County Named for Famous Confederate General John Bell Hood

Hood took command of the Army of Tennessee on July 18, 1864, replacing Joseph E. Johnston outside Atlanta, and held Atlanta only until Sherman forced its evacuation on September 1. His move into Tennessee ended in defeats at Franklin on November 30 and at Nashville on December 15 and 16. The retreating soldiers sang that the Gallant Hood of Texas played Hell in Tennessee. He asked to be relieved on January 23, 1865. The Texas legislature created Hood County in November 1866.

What the plaque says

County Named for Famous Confederate General John Bell Hood Born Kentucky. West Point graduate. Army service on Texas frontier led Hood to adopt the Lone Star State. Resigned U.S. Army 1861 to serve South. Commanded 4th Texas Infantry. Led "Hood's Texas," most renowned Confederate Brigade. Rose rapidly to Lieutenant General. Known as "The Fighting General" for leadership in the Army of Northern Virginia. Although lost leg Battle Chickamauga, became commander Army of Tennessee. A memorial to Texans who served the Confederacy Erected by the State of Texas 1963.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Granbury Courthouse Square — steps away
  A National Register square of limestone storefronts around W. C. Dodson's Second Empire courthouse, whose clock tower citizens saved after a 1968 tornado.
• Acton State Historic Site — 6.0 mi
  The smallest state historic site in Texas, a grave plot holding Elizabeth Crockett, widow of David Crockett, under a 1913 statue of a pioneer woman shading her eyes toward the west.
• Dinosaur Valley State Park — 14 mi
  Theropod and sauropod trackways of about 113 million years ago in the bed of the Paluxy River, a National Natural Landmark where R. T. Bird found the first distinct sauropod tracks in 1937.
• Cleburne State Park — 19 mi
  A 1930s Civilian Conservation Corps park on the old Chisholm Trail crossing country, with a spring-fed lake, a hand-carved three-tiered spillway and a CCC bridge in Johnson County.

More markers nearby

• City named for Confederate General General H.B. Granbury (1831-1864) and Granbury's Texas Brigade — steps away
• Nellie Gray Robertson — steps away
• Hood County News — 1.0 mi
• First Christian Church of Granbury — 1.5 mi