he was the proper author in the war of the far-reaching "raid,” so different from the mere cavalry dash; and, in cutting loose from the traditions of former wars and the systems of schools, he founded a strategy as effective as it was novel. The record of his activity is comprised in the extraordinary declaration, sustained by official testimony: that, with a force which at no time reached 4,000, he killed and wounded nearly as many of the enemy, and captured more than 15,000!

LIEUT.-GEN. JOHN B. HOOD.

CHAPTER LX.

Peculiar glory of the soldier-State of Texas.-Early recollections in the war of "Hood and his Texans."- Hood's cavalry command on the Peninsula.— Commands the Texas Brigade.-The peculiar losses of Gaines' Mills.-Gen. Hood in the battle of Sharpsburg.-"The two Little Giant Brigades."-Gen. Lee's opinion of Texas soldiers "in tight places."-Gen. Hood wounded at Gettysburg and at Chickamauga.-Commands a corps in Johnston's army.-Remarkable letter to the War Department.-Appointed Commanding General of the Army of Tennessee.-An ascent in rank, but a fall in reputation.-A list of errours in the Georgia-Tennessee campaign.--Failure of that campaign.— Magnanimous confession of Gen. Hood.-His chivalry.-His admirable military figure.

ANY history of the war of the Southern Confederacy is imperfect that fails to notice the large and peculiar measure of glory obtained in it by the soldier-State of Texas. The history of this distant State had, indeed, been a noble school of character; here had been planted a choice seed of manhood; and a population had grown up remarkable in this: that even in its rudest and wildest types was the exquisite mixture of honour and chivalry. This peculiarity was well illustrated in the war. Wherever the rough sons of Texas fought there was blood and glory, the terrible spasm of battle, the desperate achievement; and yet no soldiers of the Confederacy were more generous to the enemy, more magnanimous to prisoners, and more fully alive to all the sentimental appeals of the cause for which they fought. They were the men in the Army of Northern Virginia upon whom Gen. Lee most relied for all desperate enterprises, and whom he once designated by the strongest compliment he was capable of bestowing. Fighting with a fierce, apparently untamed courage, capable of sublimest self-devotion, the soldiers of Texas yet carried through the war a reputation

for generosity, and in their tattered uniforms yet bore the true ornaments of manhood, the rough diamonds of chivalry. Their deeds alone, taken apart from the general story of the war, would fill a volume and be a complete testimony of the best manhood of the living age.

But the subject of our sketch is a single individual—one, however, well illustrating the character and temper of Texas in the war. No Confederate leader was more unfortunate than Gen. Hood; and whatever we have to say of him we may well preface by declaring the common maxim, that mankind is more inclined to censure than to praise, and more apt to remember a disaster than a success. The public has a distinct and painful memory of Gen. Hood's unfortunate campaign in Georgia and Tennessee; but this is no good reason that it should forget his earlier glorious services and overlook brilliant pages of the history of the war on which his name shone; nor is it sound argument that because he failed in the command of a large army and had not the combination of qualities necessary for a great General, he cannot be admired in other capacities, and for virtues other than those of strategic skill. It is mainly to correct this injustice, to rescue the margin of fame that is rightly his, and to revive some recollection of those brilliant deeds in which "Hood and his Texans" deserve to be immortalized, despite any sequel of misfortune, that we design this sketch.

Although properly accounted a citizen of Texas, John B. Hood was born in Owensville, Bath county, Kentucky, 1831. His early education was obtained at Mt. Sterling. He entered upon his collegiate course at West Point in 1849, and graduated in 1853. He was then assigned to duty in the Fourth Infantry in California, where he served twenty-two months. When the two new regiments, raised by Jefferson Davis, then Secretary of War, were called out, he was transferred, July, 1855, to the one (2d cavalry), of which Gen. Albert Sidney Johnston, who fell at Shiloh, was in command, and Gen. R. E. Lee the Lieutenant-Colonel. This regiment furnished many valuable officers to the Southern Confederacy. Earl Van Dorn, E. Kirby Smith, Fields, Evans and Hardee were from its ranks.

In the winter of 1855-6, Hood entered upon the frontier service of Western Texas, where, in July following, he had a spirited engagement, and was wounded by the Indians on Devil's River.