John Bell Hood

There was a confederate general, John Bell Hood, who was one of the Confederacy’s bravest, though by no means one of its most talented, generals.  At Antietam, his brigade took 85% casualties in a few hours.  At Gettysburg, Hood suffered a wound which cost him the use of one of his arms.  Two months later, at Chickamauga, Hood was commanding a division and suffered a wound that led to the amputation of one of his legs.  In 1864, he was briefly my Great Grandfather Mitchell’s commanding officer as being the General in charge of the army of Tennessee; leading it to one bloody defeat after another I've often wondered if Al Cap, the creator of the Li’l Abner comic series had Hood in mind when he created the character of Confederate General Jubilation T. Cornpone, the engineer of Cornpone’s defeat, Cornpone’s Disaster, Cornpone’s Debacle and of course Cornpone’s Utter Devastation.

I wonder how many people reading this, upon hearing of Hood’s loss of leg one month after losing an arm thought of John Cleese’s portrayal of the Black Knight of Monty Python and the Holy Grail.