The state of Kentucky was a place of great tragedy during the Civil War but not all of the ironic, mysterious or heart-breaking tales were the result of battle, imprisonment or disaster. One of the most forgotten tales of the war speaks of lost love, a dying woman’s final curse and one of the famed generals of the Confederacy.
Near Mount Sterling, Kentucky, there lived a young woman named Anne Mitchell. She was a dark-haired girl of great beauty who many people called "the belle of Central Kentucky". Anne was known throughout the region as a gentle and sweet girl and as she grew older, she had her choice of suitors from around the area. However, in her late teens, she fell in love with just one of her gentleman callers, a tall, blond youth named John Bell Hood.
Hood was the son of Dr. John W. Hood, who lived near the Mitchell home and who operated a small farm and a medical school for aspiring doctors. The younger Hood went to West Point in 1849 and when he returned home on furlough, he began courting Anne Mitchell. The two of them fell passionately in love. They often met for walks in the evening and their favorite trysting place was in the garden of the Hood home.
According to the legends, another young man came on the scene as a rival for Anne’s affections. He is remembered today as only "Mr. Anderson", and although Anne did not care for him, her family took to him immediately. Unlike Hood, Anderson was very wealthy and promised Anne’s parents that he would build her a home on property which adjoined their own.
Anne’s family began to pressure her incessantly and finally, she agreed to marry Anderson on the condition that she be able to write a letter to John Hood at West Point -- a letter that would be read only by him. In her letter, Anne poured out her heart to the young cadet and promised him that she "would love him forever" and "whether in this world or the next, she would only walk the garden path with him".
Not surprisingly, when Hood received the letter, he immediately left school and rode for Kentucky. He managed to get Anne a message and promised to meet her a few nights later near her home. He promised to have an extra horse saddled for her and together, they would ride off and be married. As it happened though, one of the Mitchell slaves discovered Anne’s absence only minutes after she left for her rendezvous with Hood and raised the alarm. Anne’s father and brothers went in pursuit of her and discovered the young lovers just as Hood was putting Anne on her horse. She was quickly returned home and was locked in her room and not allowed to leave until the day that she married Anderson. Confined to her room, Anne could only peer out the window of the house at the Hood homestead and at the garden where she and Hood had once walked. She never stopped loving him -- and she never forgot the lifelong punishment that she felt her family had inflicted upon her.
A few months passed and Anne’s family, as well as her new husband, breathed a sigh of relief when Anne and Anderson finally exchanged their wedding vows. Despite the affection and wealth that was heaped upon her, Anne refused to forgive the fact that she had been forced to marry a man she did not love. She refused to leave her room in the old Mitchell house and remained moody and depressed. When she learned that she was pregnant, she stopped speaking altogether and even Anderson himself was banned from entering her rooms.
When Anne finally spoke again, it was after the birth of her son, Corwin, and what she uttered made everyone’s heart stand still. Her words were a curse.... "upon all who had any part in making me marry Anderson when my heart will always belong to John Bell Hood."
Late that afternoon, the sky overhead began to darken and a strangely localized thunderstorm swept through the area. A lightning bolt struck the corner of the Mitchell house and a portion of the brick home collapsed. Although nothing else in the area was damaged, three people at the Mitchell house were killed -- including Anne herself. Also dead were one of Anne’s brothers, who had been involved in stopping Anne and Hood from eloping, and the slave girl whose warning had sent the Mitchell men in pursuit of Anne when she ran away.  | 
CivilWarTalk.com -
A free and friendly Civil War community. 
Linear Mode
