My Genealogy Hound

Atlanta, Georgia, Destruction of Hood's Ordnance Train, Georgia Central Railroad, historic photo

An historic photo view of the destroyed ordnance train of Confederate General John Bell Hood at Atlanta, Georgia. This likely occurred as General Hood evacuated Atlanta on September 2, 1864. The fall of Atlanta took place between September 2, 1864 and November 15, 1864 during William Sherman's March to the Sea. The trains were burned while they were sitting on the Georgia Central Railroad tracks and next to the rolling mill which was also destroyed. See the detail photo below of the destruction.

Detail of the first photo showing the railroad tracks lined with train wheels and axles of the railroad cars of the two destroyed trains. The remains of the destroyed roller mill is at the upper right.

The career of General John Bell Hood is remarkable for his determination to continually return to the battlefield after receiving several very serious wounds. At the Battle of Gettysburg in July, 1863, Hood's left arm was so badly injured by a fragment from an artillery shell that his arm was left entirely useless for the remainder of his life. Hood was severely injured again at the Battle of Chickamauga (September 1863), where Hood's right leg was amputated just below the hip and the expectation was that he would not survive. Hood did survive and he returned to the battlefield in the Spring of 1864 with his useless left arm and with an artificial right leg. He thereafter led several battlefield commands and continued to fight until the war ended in 1865. After the war, he married in 1868 and fathered eleven children (including three sets of twins) before dying during a Yellow Fever epidemic that swept through New Orleans in 1879. Hood died August 30, 1879 at the age of 48, just six days after his wife, who also had died of Yellow Fever. He was buried in Metarie Cemetery, New Orleans, Louisiana. Fort Hood in Texas is named in his honor.

This photo is by George N. Barnard, 1864.