328 The Mississippi Valley in the Civil War

and appointed in his place one of his corps-com-manders, John Bell Hood .

This general, a native of Kentucky , was just en-tering upon his thirty-fourth year. He had beengraduated at West Point in 1853, and had thenseen some rough service fighting the ComancheIndians, after which he was for some time a cav-alry instructor at West Point. At the beginningof the Civil War he entered the Confederate ser-vice, and soon attained the rank of brigadier-gen-eral. At. Gaines’s Mill, where he was severelywounded, his brigade lost more than half its num-Hood’spre- her, and he was hrevetted major-gen-nous career. era j on the field. He was in most ofthe Virginia battles of 1862. At Gettysburg helost the use of an arm ; afterward, going west withLongstreet, he was in the thick of the fighting atChickamauga, where he lost a leg. From Daltonto Atlanta he commanded a corps with the rankof lieutenant-general, and now, on his promotionto the command of an army, he was made a fullgeneral.

When the news of Hood ’s appointment reachedthe Union army, it formed the subject of someconversation between Sherman and McPherson, asthey sat on the steps of the porch of a countryhouse. “ McPherson had been of the same classat West Point with Hood , Schofield, and Sheridan.