Hood's TN Campaign

[OpnDownfall]

The difference, Dred, is in the eye of the beholder. As I said, Lee is considered 'great' by those people who condemn Hood for ultimately accomplishing in the West, what Lee accomplished in the East; the destruction of their Armies.

[larry_cockerham]

We Southerners honor both men for their nobility of character rather than the final score. After all, the final score was not in our favor, unless you consider the preservation of the Union worthwhile.

[cw1865]

Originally Posted by larry_cockerham

We Southerners honor both men for their nobility of character rather than the final score.

Please, in no way interpret my personal opinion on Hood's judgment to reflect poorly on the man's virtues. Clearly, he is one brave man, of that there is no question.

[larry_cockerham]

Have no worry. We understand and agree. Hood was a soldier, to a fault, trained at West Point. Forrest, by contrast, became a soldier through slow sometimes painful onsite experience, but had a healthy respect for life. Forrest didn't full charge into the situation if he could avoid bloodshed. Forrest claimed war was about killin' but tried to advoid it when unnecessary. Hood was more of a direct assault kind of guy to say the least.

[ole]

Forrest's "war is about killin'" wasn't directed to his own. The killees would have to be Yanks (or sympathizers). He had the native intelligence (Native Americans had the good sense not to pick a shooting fight when your limited manpower might be taken from you.) to avoid getting his men killed unless there was a good chance of killing or capturing a whole bunch more worthwhile objective.

ole

[larry_cockerham]

That's correct, Sir.

[ltkepper]

I do belive that he was a great General but things got to his head to easily and i think that we would have been better off in the easter front not in the western.
paul kepper

[5fish]

The truth be told a man without a leg and an arm that does not function well should not have been in command. Hood may have been a great warrior with a lot of fight in his heart but his body was finished. He should have stay in Richmond at a desk job or sent to pasture.

Either Hardee, Cheatham, Stewart or someone still physically able should have been put in command. I do believe Hood was a good army commander even with his heath issues. He got the job late in the war and to win a battle late in the war with a Confederate army was on small feat for the union armies had caught and surpassed the confederate armies in every category one grades an army by the fall of 1864.

[larry_cockerham]

Originally Posted by 5fish

Hood may have been a great warrior with a lot of fight in his heart but his body was finished. He should have stay in Richmond at a desk job or sent to pasture.

5, once again the depth of your research is showing. Hood married five years after the war and proceeded to father eleven (11) children with his younger wife. Does that sound like a body that was finished? Tired but smiling.

[Elennsar]

I would say he was spent so far as field duty goes.

But that's a mobility issue. Other than that? No man sires eleven children without having quite a bit of stamina left in him.

I wonder what kind of father he was/could have been.