A famous Confederate commander and the elite force that bore his name The American Civil War, which split the nation’s small officer cadre in two, inevitably ensured many young officers from both Union and Confederate states would reach high rank. Some of those men earned abiding fame. One of the subjects of this book, John Bell Hood, needs little introduction to any student of the period. Hood, a veritable ‘Viking warrior’ of a figure epitomised the dash, daring and aggressive command in action which typified the cream of the officer corps of the Confederate Army and his leadership qualities elevated him from the rank of First-Lieutenant, USA to Lieutenant-General, CSA. Initially he directly led the equally renowned hard fighting infantry of his ‘Texas Brigade, ’ consisting of the 1st, 4th and 5th Texas Infantry together with the 18th Georgia Infantry and, later, the 3rd Arkansas Infantry. There was, of course, a justifiable glamour associated with these men from the ‘wild’ west, particularly when led by the imposing figure, character and military talent of Hood. ‘Hood’s Texas Brigade’ amply justified their reputation as a force to be reckoned with and, along with the ‘Stonewall Brigade, ’ were thought of as the ‘shock troops’ of the Army of Northern Virginia. They saw action in many of the pivotal engagements of the conflict including, of course, at Gettysburg where they came under Hood’s divisional command. This book combines a detailed history of the services of ‘Hood’s Texas Brigade’ with a short biography of John Bell Hood, who was ultimately transferred to the western theatre of the conflict and the Army of Tennessee.
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