Did Gen. John Bell Hood not learn any military lessons from the past?

Psr77777

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It's interesting that on July 2nd at Gettysburg Maj. Gen. Hood came to Gen. Longstreet and proposed a flank attack on Big Round Top to go around the Union left.during the Altanta campaign Hood observed Gen
Sherman' successful flank attacks on Gen. Jonhston' army.
Yet on Nov 30 1864 at the Battle of Franklin when Ge. Nathan Bedford Forrest proposed a flanking attack on Gen. Schofield he rejected and instead ordered a disastrous frontal assault. Did he not learn any military lessons from the past?
 
The answer as far as Franklin is rather simple and has nothing to do with the OP.

Was simply what was there time to do? As doing nothing would be a defeat as they would have been gone tomorrow.
 
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Hood did experience a major battle where he was on the defensive, the center of the line at Fredericksburg. He described in his book “Advance and Retreat” helping repulse the attacking Union army with his heavy guns, and observing Jackson’s reserve repulsing the attacking army after initially penetrating the line. Moreover, he described the “great slaughter” of the Union army attacking Longstreet’s position on Marye’s Heights.

Hood also gave a somewhat lengthy opinion in his book on attacking vs fighting behind entrenchments by comparing Lee’s typical style of attacking vs Johnston’s typical style of defensive fighting. Hood did omit some of Lee’s battles fought behind entrenchments likely to bolster his argument. He compared Confederate troops in the East and West as similar in fighting capabilities, but the latter being demoralized by continuously fighting behind entrenched positions. His entire book is found on the link, and his opinion on the matter begins on page 128.

https://books.googleusercontent.com...y_K3slCDzBl9JbgZkoO1Xfkm9c1Q68pJYjWUypN9tdrjf
 
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Hood did experience a major battle where he was on the defensive, the center of the line at Fredericksburg. He described in his book “Advance and Retreat” helping repulse the attacking Union army with his heavy guns, and observing Jackson’s reserve repulsing the attacking army after initially penetrating the line. Moreover, he described the “great slaughter” of the Union army attacking Longstreet’s position on Marye’s Heights.

Hood also gave a somewhat lengthy opinion in his book on attacking vs fighting behind entrenchments by comparing Lee’s typical style of attacking vs Johnston’s typical style of defensive fighting. Hood did omit some of Lee’s battles fought behind entrenchments likely to bolster his argument. His entire book is found on the link, and his opinion on the matter begins on page 128.

https://books.googleusercontent.com...y_K3slCDzBl9JbgZkoO1Xfkm9c1Q68pJYjWUypN9tdrjf
My copy of Hood’s memoir has what looks like a Tibetan prayer flag of color coded references. As you noted, Hood’s narrative has a great deal to do with his fight with Johnston. Facts & events are, demonstrably, reordered to meet Hood’s self serving retelling of what happened.

The blue post-it’s are when Hood claims to have made decisions using information he could not possibly have had. Red are for statements that are contradicted by the calendar, e.g. Yellow are for obvious anti-Johnston statements. It just goes on & on.

I have been on the receiving end of a 35 email defense of Hood by Sam Hood… so I have heard just about everything there is to hear on that topic. All I can say is that arguing with the calendar… Well… speaks for itself.

The reality is that by 1864, banzai frontal charges across open ground against dug in steady troops were doomed to failure. Unfortunately, the events of 1916 shows that Hood wasn’t the only one to not understand that lesson.
 
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