Without A Leg to Stand On

December 21, 2013 9:08 AM

John Bell Hood’s Leg — "This marked Hood’s third major combat injury; he had suffered an arrow through the hand while fighting Comanche Indians in 1857, and had lost the function of his left arm after being struck by shell fragments at Gettysburg. Hood was a famous general, but he now faced an outlook shared by hundreds of thousands of other soldiers who were likewise injured during the war. He became dependent on the kindness of strangers, like the Little family, in order to start his long road to recovery in the midst of a realization that he would live the rest of his life as a disabled man." By Brian Craig Miller, New York Times, December 20, 2013.
posted by cenoxo (9 comments total)

The comments are interesting in that they fill in a lot of detail about Hood.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 9:25 AM on December 21, 2013 [1 favorite]

John Hood's leg lies a a mouldering in the grave....
posted by humanfont at 10:47 AM on December 21, 2013 [1 favorite]

The comments are interesting in that they fill in a lot of detail about Hood.

some of those commenters also seem to be still interested in continuing the war.
posted by lester at 11:41 AM on December 21, 2013

You can go see Union Gen. Dan Sickles amputated leg at the National Museum of Health and Medicine at Silver Springs, Maryland. Reportedly he was so fond of it that he visited it annually.
posted by JackFlash at 2:25 PM on December 21, 2013

I find it interesting how Hood's story seems to draw out the ugliness behind modern South-hatred. If you truly root against the Confederate cause then you should absolutely be thrilled and cheering for General Hood's tale of personal redemption because he turned out to be such an awful military commander that his participation almost certainly hurt the Confederacy much more than it helped.
posted by localroger at 2:43 PM on December 21, 2013 [1 favorite]

How a Civil War Amputation Was Performed:

...The slow-moving Minie bullet used during the American Civil War caused catastophic injuries. The two minie bullets, for example, that struck John Bell Hood's leg at Chickamauga destroyed 5 inches of his upper thigh bone. This left surgeons no choice but to amputate shattered limbs.

Hood's leg was removed only 4 and 1/2 inches away from his body. Hip amputations, like Hood's, had mortality rates of around 83%. The closer to the body the amputation was done, the more the increase in the wound being mortal. An upper arm amputation, as was done on Stonewall Jackson or General Oliver O. Howard (who lost his arm at Fair Oaks in 1862) had a mortality rate of about 24%.

Graphic (but clinical) medical illustrations from the time. You go to war with the resources you have.
posted by cenoxo at 3:13 PM on December 21, 2013

Gen. Hood and the fort named after him are mentioned in this FPP.
posted by TedW at 3:54 PM on December 21, 2013 [1 favorite]

Stonewall Jackson's arm was buried separately.
posted by kirkaracha at 7:42 PM on December 21, 2013

I root for the Comanche side.

Logically then you must also root for the current anti-immigration side.
posted by IndigoJones at 6:00 AM on December 22, 2013