Patriots of ’61 -- Private John Richard Hood – 35th North Carolina Regiment

Born on 14 October 1841 near Mint Hill, Mecklenburg County, John Richard Hood enlisted in Company H, 35^th North Carolina Regiment on 4 July 1862.  

Only seven days earlier and perhaps unbeknownst to him, brother Abner B. Hood received a mortal wound at Gaines Mill.

In September he was with his regiment at Harper’s Ferry and later at Sharpsburg in support of Stonewall Jackson’s forces; by February of 1862 his regiment  was at Kenansville, North Carolina to oppose marauding enemy troops operating from occupied New Bern.  From there the 35^th Regiment moved to Weldon in late May, and up to Petersburg in early June – then back to Weldon and a sharp five-hour engagement at Boon’s Mill near Jackson.

Private Hood received a thigh wound at the battle of Plymouth in mid-April, 1864, “most likely at Fort Comfort where many of the 35^th North Carolina Regiment were killed and wounded.”  After returning for duty in November, he was captured near Fort Stedman on 25 March 1865 and sent to Point Lookout as a prisoner of war.

After the war, Hood returned to farming at Mint Hill with his wife, Mary A. Hood -- their union produced ten children.  

John Richard Hood died on 1 March 1909, he and wife Mary are buried at Sardis Presbyterian Church in Charlotte, North Carolina.

(Source: Private John R. Hood, Sam Gambrell, Jr., Confederate Veteran, July-August 2008, pp. 22-23)