began to be valued in Holland in the middle of the 18th century. A
celebrated picture at Amsterdam, sold for 450 florins in 1765, fetched
4000 in 1817, and in 1876 the Berlin Museum gave £5400 for a De
Hooch at the Schneider sale—“A Dutch Dwelling-room” (820 B).
See Hofstede de Groot’s Catalogue raisonné, vol. i., London, 1907.
HOOD, JOHN BELL (1831–1879), American soldier, lieut.-general
of the Confederate army, was born at Owingsville,
Kentucky, in 1831, and graduated from West Point military
academy in 1853. As an officer of the 2nd U.S. cavalry (Colonel
Sidney Johnston) he saw service against Indians, and later he
was cavalry instructor at West Point. He resigned from the
U.S. service in 1861, and became a colonel in the Confederate
army. He was soon promoted brigadier-general, and at the
battle of Gaines’s Mill, where he was wounded, won the
brevet of major-general for his gallant conduct. With the
famous, “Texas brigade” of the Army of Northern Virginia
he served throughout the campaign of 1862. At Gettysburg
he commanded one of the divisions of Longstreet’s corps,
receiving a wound which disabled his arm. With Longstreet
he was transferred in the autumn of 1863 to the Army of
Tennessee. At the battle of Chickamauga (September 19th,
20th) Hood was severely wounded again and his leg was amputated,
but after six months he returned to duty undaunted.
He remained with the Army of Tennessee as a corps commander,
and when the general dissatisfaction with the Fabian policy of
General J. E. Johnston brought about the removal of that officer,
Hood was put in his place with the temporary rank of general.
He had won a great reputation as a fighting general, and it was
with the distinct understanding that battles were to be fought
that he was placed at the head of the Army of Tennessee. But
in spite of skill and courage he was uniformly unsuccessful in
the battles around Atlanta. In the end he had to abandon the
place, but he forthwith sought to attack Sherman in another
direction, and finally invaded Tennessee. His march was pushed
with the greatest energy, but he failed to draw the main body
of the enemy after him, and, while Sherman with a picked force
made his “March to the Sea,” Thomas collected an army to
oppose Hood. A severe battle was fought at Franklin on the
30th of November, and finally Hood was defeated and his army
almost annihilated in the battle of Nashville. He was then
relieved at his own request (January 23rd, 1865). After the war
he was engaged in business in New Orleans, where he died of
yellow fever on the 30th of August 1879. His experiences in
the Civil War are narrated in his Advance and Retreat (New
Orleans, 1880). Hood’s reputation as a bold and energetic
leader was well deserved, though his reckless vigour proved
but a poor substitute for Johnston’s careful husbanding of his
strength at this declining stage of the Confederacy.
HOOD, SAMUEL HOOD, Viscount (1724–1816), British
admiral, was the son of Samuel Hood, vicar of Butleigh
in Somerset, and prebendary of Wells. He was born on the 12th
of December 1724, and entered the navy on the 6th of May
1741. He served part of his time as midshipman with Rodney
in the “Ludlow,” and became lieutenant in 1746. He was
fortunate in serving under active officers, and had opportunities
of seeing service in the North Sea. In 1753 he was made commander
of the “Jamaica” sloop, and served in her on the
North American station. In 1756, while still on the North
American station, he attained to post rank. In 1757, while in
temporary command of the “Antelope” (50), he drove a French
ship ashore in Audierne Bay, and captured two privateers.
His zeal attracted the favourable notice of the Admiralty and
he was appointed to a ship of his own. In 1759, when captain
of the “Vestal” (32), he captured the French “Bellona”
(32) after a sharp action. During the war his services were wholly
in the Channel, and he was engaged under Rodney in 1759
in destroying the vessels collected by the French to serve as
transports in the proposed invasion of England. In 1778 he
accepted a command which in the ordinary course would have
terminated his active career. He became commissioner of the
dockyard at Portsmouth and governor of the Naval Academy.
These posts were generally given to officers who were retiring
from the sea. In 1780, on the occasion of the king’s visit to
Portsmouth, he was made a baronet. The circumstances of
the time were not ordinary. Many admirals declined to serve
under Lord Sandwich, and Rodney, who then commanded
in the West Indies, had complained of want of proper support
from his subordinates, whom he accused of disaffection. The
Admiralty was naturally anxious to secure the services of
trustworthy flag officers, and having confidence in Hood promoted
him rear-admiral out of the usual course on the 26th of
September 1780, and sent him to the West Indies to act as
second in command under Rodney, to whom he was personally
known. He joined Rodney in January 1781, and remained
in the West Indies or on the coast of North America till the
close of the War of American Independence. The calculation
that he would work harmoniously with Rodney was not altogether
justified by the results. The correspondence of the two shows
that they were far from being on cordial personal terms with
one another, but Hood always discharged his duty punctually,
and his capacity was so great, and so signally proved, that no
question of removing him from the station ever arose. The
unfortunate turn taken by the campaign of 1781 was largely
due to Rodney’s neglect of his advice. If he had been allowed
to choose his own position there can be no doubt that he could
have prevented the comte de Grasse (1722–1788) from reaching
Fort Royal with the reinforcements from France in April (see
Rodney, Lord). When the fleet went on to the coast of North
America during the hurricane months of 1781 he was sent to
serve with Admiral Graves (1725?–1802) in the unsuccessful
effort to relieve the army at Yorktown. But his subordinate
rank gave him no chance to impart a greater measure of energy
to the naval operations. When, however, he returned to the
West Indies he was for a time in independent command owing
to Rodney’s absence in England for the sake of his health. The
French admiral, the comte de Grasse, attacked the British islands
of St Kitts and Nevis with a much superior force to the squadron
under Hood’s command. The attempt Hood made in January
1782 to save them from capture, with 22 ships to 29, was not
successful, but the series of bold movements by which he first
turned the French out of their anchorage at the Basse Terre
of St Kitts, and then beat off the attacks of the enemy, were
the most brilliant things done by any British admiral during the
war. He was made an Irish peer for his share in the defeat of
the comte de Grasse on the 9th and 12th of April near Dominica.
During the peace he entered parliament as member for Westminster
in the fiercely contested election of 1784, was promoted
vice-admiral in 1787, and in July of 1788 was appointed to
the Board of Admiralty under the second earl of Chatham. On
the outbreak of the revolutionary war he was sent to the Mediterranean
as commander-in-chief. His period of command,
which lasted from May 1793 to October 1794, was very busy.
In August he occupied Toulon on the invitation of the French
royalists, and in co-operation with the Spaniards. In December
of the same year the allies, who did not work harmoniously
together, were driven out, mainly by the generalship of Napoleon.
Hood now turned to the occupation of Corsica, which he had
been invited to take in the name of the king of England by
Paoli. The island was for a short time added to the dominions
of George III., chiefly by the exertions of the fleet and the
co-operation of Paoli. While the occupation of Corsica was being
effected, the French at Toulon had so far recovered that they
were able to send a fleet to sea. In June Hood sailed in the
hope of bringing it to action. The plan which he laid to attack
it in the Golfe Jouan in June may possibly have served to some
extent as an inspiration, if not as a model, to Nelson for the
battle of the Nile, but the wind was unfavourable, and the attack
could not be carried out. In October he was recalled to England
in consequence of some misunderstanding with the admiralty,
or the ministry, which has never been explained. He had
attained the rank of full admiral in April of 1794. He held no
further command at sea, but in 1796 he was named governor
of Greenwich Hospital, a post which he held till his death
on the 27th of January 1816. A peerage of Great Britain was
conferred on his wife as Baroness Hood of Catherington in
