After resigning his commission as a first lieutenant of cavalry in the United States Army on April 16, 1861, John Bell Hood traveled to the Confederate capital of Montgomery, Alabama and offered his services to the Confederate army. He was commissioned a lieutenant and ordered to report to Major General Robert E. Lee in Richmond, Virginia. Hood reported to Lee in early May, 1861 and was immediately assigned to Col. J. B. Magruder at Yorktown on the Virginia peninsula. Hood's initial responsibilities were the organization and training of cavalry troops. He would soon receive promotions to captain, then major.

In Hood's first combat experience as a Confederate officer, a cavalry company under his command attacked a Union infantry battalion near Yorktown, killing several and capturing a dozen Federals. Hood was soon rewarded with a promotion to lieutenant colonel, and placed as second in command of a newly formed cavalry regiment under Col. Robert Johnson. Later during the summer, due to his service in Texas and the lack of trained officers from that distant state, he was assigned command of the newly formed Fourth Texas Infantry Regiment. The Fourth Texas would soon become part of the most successful and celebrated military units in American military history, the Texas Brigade.

The famed Texas Brigade was first organized by the Confederate War Department on October 22, 1861. The brigade was composed of the First, Fourth and Fifth Texas Infantry Regiments, and was originally commanded by Brigadier General Louis T. Wigfall. Initially, the First Texas was commanded by General Wigfall and Lt. Col. Hugh McLeod; the Fourth Texas by Col. Hood and Lt. Col. John Marshall;, and the Fifth Texas by Col. James Archer and Lt. Col. Jerome Robertson. In November of 1861 the Eighteenth Georgia Infantry (which became affectionately called "The Third Texas") under the command of Col. William Wofford was attached to the Texas Brigade, and in June of 1862 the eight South Carolina infantry companies of Col. Wade Hampton, known as Hampton's Legion, joined the Texas units, followed by Col. Van Manning's Third Arkansas Infantry in November 1862. Although the Eighteenth Georgia and Hampton's Legion would be transferred from the Texas Brigade during army reorganizations later in the war, the Third Arkansas would remain with the brigade until Lee's surrender at Appomattox.

On March 7, 1862 Hood was notified of his promotion to Brigadier General, and his appointment to command of the Texas Brigade, replacing its original commander Brigadier General Wigfall, who, recently elected to the Confederate Senate, had resigned from the Confederate army. The Texas Brigade was attached to the Confederate army defending Richmond, then under the command of General Joseph E. Johnston.

Major J. W. Ratchford of the Texas Brigade said of General Hood, "Few generals have possessed the warm personal love of their men as Hood did. This attachment was something different from any feeling I have ever known to exist between men and commander."

English historian Percy Gregg called Hood "a splendid soldier peculiarly suited to the command of his reckless, daring and indomitable Texans...Commander and men alike...never knew when they were beaten, or when they must be."

Eltham's Landing (The Peninsula Campaign)

In April 1862 Union General George McClellan commenced a major offensive up the Virginia peninsula, referred to as "The Peninsula Campaign," with the goal of capturing Richmond and subduing the Confederate government. As Johnston retreated north toward Richmond, Hood's Texas Brigade was assigned to rearguard duty, protecting the army's withdrawal. On May 6, near Williamsburg, Hood personally led an attack by his brigade against Federal troops of General William Franklin, who were arriving by ship at Eltham's Landing. After a sharp contest, Hood's men routed the enemy, ending the threat to the exposed flank of Confederate General James Longstreet's division. Hood's corps commander, General Gustavus Smith praised Hood's brigade as having earned "the largest share of the honors of the day at Eltham." General William H. Whiting, Hood's division commander, praised Hood's "conspicuous gallantry."

The Battle of Eltham's Landing, which successfully countered the Federal threat to Johnston's retreat to Richmond, is also renown for the fortunate incident where Hood's life was saved by a Confederate private who had disobeyed orders. Hood had ordered his troops to carry their muskets unloaded during the initial movement toward the Federals, not wanting the discharge of weapons to warn the enemy of their approach. Private John Deal of Company A, Fourth Texas, disobeying the order, had loaded his musket, stating later that he "distrusted orders to approach an advancing enemy with an empty gun." As the two opposing forces met, Union Corporal George Love of the 16th New York Infantry raised his rifle, aiming at Hood from a short distance. Standing near Hood, Deal took aim at the Love and fired, killing him instantly. Private Deal's disobedience of General Hood's own order was credited with saving his commander's life.

Seven Pines

On May 31, 1862, Johnston's forces attacked McClellan's Army of the Potomac outside of Richmond in the Battle of Seven Pines. Although Seven Pines ended in a stalemate, the Confederates sustained heavy casualties which included the severe wounding of Johnston. Robert E. Lee replaced Johnston as army commander, beginning a long and affectionate relationship with John Bell Hood and the Texas Brigade.

Four days after Seven Pines an incident occurred that would define the relationship between Hood and his men. Early on the morning of June 4th, Hood encountered 14 year old Private William H. Lessing of Company B, who had grounded his gun while on guard duty, a violation punishable by death by firing squad. Lessing had lied about his age when enlisting in his hometown of Waco, Texas.

Reprimanded by Hood, he began crying and explained to his commander that he was tired and hungry. Hood ordered the boy relieved, and marched him to his tent. Lessing, anticipating a summary court martial and firing squad, was instead taken into Hood's tent and fed. He later recalled "I ate so much that the officers in Hood's mess were cut down on their rations that morning, much to Hood's amusement." Lessing would be wounded and captured at the Battle of Antietam later that year, and then paroled.

After the war, during Hood's visit to the Texas Brigade reunion of 1877 in Waco, Texas, Lessing and his family would repay his former commander's kindness by hosting Hood for breakfast at their home.

Gaines' Mill (The Seven Days Battles)

After Seven Pines McClellan's 150,000 troops, still undefeated, remained a serious threat to Richmond, and thus to the entire Confederacy. As a countermeasure, Lee devised a plan to attack McClellan's right flank, and route his army. The Confederate attack at Gaines' Mill began in the late afternoon, after a diversionary movement by Whiting and General Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson.

The Texas Brigade, originally held in reserve, was called upon by Lee to attack Federal infantry and artillery positions at the site of Gaines' Mill, on McClellan's right flank. The Federals held a virtually impregnable position, taking advantage of terrain that included exposed approaches, and a swamp that the attackers would have to cross.  Lee, realizing that the Gaines' Mill ridge was the key to victory, asked Hood if he could take the heavily fortified Union position where earlier attempts had met with disaster. Hood replied "I will try."

According to Private Val Giles of the Fourth Texas, Hood calmly addressed the troops with instructions, and reminded them that he had promised to personally lead their first major assault, declaring, "The time has come and I am here." The instructions were to fix bayonets, and charge the Federal entrenchments, not firing until the Federal lines had been reached. The assault involved a charge of approximately one mile over an open field, across the swampy bottom land of Boatswain Creek, and up another exposed slope to the crest of the hill occupied by Union General George Morell's division. A Confederate soldier recalled, "I tell you what,...I got mighty nervous and shaky while we were forming in the apple orchard to make that last desperate charge on the batteries. But when I looked behind me and saw old Hood resting on one foot, his arm raised above his head, his hand grasping the limb of a tree, looking as unconcerned as if we were on dress parade, I just determined that if he could stand it, so would I."

Hood launched the attack, personally leading the Fourth Texas in the charge. "Oh the slaughter as we charged" recalled Private Bennett Wood of Company C., "We understood why General Hood wanted us to go...without firing, for in piles all around us were other Confederates, who had stopped to load their guns...dead and dying." Passing over hundreds of their dead and wounded Virginia and Louisiana comrades who had failed on two prior assaults, the Federal infantry was crushed in the tide of screaming Texans, resulting in the capture of sixteen artillery pieces and most of the Fourth New Jersey Infantry Regiment. The Fourth Texas paid a terrible price for their victorious effort, suffering 261 casualties out of 546 participants.

During the fight, every field grade officer in the Fourth Texas was killed or wounded. General Hood, who, although a staff officer, personally led the regiment in the assualt, was the only officer remaining with the Fourth Texas at the end of the battle.

The affectionate relationship between Hood and his troops grew even stronger after the victory at Gaines' Mill. During the night after the battle Hood patrolled the field, assisting his men in the gathering of the dead and wounded. Hood gave his own horse to Private Jake Smilie so that the he could collect the bodies of his two dead brothers, and bury them together.  Late in the night, Major James W. Ratchford of D.H.  Hill's staff at Gaines' Mill (the Texas Brigade was part of Hill's Division) wrote of a scene immediately after the battle, "Early in the same night, while I was trying to gather up some of our division that had been scattered in the pursuit (of the Federals), I came upon General Hood sitting on a cracker box.  As I approached, he looked up at me, and I could see tears streaming down his cheeks.  His brigade had lost heavily, and all about him were the dead and wounded.  I spoke to him and he replied brokenly, 'Just look here Major, at all these dead and suffering men, and every one of them as good as I am, yet I am untouched.'  This would be true only a little longer, for the gallant Hood left an arm at Gettysburg and a leg on the bloody field of Chickamauga."  The next morning, Hood learned at roll call that over 60% of the men were not present. According to Chaplain Nicholas Davis "Tears rolled down the General's cheeks as he rode away."   

General Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson, upon surveying the field the following day remarked, "The men who carried these positions were soldiers indeed."

John Bell Hood and the Texas Brigade thus played the paramount role in Robert E. Lee's first tactical military victory, and a bond had been established that would cause Lee to call upon Hood and his Texans for the most critical tasks at the ensuing battles of Second Manassas, Antietam, and Gettysburg.

The route of McClellan's Army of the Potomac would be completed during the next several days, referred to as The Seven Days Battles. McClellan's advance would be stopped, Richmond saved, and the war for Southern independence would continue.

Second Manassas

With McClellan's forces contained east of Richmond, Abraham Lincoln appointed Major General Henry Halleck to overall command of Federal military forces. Halleck brought in General John Pope, who had achieved several military successes in the west, to command a large army being assembled to threaten Richmond from the north. Caught in the middle between the two Union armies, Lee decided to attack; in July Stonewall Jackson's corps was dispatched to central Virginia to shadow Pope.

Pope, an arrogant and stern disciplinarian, had issued orders allowing Federal troops to loot any civilian homes which were suspected of holding Confederate sympathies. His infamous General Order No. 11 directed Union officers to arrest all "disloyal males," (without defining "disloyalty") and that if any male Virginian, having taken the oath of allegiance to the United States and later found engaging in prohibited activities, the individual "shall be shot, and his property seized and applied to the public use." These orders, and the abusive conduct of the Union soldiers in foraging from the local population, infuriated the entire South. The usually dignified and reserved Robert E. Lee publicly called Pope "a miscreant."

With Pope enraging the emotions of the Confederacy, Lee chose his army as the target of the next Confederate offensive.

Hood's corps commander, General James "Pete" Longstreet

On August 28 Jackson positioned his 23,000 troops for an attack at Manassas, ironically the site of the Confederate victory the prior year. Popes forces totaled approximately 75,000 troops. Lee ordered the corps of General James Longstreet, which included the Texas Brigade, to march through Thoroughfare Gap, and join forces with Jackson. However, Jackson found himself in a strategically superior position to begin the attack without Longstreet's forces, and in the evening of August 28 the battle began.

During the first day, and the morning of the second day, Jackson's forces, positioned along the strong defensive earthworks of un-completed railroad tracks, repulsed several frontal attacks by the Federals. Late in the day of August 29, Longstreet's corps of approximately 25,000 troops arrived, immediately attacking the Union left flank.

Hood's Texas Brigade spearheaded the Confederate flank attack, penetrating the Union positions so deeply that Hood was forced to halt his attack and withdraw his brigade back to positions adjacent to the other Confederate troops. In one notable incident a 6,000 man Confederate division under South Carolina General R. H. Anderson had arrived on the battlefield at 3:00 AM after a seventeen hour march. The exhausted troops marched past the Confederate lines, to the area recently vacated by Hood's brigade, collapsed, and unknowingly slept only a few hundred yards from Federal artillery positions. Hood, realizing that Anderson's position would be bombarded by Federal guns at sunrise, immediately rode to Anderson, who roused his troops and withdrew them to the safety of the Confederate lines just before dawn.

On the next day Hood and his Texas Brigade would inflict what is believed to be the heaviest casualties sustained by any unit in the Civil War. Hood's brigade attacked positions held by the Fifth New York Infantry, known as Duryee's Zouaves, whose flashy, exotic uniforms did not impress the rough Texans from the American frontier. The Fifth New York was literally overrun. Of its 550 men, only about 90 survived the attack. In the first ten minutes alone, approximately 120 of the Zouaves were killed and another 180 wounded.

At about 6:00, as Longstreet's forces surged onto Chinn Ridge after Hood's brigades had destroyed the Federals' left flank, Pope, knowing that the battle was lost, immediately began planning a retreat that would save his army from total destruction. The Federals retreated to Henry Hill, effectively resisted Confederate attacks, and evacuated to Washington on August 31. The decisive Confederate victory removed the threat to Richmond from the west, purged the despised Pope from Virginia, and opened the way for Lee's invasion of Maryland only two weeks later.

Union casualties totaled 10,096, about 13%, while the victorious Confederates sustained 9,108 casualties, a rate of almost 19%. Hood's Texas Brigade, while inflicting horrendous casualties upon it's opponents, suffered greatly, losing approximately 1,000 killed and wounded out of 3,000 men, a 33% casualty rate.

The Confederate victory at Second Manassas, although decisive, was also taxing on the exhausted, hungry, and thinly equipped soldiers. Lee however would not be idle. With the purging of the Union army in north-central Virginia, he saw an opportunity to move into Maryland. After only a few days rest, Lee's Army of Northern Virginia began its march to take the hostilities out of war-weary Virginia, and into the North.

John Bell Hood and the Texas Brigade's reputations continued to grow after their prominent roles at the decisive Confederate victories at Gaines' Mill and Second Manassas. Lee would grow even more dependent on "his Texans" and their gallant commander in the months to come.

The Battle of Antietam (Sharpsburg)

After his defeat at Second Manassas, Pope was relieved of command and replaced by George McClellan, who had performed so poorly at the Seven Days Battles. Lee, in turn, decided on an invasion of Maryland, hoping to inspire secessionist sentiments there, and reap a logistical bounty from countryside as yet untouched by the war. Jefferson Davis also approved of the plan, anticipating that Confederate successes on Union soil might prompt official recognition of the Confederacy from the English and French governments.

Lee's plan involved dividing his army, sending Stonewall Jackson to capture Harper's Ferry, with the remainder of his forces marching on Hagerstown, Maryland. McClellan, by chance, acquired a copy of Lee's strategic plans and intercepted Lee's Hagerstown invasion force at South Mountain, Maryland on September 14, 1862. Lee abandoned plans to attack Hagerstown, and instead withdrew his forces to Sharpsburg, located on the north bank of the Potomac River separating Virginia and Maryland. While Lee and McClellan's forces faced off at Sharpsburg, Jackson seized the Federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry on Sept. 15, capturing 12,000 Union troops. Jackson then immediately moved his corps to Sharpsburg, arriving in time to participate in the climactic battle of Sept. 17, 1862.

During the march to South Mountain, the famous incident occurred between Hood and General George N. "Shanks" Evans. During fighting at Second Manassas on August 30, Hood's brigade had captured several Union ambulance wagons. Evans had been placed in temporary command of the division which included the Texas Brigade, and ordered Hood to turn the ambulances over to his North Carolina brigade. Hood refused, stating that the captured wagons should be delivered to the quartermaster of the entire Army of Northern Virginia, or otherwise should be kept by the Texas Brigade. Evans ordered Hood to proceed to Culpeper, Virginia to await court martial. Longstreet, Hood's corps commander, reluctantly concurred, unwilling to overrule Evans. Upon hearing of the dispute, Lee ordered Hood to accompany the army into Maryland, still under arrest, and to ride at the rear of the column.

At South Mountain Lee watched as the Texas Brigade marched by. The annoyed, perhaps even mutinous Texans, shouted out to Lee "Give us Hood!" According to A. V. Winkler, author of "The Confederate Capital and Hood's Texas Brigade," Evans had ordered the Texas Brigade to ford a river during the march to South Mountain, but was told by Texas officers that they would obey nobody's orders but Hood's. Evans purportedly threatened to "turn a brigade upon them," but desisted when the matter was referred to General Lee, who soon met with Hood, restoring him to his command. The ambulance matter was to be taken up after the ensuing battle, but the issue was never revisited by Lee or Longstreet.

The Confederates were soon met by McClellan's forces at South Mountain. Hood's troops, assigned the task of protecting the left flank, repulsed a Union attack at Turner's Gap on Sept. 14. The following day, at the urging of Hood, Lee decided on a withdrawal toward Sharpsburg, with the exhausted and hungry Texas Brigade fighting rearguard actions for the next two days. Hood recalled "My troops at this period were sorely in need of shoes, clothing and food...the men had been forced to subsist on green corn and green apples. Nevertheless, they were in high spirits and defiant..."

The two armies facing each other near Sharpsburg were typically, numerically unequal. The Confederate forces totaled approximately 48,000 troops; the Union, roughly 75,000.

Defending the extreme left flank of the Confederate army, Hood's brigade was attacked late in the day on Sept. 16 by Union troops of Major General Joseph Hooker. The Federal attack failed, and the fighting subsided soon after sundown. Having marched and fought a rearguard action for three days, Hood requested relief for his troops; Jackson consented, replacing them with three brigades of General Alexander Lawton's command. However, after only two hours of rest, the major Union assault was launched at sunrise of Sept. 17, and the Texans were forced into action again.

Arriving at "The Cornfield" of David Miller's farm, immediately in front of the Hagerstown Road, Hood encountered Lawton's decimated brigades (General Lawton himself being severely wounded) who had been attacked by two Federal corps. Hood's command totaled approximately 2,000 troops of the Texas Brigade and General Evander Law's Brigade. The Federals, totaling approximately 12,000 troops of Hooker's and Major General Joseph Mansfield's corps, were re-forming for another assault on the vital Confederate left flank.

Hood was faced with a critical decision, required to be made quickly, and independently. Having been informed by hard-pressed General D. H. Hill, who was holding the Confederate center, that no troops could be sent to reinforce Hood; knowing that Lee held no troops in reserve; and knowing that his 2,000 men could not withstand a systematic assault by a force five times their strength, Hood decided to attack, feeling that the boldness and shock of a direct assault would do more to delay, confuse and discourage Hooker than any other tactical option.

Hood's troops locked in a lethal death grip with Hooker and Mansfield's forces for several hours, forcing the Federal lines back, then losing ground to Union counterattacks. Finally, out of ammunition, under the cover of Confederate artillery, Hood's battered brigades withdrew to the wooded area behind Dunker Church.

As the bloodiest single day of the Civil War, Sept. 17, 1862, came to an end, Lee encountered Hood while inspecting the Confederate left flank. In a famous exchange, a shocked Lee asked him, "Great God, General Hood, where is your splendid division?" Hood replied, "They are lying upon the field where you sent them, sir." Roughly two-thirds of his brigade were killed and wounded in the fighting at "The Cornfield."

Hood's attack had indeed confused McClellan and Hooker. Seeing such an aggressive onslaught, the Union commanders incorrectly assumed that the Confederate forces along the left flank were much stronger than they actually were, and had transferred several regiments from their center to reinforce their right flank. These movements took pressure off of D. H. Hill's center, and Longstreet's right flank.

During the night of Sept. 17, Hood and other commanders met with Lee, advising him of the ghastly losses of the day's battle. Hood wept as he told Lee of his beloved Texans and Georgians who had died in the cornfield, advising his commander to retreat back into Virginia. Lee however did not want to immediately abandon the field, allow the Union to claim victory, and reap huge political benefits both at home and abroad. Lee ordered his commanders to return to their positions, and to prepare for further attacks the following day. Thankfully, McClellan, equally battered from the previous day's fighting, avoided further offensive maneuvers.

Learning of the approach of A. P. Hill's division, finally arriving from Harper's Ferry, Lee decided to withdraw back into Virginia on Sept. 19. The Battle of Antietam (named for nearby Antietam Creek) had cost the Confederates approximately 12,000 casualties, roughly one fourth of Lee's army. The Federal totals were 13,000 killed, wounded and captured, not including the 12,000 man garrison which surrendered at Harpers Ferry. It has been said that Antietam was not a draw; it was a battle where both sides lost.

After Antietam, Hood, for his critical role in defending the Confederate left flank, was recommended for promotion to Major General by General "Stonewall" Jackson. He wrote to Confederate Adjutant General Samuel Cooper " I respectfully recommend that Brig. Genl. J. B. Hood be promoted to the rank of Major General. He was under my command during the engagements along the Chickahominy, commencing on the 27th of June last, when he rendered distinguished service. Though not of my command in the recently hard fought battle near Sharpsburg, Maryland, yet for a portion of the day I had occasion to give directions respecting his operations, and it gives me pleasure to say that his duties were discharged with such ability and zeal as to command my admiration. I regard him as one of the most promising officers of the Army."

Douglas Southall Freeman wrote of Hood, "There was about him some of the effulgence of the true captain of men. Anyone who had followed the operations of the Army after Gaines' Mill would have said that of all the officers under Longstreet, the most likely to be a great soldier was Hood."

Soon after the Battle of Antietam, the Army of Northern Virginia, outnumbered almost 2-1, devastated the Union Army of the Potomac at Fredericksburg on December 13th and 14th, 1862. At Fredericksburg, Major General Hood, now a division commander, had been placed in the center of the Confederate line. Lee attacked the Federals from both the left and the right, and was to use Hood's divisions at whichever side that required troops. However, the Confederate victory was so complete that Hood's brigades took very little part in the action.

In the early months of 1863, Hood's division was moved to Suffolk, Virginia, and was involved in relatively insignificant actions there in April.

Battle of Gettysburg

In May the Confederate high command again found itself in a position where an invasion of the North would be conducted. Confederate troops in Virginia had stripped the countryside almost bare, subsistence for the men and horses were almost exhausted.

By June various Confederate corps of infantry and cavalry began marching north, and as they moved out of Virginia, so did the federal Army of the Potomac thirty miles to the east, then under the command of General Hooker. In late June the Confederates crossed the Potomac into Maryland, again shadowed by the Army of the Potomac. Commanded now by General George Meade, the armies converged at Gettysburg on July 1st, 1863.

Hood's division of Longstreet's Corps would be assigned to their usual position on the critical flank of the Confederate lines. The Confederate right opposed the Union left, anchored on a strategic hill named "Little Round Top."

On the afternoon of July 2nd, Hood's division was ordered by Longstreet to commence the attack on the Federal defenses on Little Round Top. This strongly fortified position was very similar to the Union positions at Gaines' Mill, the site of the costly victory by Hood and Law's brigades a year earlier. The Confederates would have to approach the Federals over several hundred yards of open ground, and then assault the elevated Union positions through rough, boulder strewn ravines. Brigadier General Law had sent scouts around the right side of Little Round Top and found the rear approaches to the Union positions to be unguarded. Law approached Hood, apprising him of the situation. Hood agreed wholeheartedly that a flanking maneuver would be more desirable, and sent an urgent message to General Longstreet requesting permission to do so. Longstreet refused; Hood appealed to him again via courier. After Longstreet again refused, Hood sent his adjutant, Col. Harry Sellars to implore him to reconsider. Longstreet again refused, and ordered Hood to continue the attack as previously instructed. At this point Hood personally rode to Longstreet, protested the attack plan that he was being ordered to conduct, Longstreet, for the fourth time, refused to allow him to attempt a flanking movement.

"Hood's Protest" by artist Dale Gallon

As a result of Longstreet's final order, Hood commenced the attack up the Emmitsburg Road as directed. At approximately five o'clock, 20 minutes after the attack began, Hood's left arm was shredded by shrapnel from Federal artillery. He would be taken to the rear, unable to participate any further in the battle.

The determined Confederate assault on the slopes of Little Round Top was eventually repulsed by the defending Federals; the carnage that Law and Hood had anticipated did in fact materialize. In addition to Hood, Col. J. C. Key, commander of the Fourth Texas and Col. R. M. Powell, commander of the Fifth Texas were also wounded, alongside General Jerome Robertson, who had succeeded Hood as commander of the Texas Brigade.

In Benning's brigade of Hood's division Col. J. A. Jones, commander of the Twentieth Georgia; Lt. Col. J. A. Harris, commander of the Second Georgia; Col. Van Manning of the Third Arkansas, and brigade commander General G. T. Anderson were also wounded.

Hood's division succeeded in removing the Federal troops at the base of Little Round Top, the area that would forever be called "Devil's Den," but were able to seize only a portion of the summit of Little Round Top.

For the remainder of the battle Hood's division held their ground, while on July 3, 1863 Lee's famous assault on the Union center, "Pickett's Charge," failed to defeat Meade's Federals. The Battle of Gettysburg ended in a Confederate defeat as Lee's army commenced their retreat back to Virginia in a driving rain on July 4th.

Although Hood's wounded arm would be saved from amputation by Dr. John T. Darby, it would be permanently paralyzed, carried in a sling for the rest of his life.

Sources:

• Hood, J. B. "Advance and Retreat," Blue and Gray Press, 1985
• Beringer, et al, Richard E. "Why the South Lost the Civil War,"
  University of Georgia Press, 1985
• Dyer, John P. "The Gallant Hood," Konecky and Konecky, 1985
• O'Connor, Richard, "Hood:Cavalier General," Prentice-Hall, 1949
• Simpson, Harold B., "Hood's Texas Brigade," Landmark, 1999
• Krick, R. E. L., "The Men Who Carried These Positions Were Soldiers Indeed,"
  ("The Richmond Campaign of 1862"), University of North Carolina Press, 2000
• Gallaher, Gary W., "The Antietam Campaign," University of North Carolina Press,1999
• Hennessy, John J., "Return to Bull Run," University of Oklahoma Press, 1993