 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 don't 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 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 riendship. >> it is interesting that had a relationship both ith 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 hood's book? >> when hood died, an organization -- the hood relief committee or hood's 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 hood's manuscript to that committee. so if you look at the first edition of hood's memoirs, it says published by the hood elief committee i think it is. >> hood does not mention much bout 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? >> hood's 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 ime in richmond. this mostly comes from mary chestnut's diary. a lot of people think that margaret mitchell had scarlet

o'hara that her character was inspired by sally buck preston as portrayed in mary chestnut's diary. she apparently was pretty and flirty. ood was a handsome hero. she stayed in richmond in south carolina. she married. nded i don't know. there is one particular book that has so much of hood and sally preston like i am watching a reality show or something. give more , when you k 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. a question eech 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 198, i think. it is written by steve davis who is an atlanta guy. and you know, you can put something on a bumper sticker. so-and-so is a jerk. it will take so-and-so longer than a bumper sticker to try to prove that he is not. steve researched it. not even hood's critics or . vals guys that you know, they were

hood's 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 t. it is an extract or form of morphine or opium. the earliest he found any reference was in a book another in 1940 about 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 e 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 steve's 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 high 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. he 3,000-word 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 ooked 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. an underground atlanta exists one of the oldest hotels in the city. we rented the basement. i am a digger. the process of digging down from he muck i knew

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 carried by the british member of the crown so that he did in fact get to atlanta. he found the cotin 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 from montgomery, alabama to richmond. so they could get back and forth. and as proximity to europe iplomacy and such. do you top of the take one more or say good night. there was an arm over here somewhere. >> 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. t 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 or getting ready to write 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 ncluding 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 conresponse you get? >> i think everybody considers

he 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 isn't a biography. i never said it is a biography. if you are expecting a iography, 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 don't 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 ople that suffer such wounds did live in pain and the idea that he took pain relief along the way doesn't 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. ou know. i was really interested in the 60 letters. there is one time he said it as sleeting. he is in savannah with a head old. 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 can't do anything other than that one mention in 60 letters. nd nothing in wartime. one 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 was nothing more than.

they made an effort to get to e left of the union line but wasn't successful. that is not what he designed. that is not what he ordered. > that is what happened. he did not order a frontal attack. >> 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 high did not order a rontal attack. you know in the age before radios and communications you gave orders to suboard nats and trusted them to carry them out r to attempt to. >> 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 hood's grandfather was my great times whatever grandfather but i come off of a ifferent branch.

we use the word collateral rather than direct. all right. thank you very much. >> i thought it would be compelling to tell the story of a white family and a black family with the same name that come from the same place and follow them from slavery through the civil war and reconstruction. jim crow. civil rights movement up until oday and compare and contrast.

>> the government, you are with the daily tyranny of the in box. part of my responsibility is representing the secretary of defense on the deputies committee. developing options for the rinciples and the president. when you are in a think tank you are not trying to second guess the policy makers but to do work to help them look over

the horizon to see what are the issues i am going to confront a year from now and how do i think more strategicly about america's role in the world. >> michelle floornoy. sunday night at 8:00 eastern nd pacific on. >> the serious urgency of now and the battle for society. >> hundreds of hours of these phone conversations. how much of a gift are they for you and other historians that would like to tap in to his presidency. >> it is terrific that white house conversat t