John B. Hood

(1831 - 1879)

After graduating from West Point in 1853, John B. Hood served in California, Missouri, and Texas. He joined the Confederate Army in 1861 and rose to lieutenant general in 1863. He held the command in Atlanta when the city fell to William Tecumseh Sherman’s advance and was responsible for the disastrous Battle of Franklin, which led to the death of six Confederate generals and the end of his military career. “He is a stupid fellow,” Union general Oliver Otis Howard, who attended West Point with Hood, wrote to his wife, “but a hard fighter—does very unexpected things.” In 2020 Congress passed a law requiring the renaming of all military bases named after Confederates, including Fort Hood in Texas.