John Bell Hood Birthplace

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Historical Marker #862 in Bath County marks the birthplace of Confederate General John Bell Hood.

Born in Owingsville in 1831, Hood graduated from West Point and served on the Texas frontier. When the Civil War erupted, he joined the Confederacy and quickly moved up the ranks.

Hood led a brigade of Texas infantry in Virginia, including the battles of Gaines Mill, Malvern Hill, and Second Manassas. In 1863, he commanded a division at Antietam, Fredericksburg, and Gettysburg, where he was wounded and lost the use of his left arm. Sent west of the Appalachian Mountains, Hood fought at Chickamauga and was wounded in the leg, which was amputated.

Promoted to lieutenant general in early 1864, Hood commanded a corps and then an army during the Atlanta Campaign. Failing to destroy William Sherman's army in multiple battles in Georgia, Hood marched into Tennessee. There, his army was crushed at Franklin and Nashville. He surrendered in Mississippi in May 1865.

After the war, Hood was a businessman in New Orleans, where he died of yellow fever in 1879. Today, he is remembered as one of the Civil War's hardest-fighting officers.