you're watching american history tv. all weekend, every weekend on c-span 3. >> next, on "the civil war," stephen hood discusses his book on the life of confederate general john bell hood. writer, a descendent of the general, says that many of the general's these are clarified through the documents. this is about an hour and 45 minutes. >> thank you all for coming. in january.anta i'm going to be able to vote down year if i keep showing up. [laughter]

in west virginia you could, probably. [laughter] coupleto mention a people who are here. my beloved cousin, barbra markns and her husband park here. they are from huntington and moved down to atlanta about 10 years ago. and general hood's great-granddaughter and her husband skip from asheville, north carolina are here. i am going to embarrass her and make her raise her hand. so -- [applause] mary's grandfather was oswald grbel, one of the 11 hood children we will talk about later. wrote any mentioned, i hood, and it was originally to be titled history versus john bell hood.

and what i did was -- and i will 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 around the 1970's on. and i decided to write a book that would really expose a lot of the myths and the legends about him that you read about. and actually use primary source information to let the people, let the reader know exactly what that is about. what that legend or what that meant is about. i finished that book with materials that are readily available. i got a call from one of general

, ands great-grandchildren he said, you know, we have got a trunk load or we have some boxes of old letters that had been passed down through the generations. 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, and it was a treasure trove. it was the papers of john bell scholar, every civil war scholar since the end of the war or since his death in 1879, but they were lost. good and his wife died within 72 hours of each other of yellow left 11 orphans, all under the age of 10. yes. 11 and 10.

they had three sets of 10 -- they had three sets of twins. it his friends obviously -- you have 11 little mouths to feed three times a day . scholars always felt like his papers were just discarded in the housecleaning that happened after his death, but as it turns out, they weren't. so, i went through the papers and transcribed them as quickly , and 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 said, wow.

is big. this he said it was persuasive before. it is even more persuasive now. he said, we are going to change the title of the book from "history versus john bell hood" the rise,bell hood, fall, and resurrection of a 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. they were excerpts from them were inserted into my manuscript, and the lost papers of john bell hood, which as anthony mentioned, he, i, and everyone thought was going to be available in mid-may, has been delayed. here,at i am going to do it 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 i amoversies of good, and assuming everybody that is here is a bit of a civil war enthusiast to some degree, and a lot of these things you will be familiar with. and i am going to show you some probably,n that will hopefully, maybe change your truthn of this historic that you always thought you knew. and then what i am going to do is, i am going to do a turn, and toward the end, i am going to go through -- it is not going to have anything to do with controversies. it is just some of the fascinating letters that were will be the transcripts of which will be in the book. it will be an annotated volume.

i proceed, let me say this also. the owners of the papers, they asked me what my opinion was they should do with them. and i said, keep them. because the family has done such a great job of keeping them over years, why0, 140 not? they have been scanned, and a digital archive of these letters will be at memorial hall museum in new orleans. but it has pretty much been chosen as were the actual scanned images of these letters will be. so, let's start. photograph., this these records, in these boxes notapers, if you will, were

just letters. there were photographs. articles. if m.r.i. up. just everything. -- ephermera. just everything. one was a photograph of john bell hood. i'd never seen it. i have never run across anybody who had ever seen it to this day. apparently inwas possession of the defendant. the is obviously taken in 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 in dalton 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 lieutenantsouth as a general to command a corps under joseph johnston. so, that was in the newly discovered papers, if you will. ok. that i wouldngs love to stand up year for however long they are going to give me -- stand up here for however long they're going to give me. i would love to go over this stuff, but i can't. but i am going to read these things, and i am making these assertions, and by golly, i can't back them up, even though i am not going to tonight, because you all came near to see other things. not call his men cowards. he did accept responsibility for his defeats.

he was not angry at franklin and decided to slaughter his own army because he was mad. he did not like frontal assaults. in fact, the only one he ever ordered was at franklin. matter of fact, if he had a problem it was being too wedded to, too committed to flanking movements. not position any of his brigades or divisions at franklin so they would be shot at the most because he was maddest at them. if you all have not read some of the books on the tennessee campaign, you would think i was 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 wait to be destroyed. there was good reason to send nathan bedford forrest to murfreesboro road. not squabblet did

before the campaign and so on. and another thing -- he was not a drug addict. as a matter of fact, there is a shred ofere is not evidence, not a single piece of paper, that he took anything ever. hard in a short amount of time to pack all of these things up. i go into all of these things in great detail in my book that is out. was good -- hood's reputation before around 1970 when tom is conley's book came out, followed by a book by james mcdonaghnd followed by a book by wiley sword -- what was his reputation? thehe nashville banner, in

100 anniversary of the civil war in nashville, there was a big insert in the paper. and it ended at the end of a 36-page insert, this problem. -- this poll one. it says at the end, "when i saw you captive, trembling, at the end of johnson's wrote tom afore i, hood, the one leg it man, the shoeless man was your only hope." this was the perception in 1964, which was the centennial of the civil war. it is a lot different now. another couple of things. was hood hospital in

cuthbert, georgia, and i have to admit i do not know where cuthbert is. there was a girls school back in the civil war era, and they transformed it into a hospital, and in honor of john bell hood they named it hood hospital. there is hood avenue in atlanta. then there are numerous sites in texas, manassas, or genia, fort oglethorpe, which you might expect, because it was chickamauga and where hood excelled under general lee in virginia, but believe it or not, there are streets, rose named tennessee,ll hood in a national suburb, in brentwood, and in franklin, tennessee, of all places, there are two streets named after john bell hood. goodf i don't know what

real estate developer would spend hundreds of thousands, if not millions of dollars developing a subdivision and naming streets in honor of drug addicted army commanders -- but something obviously happened in the last 20, 30, 40 years with hood's reputation. -- wileye problems a very accomplished historian wrote in 1992 "a full with a license to kill his own men." ben stein of "bueller, bueller" fame, also a brilliant historian. he wrote " john bell hood was the most instructive american of all time." anall things, this was in

article about whether the faa was going to allow cell phone use in flight. somehow or another john bell hood got brought into that one. it gets pretty outrageous. stephenter-of-fact, woodworth is a civil war historian, phd and author, very well respected and he wrote one time "some recent accounts of --" and excuse me he was talking about john bell hood and braxton bragg. recent accounts of these two hapless generals lead one to wonder not why they were in the head of an army, but why they were not in an insane asylum?" so he was wondering about the sensationalism with john bell hood and other civil war characters. here is an example of how an author can take -- what would that literary license,

artistic license where they can take something and paraphrase it and then footnoted to a source. wylie sword's book, he wrote of hood after he got to nashville, the army had only gained 164 recruits after they got to tennessee. and resolvedgrily to bring into the army by constriction -- conscription all available for military duty. if they did not come voluntarily, he would bring them in at the point of a bayonet. i read that and i said, i want to go to the footnotes and see what was said. here is what was said. "as a yet i have not had any time to adopt a general system doconscription, but hope to

toand to bring into the army bring any men liable to military duty." acted angrilyd and was going to bring the men at the point of a bayonet. here's another one. this one might have been an honest mistake, but i have a problem with it. this was an excerpt from stanley horn's book, "the army of tennessee." legendary, very renowned historian. he was alluding to a telegram hood had sent to richmond after the defeat in tennessee and the retreat back into mississippi. they've received a order from hood. crossed thes

tennessee river without material loss since franklin." then stanley horn wrote -- nothing of the shocking losses of franklin, nothing of the disaster it nashville. rd wrote, hood's claimed that his army had successfully crossed the tennessee river without material losses the battle of franklin. this was highly misleading. well, i went to the report and discovered something very interesting. this is out of the official records. in the what is recorded official records. reports he has -- the army of tennessee has crossed the river at cambridge without material loss since the battle of franklin. but there is an asterisk, and it says, see dispatch as sent by hood. this was sent to cooper by hood

's superior, but regard. what hood actually wrote was "the army has crossed the tennessee river without material losses the battle in front of nashville." butto get too technical, hood lost 50 canon at nashville. when he said in the dispatch, he reported the loss of the 50 cannon at nashville. he said, we have not lost anymore since nashville. as somebody made a mistake and the official record and put franklin instead of nashville. asterisk tot and the corrected one. a mistake. horn made he did not go here. he used the information in the other dispatch, which would make hood a liar. but he did not like. beauregard's staff made a mistake. .- but he did not lie

the problem i have with wylie s word is he basically repeated the same thing. the problem i have with him is immediately above them is another dispatch on something 2se, and sword cites that in other pages of his book on totally different subjects. i find it hard to believe he did not see the correct dispatch. thing hood is criticized for is being callous. because of complaining his men did not fight hard enough and there weren't enough of them wounded and killed. most often isted where hood did write -- he did write after the battle of "the vigor of the

attack may be in some sort imagined when only 1400 or killed and wounded out of the two cores engaged." he is criticized for that. if i read that, i would say, how would you like to be one of the 1400? wasproblem hood had was, he not at jonesboro. he said two corps to jonesboro and put party in command while hood remained in atlanta with justood -- with one corps, in case jonesboro was a diversion. hood stayed here with what would have been the heavily outnumbered corps and sent the two. after the battle of jonesboro, hardy got mad and resigned and went to savannah area -- savannah. and hardy did not submit to hood and official report.

as a matter-of-fact, hardy did not submit an official report until, like, march of 1865. the battle ofor jonesboro was a report from stephen d. lee. what did he say in his official report? "the attack was a feeble one, and a failure, with a loss to my corps of about 1300 men and killed and wounded." it was alls hood feeble attack and we only lost 1300 men. that inically repeats his official record, and in most books you read, hood is really criticized for complaining there were not enough casualties at jonesboro. but he was basically just reporting all that he knew, because that is what lee had reported to him.

here's another one. this is a portion of a much tribute thate, came out in the new orleans newspaper nine days after john bell hood died. and it was published by the army of tennessee association, which were all of the veterans. is typically eloquent, the way that people wrote and spoke back then. about what aalks great guy he wasn't brave and loved by his men and some such. in the middle, he wrote or they wrote, excuse me, the 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." then they go on and talk more about what a great guy he was. ord's book ine sw 1920 he wrote " hood, ultimately, was a tragic failure, a sad, pathetic soldier whose ambitions totally outstripped his abilities. he was an anachronism, an advocate of outmoded concepts, and a general and able to adapt to the newer methods or technology. always prone to blame others and unable to admit his mistakes, to endbetter -- to the bitter and never understood his failings. they charge me with making franklin is slaughter pen, he admonished a group of aging iterans, but as i understand were means fight and fight means kill. he took that out of a tribute to

hood. this one i am going to go through pretty quick. too many atlantans to study many atlantans who study civil war history -- this is one of the fun stories everyone tells. after the battle of ezra church, which was a horrible the feed for the confederates, supposedly a yankee yelled out "say, johnny, how many of you are there over there?" said, "well,derate i guess there is about enough for another killing." and that is presented as the fact that the confederates were so fed up with hood, having all of these attacks and it was basically a criticism of hood. i did not figure this one out, but steve davis, another historian did and sent it to me. excuse me. as it turns out, and he went

back and he researched this. and this story actually did , butn according to a diary it happened at new hope church, a month before john bell hood took command of the army of tennessee. it happened when joseph johnston not hood.mmander, but somebody put it in a book that he was in amman. it gets repeated over and over and over. this -- another one that is kind of fun. there are so many different versions of it in the books. supposedly, the army of tennessee, defeated after nashville, and they're all right did and traipsing home through the mud in their hungry -- they are all ragged and traipsing home through the mud and they are hungry. someone decided to take the lyrics to "the yellow rose of supposedly --g

"you may talk about your dearest maid and sing of rosalie, but the gallant hood of texas late hell in tennessee." i wondered what was the source of that? most of the books site belle "the life ofs book johnny reb." wiley does not source it. so i went back and i felt kind of silly. i searched and i searched and i searched. i found what i suppose is the primary source. it was 1904. one confederate soldiers said that he heard one of his fellow soldiers say this as hood road by. -- rode by.

everywhere now. and they add onto it to where there was one fellow who wrote a book a few years ago on the texas brigade of the army of tennessee and it said "as the troops, as the brigade was watching -- marching across the back into alabama, they all sang the song. people keep the lien on the stuff and building on this stuff. and it changes the perception drastically. so, here it is. that is the -- that is where i found it. it was actually 1906, and it was one soldier from the 39th north carolina or something, but it has been turned into complete her grades and divisions. here is another entry. hood had a girlfriend, sally preston, and he courted

her. when the war was over, they both ended up marrying other people, but in some of the later books, which 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. , let's look into this. so, i've looked at, say -- thomas hay, who wrote the first book back in the 1920's on the tennessee campaign. and i thought, habitat is did he mention sally preston? zero. stanley horn? zero. tom is connolly, 1970's, mentions her once. she is on 13 pages

in the index alone, 13 pages and tarleton,med susan who was patrick claiborne's fiancée, is mentioned on nine pages. then i looked -- these are four of six generals 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. this, it is kind of over-dramatizing things. another one, it has almost always been said that robert e. lee said that john bell hood was "all lion, no 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. it was mentioned not as criticism, but as praise. now i will get in trouble. this is on the wall 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 soldier called john bell hood "old wooden head," 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. getting quickly to the letters. 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 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 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." we now know that hood's 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, 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 johnston. now we know. i think his publisher would have

sent the manuscript back and said, give us a little more. here are some of the new letters. a lot of people have heard, i was supposed, 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. a couple of hood's 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. this is a letter from louis t.

wigfall, a confederate senator from texas and hood's superior earlier in the war. 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 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 one to bragg, that sounded like he was answering their letters. this is a letter from the battle of 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. johnston wrote, there were no yankee units. it was all in hood's mind. it never happened. this is a letter from captain paul oliver of the u.s. army. he was in union general dan butterfield's brigade, in command of the 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. 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. here -- that one was from a man named john smith. here is another one. they lost 25,000, from e.d. wade. this is one of the greatest names. hippolyte oladowski, johnston's 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, johnston, did intend to leave my little band in charge of atlanta as his corps and cavalry were hunting for sherman. wouldn't that have been a kettle of fish. he writes, i was never planning to abandon atlanta. these are on the battle of --

the spring hill 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. 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. 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 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 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 recently discovered is a letter from major william w. old, one of hood's division commanders. it says, among other things, 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.

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. 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. he is also criticized, he gave the orders and should have rode out and confirmed they were done. to which an answer would probably be -- 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 do you ensure 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 shouldn't say found, because they were always there. let's say realized. this is a hand written letter from stonewall jackson to richmond, recommending hood for 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. this is a frame probably hung on hood's 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 did 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 wholeheartedly 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 that these important documents, 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. again, 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 doctor, 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 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 him off, took him here, did this, did that. a doctor's 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 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 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. 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 atlanta. stayed in atlanta for a day or

two. the train went to augusta, and in 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. what is really interesting about this, because of the myth of opiates, which i mentioned early on, did he use morphine? 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. it is like 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. here is hood's second lieutenant, his first and second

lieutenant's commission from the u.s. army after he graduated from west point in 1853. it gets better, -- here we go. 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. this is, i got way ahead of myself. this is -- oh, i meant to, hood was in the insurance business. it's funny, toward the end he says, i don't like selling insurance. i think i will do something else. in the 1870's, 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. so they are still with the descendent. but these are letters. what i wanted to do was read a few. because john bell hood was a 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 business? my perception, he would be your prototypical ex-military guy, kind of stern and terse. he was far from it. here's a letter, january 20, 1870. i will just read this. a letter from john bell hood to his wife. "my sweetest one," -- and that's how he addressed each letter -- "i have indeed much to thank you for. among many things that the most paramount, your penchant of 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 myself of all debt and making a 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. will now go, my sweet one. 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 always signed, "ever your devoted bell." do you ever write letters like this to your wives? [laughter]

here's another one, from 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 in 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 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 declarations at the boston club would have been a success. my wifeld have havd present, the questions among the women would have been settled. wait a while, my sweet one, until i get my swallowtail and my brass buttons and we will show them. good night. he says, wait until we get

dressed up and everyone will be looking at us when we enter the party. you are listening to the words of the man who fought all of these battles around atlanta. differents a little than the john bell hood you have read about. this one is to me kind of historic as well. finished his -- toript, he took his sell. thing.the strangest he hung out and washington, d.c., trying to get the deal done, but the deal did not get done. believe it or not, a bunch of politicians could not get the deal done. imagine that. he has to go back to new orleans, and he left all of these pictures -- we are in the national archives now -- he left

all his papers with, of all sherman.illiam t. you can read a lot of stuff about hood. what a nut. are you kidding me? i thought the same thing, until i read this letter. it is from st. louis, very right -- february 21. here yourecious 1 -- go. 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 myself doing. he then said, i must come monday, that our names share association in history and he

wanted to know me. ,e also asked if i was alone so, you see you would've been in the same box. he said in our conversation he could not account for grant's actions toward the south and asked me a few things about the south, blah, blah, blah. general sherman has written a book, i think, and i want to get it. he was very courteous. so he met sherman, had dinner with sherman, and here is one you guys will get a kick out of. here is another letter. and in this letter -- i will show you -- that was that letter. look at this. this is a letter from hood to anna, and in the envelope were these little envelopes, in different shapes, addressed to mr. john bell hood jr., mr. duncan hood, ms. ethel hood,

miss lillian hood. his children. and this is something else important. today it is quite cheerful and pleasant outside. i shall stay and nine with general-- dine with sherman. i've felt as though i would like to escape such a dinner, but could not do so without giving sherman,since general 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 as to compel me to accept his invitation. so, sherman had apparently been in new orleans and had made some gestures about getting together with hood and hood didn't do it.

hood says, you know, he keeps wanting to get together with me and it is just not nice for me not to meet with them. a couple of these little notes. i just think that they are cute. one of them -- one of these is his oldestn, who was son, who ended up going to west point, by the way. all who have more than one child, you will relate to this. duncan, poppae 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. yourher words, quit biting little brother and sisters and i

will bring you some candy. my precious little annabelle, you must not forget how much papa loves you. you must also 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 whilst you are a little girl. i guess you're supposed to have your toes out. getting near the end here. this was really kind of poignant. this is a letter -- if you will notice the letterhead -- headquarters of the army, united states, washington, d.c., and it is needed august 25. -- august 26. anna died on august 25. this is a letter of condolence from william t. sherman to john bell hood. all general, my family is alone in the allegheny mountains

and i am here at the home of her friend. a friend read aloud the notice of death of mrs. general hood. i cannot help thinking about that wonderful and beautiful group of children you paraded before me last winter at your home in new orleans. so they did me. meet. and you took my daughters lizzie and ellie to see mrs. hood, who was sick in her bed. i cannot vanish the site from a mind and now write you this simple note to let you know that here in washington, there is one who thinks of you in your per easement and of those motherless children. your letter to my daughter lizzie, to whom you entrusted your work papers. -- ine closes it out

assurance of my heartfelt sympathy and great respect, truly your true friend, william shermanan -- william t. . and the sad thing is, hood never got it. on august 27. never got the letter of condolence. i think my time is ok? we can do this next one. all could's 11 children, the youngest was anna gertrude. and when general and mrs. hood died, she was only 4, 5 months old. little baby. by a jewishted family in columbus, georgia, mr. and mrs. moses ezekiel joseph. know why, but just for some reason, i'll is wonder -- i

wonder how that came to be? we knew why some families adopted some of the kids and some we don't, but that one for whatever reason puzzled me. and the baby did not live long. i checked, i wrote to people in columbus, georgia. i wrote the jewish historical -- anyway, could not find anything out. in the box was the following letter. the clearview, which was name of the plantation or home -- columbus, georgia, april 13th, 1922. miss ida hood. my dear ms. hood. yesterday i went to see mr. well to get me the news that his sister, mrs. wells, was too

sick, and you asked her from me about little gertrude. i am glad to hear you are in new york and i am glad to write you the particulars of how my husband and i were privileged to secure such a child. one of your father -- your noble father's posterity. we never had a child, and whenever i would ask mr. joseph to let's adopt one, he would refuse and say, we don't know who we might get. it it came about that one day was visiting mr. wells and saw a picture of the hood orphans on and i was drawn to be small baby in the front of the picture on the little couch. you know the picture. so, mr. wells gave me the picture. this is the picture of the orphans. i took it home, showed it to my husband and asked if i could apply to be the guardians of the children and see if i could get little gertrude. his reply was "why, if you could

not get one of general hood's children." i insisted he let me try, so he consented, and i went to new orleans and february 1884 her. to court to have the papers made and signed and i found the presiding judge was judge campbell. in questioning me, he asked what my maiden name was. i said howard. howard? was that your father from name? -- excuse me i'm a was your father's name? augustus, i replied. then 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 in some way to the children, he said, let her have the child, for i knew her father well. so, it you see what it means to

have a good name through a parent. i brought the baby home and she was the talk of the town. and everybody wanted to see her, because she was general hood's child and was a deer, cherished baby for seven months. be withwanted her to her parents in heaven. -- take good care of her. she is not strong. , took her we took her to warm springs about 40 miles from here, but she did not improve and died after several days of illness. the same dr. was up here and had charge of her and did all he could, but to no purpose. he told me as soon as she became the oldest, she would not live. r little heart was

deeply involved and she was born with it. your mother was in anguish of soul at the time, and that, i guess, accounted for the baby's nervous condition. she was a very nervous precious little darling. her grave is memory -- decorated in the memory of her father, general john bell hood. i pray that all of the children still living the always in god' eyes. so, now we know how the little one ended up in columbus, and wasn't the little one lucky to get her, mrs. joseph? isn't that sweet? i am done. -- i guess that proves it, don't it? i want to read a short letter to wassh this from -- it

obviously also among the new letters, among the newfound letters.- the newfound it was a letter from hood to sara dorsey. sara dorsey was a woman ahead of her time. she was a professional writer back when there were not many women who are professional writers. she lived in new orleans. a lot of people do not know this, but sara dorsey founded both for our, and that is the jefferson davis pronunciation wherever jefferson davis and lived after the civil war. mississippi. i thought that he owned it, but she did. -- she said, what

retrying to do at that point in the war, and this is just a great letter. these are john bell hood's words and i think it is a great way to end the presentation on him, let him explain it. 1867.leans, march 30, at ms. dorsey, my experience as a soldier taught me in early days during the revolution and army could not retreat in the face of the enemy without great loss in spirit and numbers. ie army of tennessee, when assumed command, having lost over 25,000 effective men during an unfortunate retreat of over 100 miles, was not in condition for pitched battle, and as we can alone rely on offensive flows to guard long lines, such as the line extending from mobile to richmond, i felt my position was an embarrassment, but could not refuse to comply with the orders and the wishes althoughin authority,

i did not want the command. beholding of position around atlanta 443 days improve the morale of the soldiers, both forced to abandon the untenable the of then caused recommends of retreat, my army was very much discouraged to find itself standing upon the flat plains of georgia with all the mountain fortresses and their front, deposed during of the last recruit, and no spring ridge between them and the city. twas here that all the corps commanders expressed the opinion the standstill was certain ruin and recommended the offensive be taken as the only hope of improving and increasing the army. mississippi, alabama, georgia, and the carolinas having no men at the rendezvous that could be sent to my aid, i decided to push forward into capturee, attempts the

of nashville, move into kentucky, and open communications with generally. -- general lee. this accomplished, i thought, would compel general chairman -- general sherman to abandon the .wamps of florida the capture of nashville and regaining so much loss territory, i was quite certain, would give new life to our people, recruit our thinned ranks and give that tone to the army to which i had been so long accustomed in virginia, which i toed would ensure victory our arms and finally secure our freedom. accidents, however, perhaps beyond human control cause the whenign to fail at a time victory was seemingly within our grasp." i thank you all for your attention and i think this guy for being a great detail manu

kept the all organized -- a great economic and who kept this all organized. thank you, anthony. any questions? do you have enough material -- i'm sorry. do you have enough material to write more than one book on this? >> there are about 200 letters, about 60 of which are from hood to his wife, and i don't even know how much of those 60 i'm going to include. it's going to be an annotated, footnoted volume. paperwork, butre that is the paperwork that is in the national archives that he left with sherman.

he refers to those as his war papers. these are his personal papers, including correspondence with his former subordinates. now, i amere is -- hoping and as a matter of fact, i am betting as soon as this book is published, somebody, one or more people will jump on riding new biographies of john bell hood. >> i wrote an article on hood and now you're going to make me revise it. >> i'm sorry. >> wenzhou to change the whole thing. >> that is the nice thing about an article. then someone finds something and you find out how flat the world was. >> thank you for that. the truth is always good. and sherman god

to the academy? >> yes. >> how many years apart were they? >> several. i do not know what class sherman was in. somebody might know. hood graduated in 1853. >> there is a camaraderie in the academy and it's not unusual to me that sherman would take an interest in the general of the opposite army. your comments made me initially think you thought that was strange. i don't think it is strange. even if a camaraderie you are fighting a different fronts. >> yes, that there are a lot of people you could leave papers with. two with papers with the guy who beat you in atlanta, it is just kind of odd. but now we know hood and sherman had become friends. >> is that not correct? >> that all make sense. -- it is correct. >> that all make sense. never all i knew, hood

met sherman. sherman thing i knew, waved bye to hood when he entered atlanta. but they had developed a friendship. >> it is interesting also that johnson has a relationship with .oth sherman and grant in fact, he participated in both of their funerals. -- when the war was over, most of the confederate and union officers want to say, they buried the hatchet. buried the saber. there was more feuding that went on among the confederate

generals and among the union generals then there was contention between each other, because they were always -- on the confederate side they were all arguing, trying to blame each other for the loss. on the union side, a lot of them are trying to claim credit for the victory. so, a lot of egos there. >> to what extent was beauregard involved with the publication of hood's book? died, the hood relief committee or the hood's orphans committee or whatever, there was an organization involved to collect money for the welfare of the children. as a matter of fact, the picture mrs. joseph referred to -- maybe a lot of you have seen this picture. it is reproduced quite a bit. it is all the children in one picture. that was published and sold to

raise money, and what they did manuscriptave hood's to that committee to publish, so at the first edition of his memoirs, they say published by the hood relief committee, i think it is, and beauregard was the president or chairman of that committee. >> they did not change anything in the book or influence anything that was written in the book? >> he does not mention much about beauregard. somebody here? >> while he is up there -- >> earlier in your presentation you mentioned a woman who had somehow been embroidered by other historians in her relationship with general hood and toward the close you point out what a wonderful family man he was. ?hat was really going on there

i understand women sometimes followed men around on campaign trails to read what really went on? >> well, again, hood's relationship with buck preston is written about quite a bit in larry chestnut -- the most famous of the socialitend she was a . this thing about buck preston and hood mostly comes from mary chestnut's diary. a lot of people think margaret mitchell had scarlet o'hara, that scarlet o'hara, the character was inspired by sally uck" preston as recorded in diary.estnut's

she was apparently pretty and flirty and hood was handsome and a hero. but you know, she stayed in and in south carolina. when the war ended, she married some other guy, and hood married some other woman. >> i think it is -- i don't know. there is one particular book that has so much of hood and -- it is too much like i am watching a reality show or something. like i said, when you give more supposedly laois and show between a general and his itlfriend -- suppose relationship between a general and his girlfriend than three or four generals who were killed in the battle that is the subtitle

of your book, you're kind of wondering what your book is about. so -- gentlemen? >> we had a speaker at the roundtable and his topic was in general the alanna campaign. he gave his speech. after the speech, a question came from the floor, his opinion of general johnson and general have and should johnson been given more time to be relieved because hood was ,asically -- had a bum arm missing a lead, tied to his horse, loaded with laudanum. what is the difference between laudanum and morphine? there are no records of general hood being hooked on the substance are being seen as woozy or topsy? >> there is a great article in blue and gray magazine and it is

1998, i think, and it is written by steve davis, who is in atlanta guy. steve -- it is excellent. and steve research the laudanum thing. know,ere is not -- you 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 prove he is not. anyway, steve researched it, and there are no records -- not even rivals>>, not even his like joe johnson or nathan bedford forrest -- these were afterho were his critics the war. they did not write about it. there were not routine quartermaster slips out, here is your supply. what steve did, he researched it.

is anrst of all, laudanum extract. it is an opiate. it is some extract or some form of morphine or opium. steve, the early as he found any and laudanumhood was a book published in 1940, yule, was about general another confederate general, who had lost a leg. he is ridinghere how this general did not use any painkillers after the war, john bell hood might have. then somebody else writes a book a year or two later and says, hood might have used laudanum and cites this, the 1940 biography of another general. the next guy says hood uses laudanum. in my book, i have a whole

chapter on it. it gets to the point where -- there are people who have written exactly how much of a dose he took and how often he took it. cite,at they do is, they you know, something that was written a couple years earlier and they add a little tabasco to and it is bizarre. steve davis, if you could google it, it is online. if you somehow or another gets a hold of april article, again, i have the chapter in my book. i am not here to sell my book. my publisher might. there's just no record of it whatsoever. none. come upi've had people to me and say, you are related to john bell hood, aren't you? was he really addicted to morphine? i went to a place in tennessee one time. it was an open house. you had to sign in.

the nice lady was there, she said, you know a descendent of general hood was here the other day. i said, oh really. she was talking about how old grandpa was hooked on drugs. it just is -- anyway, there is no evidence of it whatsoever. actually, the only evidence we have is just the officers. 3000-word medical report for gettysburg and the chickamauga report, i have a verbatim in my book. you can read that thing and it on november 6. get to that and you say, does this sound like a guy who ended up being hooked on morphine? just -- just total speculation, and the exaggeration. yeah, like i say, at a little more spice.

>> [indiscernible] snap oh yeah. >> [indiscernible] davis'sot read steve articles published in 1998. >> if i may, can i share a short story that came about when i build a restaurant? existsrground atlanta one of the oldest hotels in the city. the basement. my degree is in geology, archaeology. i am a digger. building hadhe been a hospital during the war, first used by the confederates and then jointly used. franklin shared with me the ofry that back in the time pierce and buchanan, with the knowledge that the war was

coming, they wanted to get england to support the north, but not the south. major countries supporting the north and the south, it would be a very tragic war. the high member of the crown of england was given a private train to tour the south, to show how underdeveloped it was compared to the north. the train got as far as richmond. it is assumed -- i am sharing this from what franklin garrett said because i am not a historian -- it is assumed the train got further, possibly to atlanta. in my digging, i came across a piece of earthenware, which had on the backside a very interesting stamp on it, which looked real. franklin garrett gave me the name of another gentleman in a university of north you studied these stamps that appear and he came back with a very, very long letter saying that i had just

proven a point but that was the earthenware carried -- apparently they carry their own earthenware -- by the british member of the crown, so he did in fact get to atlanta, found the cotton gin operating at the time -- i could be mistaken on that because i am not a historian. but that is the main reason why france supported those two countries. does that make sense to you? >> i know the north was trying to get all of the european powers not to recognize the south. the south was trying to get them to recognize the south. the never did recognize south, but they sold them stuff. so, trade is trade. so, i don't -- that is the reason they moved the capital from a dummy, alabama to richmond, so they could get back .nd forth -- one of the reasons

one was the proximity and being able to get to europe and diplomacy and such. do you want to say one more or say good night? i thought somebody -- yeah, there was an arm over here somewhere. >> [indiscernible] >> right. >> [indiscernible] thing about that, the cemetery in cuthbert, there is a beautiful section dedicated to that hospital. if you have never been there, it is stunning. it has the soldier saluting, the whole thing. it is tended to very well. it's very interesting.

i wanted to ask you, do you think there is some reason -- i go to cuthbert quite often and there is a lot of hood references. >> actually, i was contacted by a couple of ladies -- this was a long time ago -- a couple of ladies getting ready to archive the andrew female academy, originally, and the history. and i think the main building is still there. some of the others are gone. i corresponded. this lady said, did you know that this was called hood hospital during the civil war? i did not know it. she sent me a bunch of information including the old photographs. one more? step up there was quite a root -- >> there was quite a response to

your first book. i was just wondering, have you heard from any of the authors that you reviewed? >> nine. >> i wonder why. >> i have 1000 footnotes in it. you can take all of the -- iotes i did in college have footnoted and footnoted and i have not heard a word. nobody has said, hey, thanks for straightening this out or you're wrong. at nobody has said you are right, you're wrong. nothing, not a word. is the breakdown of pro and con response that you get? >> well, i think everybody considers the test to be amazon.com reviews, and of course every author, or after you get your sons and your neighbors and everybody gets a few of those -- i have had a couple of reviews that weren't very good. and i'm serious about it -- the

reasons the people said they didn't like it, they did not get it. they didn't understand. one of them said, this is not a very good biography. it is in a biography. i never said it was a biography. if you are expecting a biography, it is a bad one. so, the response has been positive. but really, i have not heard a word about it from any of the authors whose mistakes or whatever you want to call them where i have given other information. i do not know what they think. this gentleman here has had -- i have missed him. please let this guy. just -- glad you're you are

here. >> well, thank you. >> [indiscernible] >> did you come across any information that said hood possibly lived in severe pain as a result of the amputation? some of the things i have read indicate some people suffered inh grievous wounds did live pain, and the idea that he had some pain relief along the way does not seem to me to be something that should result in the criticism that has been leveled. >> i agree. if i had had one of my arms withered by shrapnel and had my right leg cut off, i would take morphine by the barrel full, you know?

but there isn't -- and i was really interested in the 60 letters from him from john bell to anna. there was one time he said it was fleeting. he said i couldn't go out because the streets were slick. i can getd, today about. he does not say -- he is in savanna and he has a head cold, and you know the stuff they used to take? arsenic, stuff that we now know is poison. emagin something like he has a headache or a cold. one time he mentioned that she never mentions the word about it. now, was there pain? i'm sure there was. i don't know if he was trying to be a macho man or whatever. he just does not mention paining about any physical or even the fact that he can't do anything other than that one

mention. in 60 letters. and wartime. officers,f his staff none of his subordinates, none of the regular enlisted men, not a word. everybody just said, here he comes, riding by, strapped to his horse so he would not fall off. and he needed help getting up and down. but nothing, nothing. if he did, i'll think anybody would blame him, but there is nothing. >> on a more substantive level, if i remember what you said at the beginning, that he was not devoted to frontal attacks, it seemed to me that history is replete with examples wherein he enjoyed nothing but that. peachtree creek -- >> where might that history be? >> peachtree creek was a frontal attack. left,was front and to the the union left.

the party was supposed to -- >> they made an effort to get to the left of the union line, but was not very successful, and it was a long attacked by echelon -- >> writes, but by design it will was not frontal. it may have ended up being that why het that was not designed and that was not what you ordered. >> it is what happened. , he didn't order a frontal attack. at peachtree creek or anywhere else. >> at commanding general has to take some responsibility for the action of the troops. >> you're right. he is considered the losing general in that one, but he did not order a frontal attack. said, in the age

before radios and communications, you gave orders to subordinates and trusted them to carry them out or attempt to. >> what is meant by collateral -- >> as opposed to direct. >> so you are like a cousin? grandfather hood's was my great times whatever grandfather, but i come off a different branch. we use the word collateral as opposed to direct. all right, thank you very much. [applause] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2014] watergates ago, the

scandal led to the only resignation of an american president. american history tv revisits 1974 and the final weeks of the nixon administration. this weekend as the house judiciary committee considers impeachment of the president and charges of misuse of power. whatu have questions about the framers had in mind, questions about whether the activity that had been found out by the committee and the senate were indeed impeachable, and can we prove that richard nixon knew about them and even authorize them? watergate, 40 years later. sunday night on american history tv on c-span3. >> reachable exclusively by footbridge on the virginia side of the potomac