U.S. Army Career:

In August 1853 Brevet Second Lieutenant Hood received orders to report to the Fourth Infantry Regiment, headquartered in San Francisco. Arriving in California in January 1854 he was assigned to Fort Jones in northern California. His activities there included routine garrison duties and escorting of surveying parties.

In March of 1855, at the urging of U. S. Secretary of War Jefferson Davis, Congress authorized the formation of two new cavalry regiments that would protect settlements on the frontier of Texas. These two new units would be an elite corps, with the personnel being hand picked by the Army high command. The Second Regiment would be the more prestigious of the two, it's initial corps of officers a virtual "who's-who" of the later Civil War; its commander was chosen to be Mexican War hero Col. Albert Sydney Johnston; Robert E. Lee was the regiment's lieutenant colonel; William J. Hardee and George Thomas, majors; Earl Van Dorn, George Stoneman and E. Kirby Smith captains. Hood was promoted to second lieutenant of cavalry, and reported to Col. Johnston at Jefferson Barracks in St. Louis, Missouri in October 1855.

Hood was first stationed at Camp Mason, Texas. However, soon after his arrival he was called home on March 14, 1856 due to the illness of his father. Dr. John Hood had suffered a stroke and was incapacitated. Dr. Hood, impressed with his youngest son, made John Bell sole power of attorney for the elder Hood's affairs, and instructed John Bell in the disposition of his assets. John Bell did not return to Camp Mason until December 1856. He would never see his father again for Dr. Hood died on November 30, 1857.

Hood's first combat occurred when he was assigned by Major George Thomas to conduct a scouting and raiding expedition against the Indians, departing Fort Mason on July 5, 1857 with 25 troopers and an Indian guide. The patrol rode deep into the Texas frontier, heading southwest toward the Pecos River with thirty days provisions. Sixteen days later, on July 21, deep in the Texas wilderness in the intense July heat, Hood's patrol came upon Indians on the crest of a ridge displaying a white flag. Prior to his departure from Fort Mason, Hood had been advised that a party peaceful Tonkawa Indians were en route to a reservation through this vicinity, and that the Tonkawa's had been instructed to show a white flag if encountered by Army troops. Not knowing if these Indians were the Tonkawa's, Hood deployed seventeen of his men in line, and moved cautiously toward the Indians, leaving in the rear eight of his party whose horses had become crippled during the difficult march. When coming within thirty paces of the Indians, the patrol was attacked by a war party estimated at between fifty and a hundred braves, mounted and on foot.

Behind the crest of the hill the Indians had collected heaps of dry grass and weeds, which their squaws set on fire, blocking the front of Hood's troops with a wall of fire thirty feet high. On the left Indians on horseback attacked, while to the right another party attacked on foot. Hood's men discharged a single volley from their muskets, then dismounted and engaged the Indians in vicious hand-to-hand combat. During the battle Hood's left hand was pierced by an arrow, pinning it to the saddle. He broke the shaft with his right hand, pulled his injured hand away, and continued to fight.

The fight was short, and the Indians soon withdrew, carrying their dead and wounded away. Hood left two of his men dead on the field, and beside himself, four men suffered severe wounds.

Quickly recovering from his wound, Hood returned to full duty one month later. On November 17, 1858 he was promoted to first lieutenant and assigned to command of Camp Colorado from June through August 1859. He transferred to command of Camp Alamo for September and October 1859, and finally commanded Camp Wood from December 31, 1859 until September 1860.

On September 29, 1860, while en route home on leave to attend to his father's estate matters, Hood received orders to return to West Point to serve as Chief Instructor of Cavalry. He proceeded directly to Washington, D. C. and personally requested Adjutant General Samuel Cooper to rescind the order. Those orders were indeed rescinded and Hood returned to Camp Wood, Texas, in January of 1861.

On January 15, 1861, Lieutenant John B. Hood wrote to Kentucky Governor Beriah Magoffin, offering his "sword and services" to his native state in the impending Civil War. However, Kentucky did not secede, and on April 16, 1861, with the outbreak of the Civil War, Hood resigned from the United States Army and joined the army of the newly formed Confederacy in Montgomery, Alabama. Hood's letter to Kentucky Governor Magoffin -->		view full size