Into Tennessee and Failure: John Bell Hood

Into Tennessee and Failure is the second volume of Stephen Davis’s study of John Bell Hood’s generalship in 1864. Volume One, Into Tennessee and Failure traces Hood’s rise from lieutenant of cavalry in Virginia to commanding general of the Army of Tennessee. In his first test as Confederate general, July-September 1864, Hood failed to prevent Sherman’s capture of Atlanta. Here Davis picks up the story in September-October 1864, tracing Hood and his army into North Georgia and Alabama. Entering Tennessee in late November, Hood’s forces failed to trap Union Maj. Gen. John Schofield’s infantry at Spring Hill. On November 30, Hood ordered his soldiers to attack Schofield’s fortified lines at Franklin. A tragic and bloody repulse followed. Schofield escaped to Nashville, joining Maj. Gen. George Thomas’s forces. With few options left, Hood approached Nashville and had his troops dig in. Though his army was half the size of Thomas’s 50,000, Hood hoped to win a defensive victory when Thomas attacked him. Instead, in the battle of Nashville, December 15-16, the Army of Tennessee was routed from the field. By the time it ended its retreat in North Mississippi, Confederate authorities were ready to relieve Hood from command. Seeing it coming, the general offered his resignation in January 1865. Davis’s theme in Volume One was the ambition that drove Hood to seek higher and higher rank. Here, while recognizing Hood’s loyalty to the Confederate cause, he discerns Hood’s unflattering traits: questioning the courage of his men, bickering with other generals, and concealing from his superiors the extent of his disaster in Tennessee.