JOHN BELL HOOD

JOHN BELL HOOD
(1831 - 1879) Confederate Lieutenant General who led the 'Texas Brigade' at Second Bull Run and Antietam, and served under Longstreet in Fredericksburg, Gettysburg, and Chickamauga, where he lost a limb. Scarce, good content war-date A.L.S. 'J. B. Hood', 2pp. 8vo., '[illeg.] Ky.', Nov. 3, 182 to his friend, Major B. H. Blanton in Frankfort. In part: '...I arrived here three days since. I had expected to come thro Frankfort but missed it by accident. I will be in Lexington next week & anxious to see you. Can't you come there on my arrival? I will be in Ky. about one month & then return to Texas. My health was never better, and [I] find my mother well. Give my regards to all friends. Expect to be in Frankfort before I return. Your friend J. B. Hood (answer this). Very good, in a custom leather folder with gilt title. Hood was of course born in Kentucky and had a good many relations in the state - no doubt he was visiting following the arduous Antietam campaign a few months earlier. Bragg had undertaken his mediocre Kentucky campaign only a few weeks earlier, leaving Union forces generally in control of the region Hood was visiting. Benjamin Harrison Blanton was volunteer aide-de-camp to Hood during the Seven Days actions in Virginia in 1862, later elevated to the rank of major, and his horse was shot from under him at Antietam. After the war, it is believed he became a distiller in Frankfort, no doubt related to Albert Blanton of Frankfort, for whom the bourbon of the same name is honored.